The Napoleon of Notting Hill (Capuchin Classics)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton would seem to underlie a good part of his novel in his own quote: "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
He appears to be quite optimistic in this, as otherwise his humor would seem that more of the cynic than of any other sort.
Without trying to give too much of the plot away, Democracy of England has been dispensed with to lessen problems, but an elected King, a rather pompous and silly admirer of the past, has set up a system of fragmented states that cannot work well together. Shortly thereafter a civil war erupts in London with mayhem and mortality.
The attempt to preserve the past ultimately destroys it and many of its defenders as well as a good number of its attackers.
[A premise of a full attack is made, where practitioners of such battles as are to be recreated here were more long-held sieges. The events of the story confirms why those past warriors chose wisely in a wait and starve-them-out strategy.
The author comes out with a rather farcical conclusion, which is likely from the outset all that can be had of any government to Chesterton's judgement.
As he also wrote: "Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated."
So, if you thought he was not the cynic from his first quote, think again.
Please note, this is not likely to be to the taste of many.