Publisher's Synopsis
Published in 1901, The Defendant was based on a collection of reviews and articles that Chesterton had contributed to an early literary and political journal called The Speaker. Chesterton the Essayist, like Athena from the head of Zeus, emerged fully-formed and ready for battle. These sixteen essays not only set the tone for every other essay he would ever write, but they reveal a completeness in thought that he would continue to draw on for the rest of his life. /(chesterton.org)
