10 h 3 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 3 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if keeping an inn alive means putting its sign on a cart and outrunning the law?
In G. K. Chesterton’s The Flying Inn, England’s new rules make a licence to sell drink almost impossible to get. Innkeeper Humphrey Hump and Irish sailor Patrick Dalroy take to the road with a barrel of rum, a great cheese, and a pub sign that refuses to stay put.
Behind the chase stands Lord Ivywood, a politician bent on reforming England by decree. His friend, the mystic Misysra Ammon, charms him with grand ideas. As Hump and Dalroy meet farmers, tramps, clergy, and officials, their comic adventure asks who gets to decide how ordinary people live.
What you’ll discover
- An inn on wheels Follow a travelling pub whose restless sign turns a threat into a countryside chase.
- Two companions in rebellion Meet an innkeeper and a song-loving sailor who refuse to surrender their common pleasures.
- Songs along the road Enjoy songs, slapstick, and strange conversations among hedges, taverns, and passing company.
- Grand schemes, small pleasures Explore Chesterton’s defence of ordinary freedom against clever men who would arrange everyone’s lives.
- A playful turn of thought Discover prose that makes plain things strange and strange things suddenly seem plain.
Who will love it
For readers who love comic fantasy, English country scenes, and arguments told through songs and slapstick. Fans of Chesterton's Father Brown will also find much to enjoy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An England where inns are doomed
- Humphrey Hump and a barrel on the run
- Songs, cheese and the road
- Misysra Ammon and the new fashion
- A poet, a lady and a tangle of loves
- What the story is really about
- How Chesterton tells it
Who’s who
- Humphrey HumpAn innkeeper who keeps his inn alive by turning it into a sign on a cart that no law can fix in place.
- Patrick DalroyA big, brave Irish sailor and former captain who loves song and good company and joins the fight for the English inn.
- Lord IvywoodA proud and clever politician who wants to reform England by decree and admires every fashion that comes from far away.
- Misysra AmmonA mystic and friend of Ivywood who stands for a new mixed faith that charms the great and puzzles the plain.
- Lady Joan BrettA thoughtful young woman of good family who moves in Ivywood's circle and doubts the world around her.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear La posada voladora in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
La posada voladora
by G. K. Chesterton · 1914
Two friends carry rum, cheese and a movable inn sign across England to keep the English inn alive against reform.
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In short
The Flying Inn is a comic novel by G. K.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An England where inns are doomed
The story opens in an England that looks much like the real one, but the law has changed. A reform movement has made it very hard for an ordinary inn to sell beer or wine. The reformers talk of health, order and progress, and they are backed by money and by influential friends.
The best-known figure on this side is Lord Ivywood, a rising politician. He is polished, clever and proud, and he believes he knows what is good for everyone else. He is drawn to ideas from the East and treats the old English habits of the common people as something to be cleaned away.
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What is The Flying Inn about?
It is a comic novel about an England where drink is nearly banned by a reforming politician. Two friends travel with a barrel of rum, a cheese and a movable inn sign to keep the old English inn alive.
Who is Lord Ivywood in The Flying Inn?
Lord Ivywood is the main opponent in the story. He is a rich, clever politician who pushes reforms on England and admires foreign fashions, and he stands for rule by experts over ordinary people.
When was The Flying Inn written?
It was published in 1914 and is set in an imagined near future. It is a work of fiction, though it comments on real worries Chesterton had about politics and fashion in his day.
The author
G. K. Chesterton
1874–1936 · English writer and Christian apologist
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer born in London. He wrote novels, essays, poems and plays. His books include Heretics (1905), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and The Innocence of Father Brown (1911). He moved to Beaconsfield in 1909 and lived there until his death.
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