1984

In The Napoleon of Notting Hill, GK Chesterton writes about a futuristic king who as a joke turns each suburb of London into its own country. The new countries adopt formalities, royalty and quickly come to arms with each other. Adam Wayne, the provost of Notting Hill is most dedicated to the new ways that the king has established, and he beats all the other suburbs as they battle to put a road through the small, poor suburb.

The end result is a severe patriotism, and a real improvement in the way of life for the citizens.

At the end of the book Wayne learns for the first time that the king had established the countries as a joke, but that Wayne had pursued the end result whole heartedly. Chesterton seems to wonder if God hasn’t created the world as some kind of joke that we take just way to seriously.

This book was written in 1904 and referred to a world 80 years later, or 1984. Later Chesterton gave a struggling young writer named Eric Blair an opportunity to publish his first essay in GK’s Weekly. Blair wrote under he pen name George Orwell, and later wrote a futuristic book entitled 1984.