The Sign of the Broken Sword
| "The Sign of the Broken Sword" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by G. K. Chesterton | |
 | |
| Sprache | Englisch |
| Genre(s) | Mystery fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Saturday Evening Post |
| Publication date | 1911 |
| Series | The Innocence of Father Brown |
"The Sign of the Broken Sword" is a short story by G. K. Chesterton and the sixth to feature Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective Father Brown. It was first published in the January 7, 1911, issue of The Saturday Evening Post and reprinted in The Innocence of Father Brown (1911), the first compilation of Father Brown stories. The story features Brown and his friend Hercule Flambeau investigating a crime from long ago.
Plot
On a frigid winter's night in England, Father Brown and his friend Hercule Flambeau visit a lonely churchyard and view the monumental tomb and recumbent effigy, his broken sword beside him, of the late British General Sir Arthur St. Claire, who is adulated by the British public (and American tourists) as a war hero. On their ensuing long walk to the nearest inn, Father Brown tells Flambeau the true story of the general's death.
During a fictional 19th-century military conflict between Britain and Brazil, General St. Claire commanded 800 British infantry in a campaign against the Brazilian general Olivier, a charismatic and generous enemy modeled on Giuseppe Garibaldi. St. Claire led two or three British regiments in a reckless assault on Brazilian positions, in the course of which his troops suffered heavy casualties and had to surrender. Olivier paroled his prisoners, but soon after, St. Claire was found hanging from a tree, his broken sword hanging around his neck.
Father Brown reveals that St. Claire, in the course of his military career in India and Africa, engaged in torture, adultery, and corruption and ultimately sold England's military secrets to the Brazilians. Major Murray, attached to St. Claire's command, discovered the treason and demanded St. Claire resign. St. Claire murdered him, the point of the general's sword breaking off in the major's body. Coldly calculating, St. Claire ordered a doomed assault, making "a hill of corpses to cover this one." Captain Keith, who later married the general's daughter, and the surviving troops deduced the truth and lynched St. Claire as soon as the Brazilians left them.
Father Brown declares his decision not to publicize the truth about the general's execution by his own men. "There is so much good and evil in breaking secrets that I put my conduct to a test," says Brown. "All these newspapers will perish. The anti-Brazil boom is already over. Olivier is already honoured everywhere. But I told myself that if anywhere, by name, in metal or marble that will endure like the pyramids, Colonel Clancy or Captain Keith or President Olivier or any innocent man was wrongly blamed, then I would speak. If it were only that St. Clare was wrongly praised I would be silent. And I will.”[1]
Analysis
"The Sign of the Broken Sword" has received attention from literary critics and philosophers. Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who admired Chesterton, took the story as the hypotext for his own story, "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero.[2] Per Emma McEvoy, the revelation of St. Claire's villainy and Olivier's generosity reflects that "Chesterton delighted in setting up straw men—the bogies of a lingering Victorian imperialism—as potential villains."[3] Joshua Hren argues that Father Brown's decision not to denounce St. Claire, dethroning "the god of this country," reflects Aquinean notions of prudence.[4] Gregory Fried uses Chesterton's story as a vehicle for analysis and response to an essay ("Why Heidegger Made the Right Step in 1933") by philosopher Slavoj Žižek.[5]
Publication history
"The Sign of the Broken Sword" was first published in the January 7, 1911, issue of The Saturday Evening Post and illustrated by George Fort Gibbs. It was the sixth Father Brown story to appear in print.[1] It was reprinted in The Innocence of Father Brown (1911), the first compilation of Father Brown stories.[6]
Adaptations
"The Sign of the Broken Sword" influenced Jorge Luis Borges's "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero," a 1944 short story in which an Irish revolutionary named Fergus Kilpatrick betrays his comrades and consents to his assassination by them in such a manner as to strengthen the Irish nationalist cause.[2]
Chesterton's story was adapted for Season 3 of the TV series Father Brown. The episode aired in 2015 on BBC One, with Angus Wright playing Colonel Laurence St. Claire. Screenwriters changed the Battle of Black River to the Battle of Dunkirk. Brazil and Olivier do not feature in the adaptation.[7]
References
- ^ a b Chesterton, G. K. (January 7, 1911). "The Sign of the Broken Sword". The Saturday Evening Post. 183 (28): 9–11, 32–33.
- ^ a b Estenoz, Alfredo Alonso (2011). "The Words That Are Not There: Chesterton in Borges's "the Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"". Variaciones Borges (32): 21–40. ISSN 1396-0482.
- ^ McEvoy, Emma (2004). "'Really, Though Secretly, a Papist': G. K. Chesterton's and J. Meade Falkner's Rewritings of the Gothic". Literature and Theology. 18 (1): 53. ISSN 0269-1205.
- ^ Hren, Joshua (2013). "Truth and Lies in a Chestertonian Sense: Father Brown and the Fault of the Depraved Saint". Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture. 16 (1): 151–163. ISSN 1533-791X.
- ^ Fried, Gregory (2016-02-17). "Where's the Point? Slavoj Žižek and the Broken Sword". International Journal of Žižek Studies. 1 (4).
- ^ Ahlquist, Dale (2010-12-07). "Lecture 20-The Innocence of Father Brown". Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
- ^ "BBC One - Father Brown, Series 3, The Sign of the Broken Sword". BBC. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
External links
The full text of The Innocence of Father Brown/The Sign of the Broken Sword at Wikisource
