Twelve Types

'Twelve types' is a collection of twelve essays about twelve persons (or rather: essays which take these persons as starting points for a discussion about some topic). Most, but not all, of these persons are from the nineteenth century, most are British, most are writers.
Interestingly enough, I most enjoyed the essays about the more 'atypical' persons: Francis (of Assisi), Tolstoy and Savonarola. The cause of this is probably in my 'disconnection' with Chesterton's nineteenth century, my lack of knowledge of several English writers (I never read Byron, Pope, Rostand and Carlyle; though I am now inspired to try their works sometime).
As said before, Chesterton sometimes merely uses the person he writes about for a more general discussion: for example, he discusses the genre of romantic writing starting with Sir Walter Scott. The discussion of Savonarolo points out how 'getting used to happiness' is a detriment for a real 'appreciation of life and laughter'. The simple 'love of things, not for their use or origin, but for their own inherent characteristics, the child's love of the toughness of wood, the wetness of water, the magnificent soapiness of soap', is one of Chesterton's repeating topics.
Still, I must say that this was not my favorite Chesterton thus far. After reading 'G.F.Watts' and 'Twelve Types', I still plan on reading 'Charles Dickens' (but not before I finished reading one of Dicken's thick novels for myself; I am on my way in 'Dombey and Son'), afterwards I'll definitely wait some time before taking up another of Chesterton's discussions about people.