The Napoleon of Notting Hill

This month's meeting (November) will be on The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by British author, poet, editor, journalist, artist, and biographer (and soon possibly saint) G.K. Chesterton. The book deals with themes of local vs. national vs. empire, and what it means to be native somewhere, as well as the meaning of history and the costs or benefits of war, all through the lens of a light hearted comedy about a king trolling Britain so hard they almost stop being British. It's also a story of impossible odds as the banners of ancient London descend over the proud, naïve, but tactically brilliant Napoleon of Notting Hill.

This book is in the public domain and is available through many independent sources. Some editions contain the original poem by Chesterton that was published with the first print edition. Some do not.

For anyone interested who is using a copy without the poem, I have it printed in full below:

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

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We will again be meeting at Café June in Ellicott City**. I'll try to come early and grab a table for us.

**NOTE: due to increased attendance (shoutout to all our new people 👍) we're starting to get a little too big to fit in the back tables of Café June. If we have a large group or cannot get a table, I plan to set up at the large outdoor tables in front.