SOURCE: "Paradox and Nightmare," in Chesterton: Man and Mask, Sheed & Ward, 1961, pp. 35-54.

Wills is an American editor, educator, and critic who has written on diverse topics, including Chesterton, Catholicism, and race relations. He is best known for political commentaries, especially his examination of Richard Nixon's political career, Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man (1970). In the following excerpt, he places The Man Who Was Thursday in the context of Chesterton's developing personal philosophy.

The Wild Knight is typical, and a guide to Chesterton's work, precisely because it was born out of his early bafflement. It is true that Chesterton does not mention it when listing the works which sprang from this crisis, but that is almost certainly because of its attacks on priestcraft and narrow dogma. Instead, he cites The Man Who Was Thursday as the most complete expression of his youthful encounter with the aesthetes...