The Defendant comprises G.K. Chesterton‘s collected essays on subjects ranging from detective stories and penny dreadfuls1 to heraldry and patriotism.
The essays originally appeared in “The Speaker” but were edited and revised for republication.
Arthur Linfoot borrowed a copy from a public library on 13 February 1914.
Penny dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. ↩