This short novel is intriguing, humorous, clever, and spotted with stunning descriptions. Ostensibly, it is a tale of an undercover police man (Syme) seeking to infiltrate an organization of anarchists, controlled by the "Council of Seven Days" under the leadership of a man named Sunday. The novel is not as obviously allegorical as The Ball and The Cross, at least not until near the end, when it become entirely symbolic. I struggled with Chesteron's meaning when I concluded the novel, unsure of just what he was saying about God. At the end of my Wordsworth Classic edition, however, I found an excerpt with a note of admonition from the author himself: "I happen to have a very strong objection to that trick of missing the point of a story....I have sometimes had occasion to murmur meekly that those who endure the heavy labour of reading a book might possibly endure that of reading the title page of a book." I had not endured any such labor, and so I quickly thumbed to the title page to read: "The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare." That little, two-word subtitle goes a long way toward explaining Chesterton's tale. But not having read it before launching into the story (I never waste time on test directions, either), I perhaps found the plot more mysterious and suspenseful than I might otherwise have done. Because I was not considering the story to be a nightmarish dream sequence, more possibilities lay open to my mind. Either way, The Man Who Was Thursday is a worthwhile read merely to enjoy Chesterton's play with words, and the beauty of his language.