Confused Trails: 1898–1903

Abstract

Throughout his career Chesterton’s artistic work was always the experimental ground for his criticism. The short stories, poems and novels always contained the seeds for future developments in the criticism. But the major works of criticism, with their conscious examination and expansion of the artistic ideas, seem to have been necessary to leave the way free for the artist to find new modes of expression. Chesterton’s early artistic work (1891–1900), apart from his religious and political poetry, consists mainly of exercises in nonsense. Except for the purposes of parody, Chesterton rarely uses nonsense after 1900, and ‘The Wild Knight’, written in 1899, represents an attempt to find a new form for his serious literature.