In order to make Syme think that the anarchists are harmless after all, Gregory speaks very unconvincingly to the local chapter, so that they feel that he is not zealous enough for the job. Gregory expects to win the election but just before, Syme reveals to Gregory after an oath of secrecy that he is a secret policeman. The central council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a cover the position of Thursday is about to be elected by Gregory's local chapter. He suggests Gregory is not really serious about anarchism, which so irritates Gregory that he takes Syme to an underground anarchist meeting place, under oath not to disclose its existence to anyone, revealing his public endorsement of anarchy is a ruse to make him seem harmless, when in fact he is an influential member of the local chapter of the European anarchist council. He antagonises Gregory by asserting that the most poetical of human creations is the timetable for the London Underground. Syme demurs, insisting the essence of poetry is not revolution but law. Gregory argues that revolt is the basis of poetry. Syme meets him at a party and they debate the meaning of poetry. Lucian Gregory, an anarchistic poet, lives in the suburb of Saffron Park. In Victorian-era London, Gabriel Syme is recruited at Scotland Yard to a secret anti- anarchist police corps. The book has been described as a metaphysical thriller.Ĭhesterton prefixed the novel with a poem written to Edmund Clerihew Bentley, revisiting the pair's early history and the challenges presented to their early faith by the times. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a 1908 novel by G. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare at Wikisource

The man who was thursday