The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a novel written by G. K. Chesterton in 1904, set in a nearly unchanged London in 1984. Michael Collins, who led the fight for Irish independence from British Rule, is known to have admired the book. The novel is also quoted at the start of Neil Gaiman's novel "Neverwhere". Warning: template has been deprecated.On page 298, the three lines of text which make up the 2nd paragraph are mis-ordered (2,1,3 instead of 1,2,3). They have been correctly ordered in the transcription.
27059The Napoleon of Notting Hill1914Gilbert Keith Chesterton
IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMING FIGURE
THE NAPOLEON
of
NOTTING HILL
By
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON
With Seven Illustrations by WILLIAM GRAHAM ROBERTSON and a Map of the Seat of War
LONDON : JOHN LANE : THE BODLEY HEAD :: NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY :: MCMXIV
For every tiny town or place God made the stars especially; Babies look up with owlish face And see them tangled in a tree: You saw a moon from Sussex Downs, A Sussex moon, untravelled still, I saw a moon that was the town's, The largest lamp on Campden Hill.
Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home The big blue cap that always fits, And so it is (be calm; they come To goal at last, my wandering wits), So is it with the heroic thing; This shall not end for the world's end And though the sullen engines swing, Be you not much afraid, my friend.
This did not end by Nelson's urn Where an immortal England sits— Nor where your tall young men in turn Drank death like wine at Austerlitz. And when the pedants bade us mark What cold mechanic happenings Must come; our souls said in the dark, "Belike; but there are likelier things."
Likelier across these flats afar These sulky levels smooth and free The drums shall crash a waltz of war And Death shall dance with Liberty; Likelier the barricades shall blare Slaughter below and smoke above, And death and hate and hell declare That men have found a thing to love.
Far from your sunny uplands set I saw the dream; the streets I trod The lit straight streets shot out and met The starry streets that point to God. This legend of an epic hour A child I dreamed, and dream it still, Under the great grey water-tower That strikes the stars on Campden Hill. G. K. C.
In the dark entrance there appeared a flaming figure
Frontispiece
Facing page
City men out on all fours in a field covered with veal cutlets
16
'I'm king of the castle'
70
'I bring homage to my king'
104
Map of the seat of war
190
King Auberon descended from the omnibus with dignity
220
'A fine evening, sir,' said the chemist
264
'Wayne, it was all a joke'
296
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
