That's how it worked for me, too.
Chesterton could become the patron saint of paradoxes. He sure seemed to like them.
He was a deep thinker, and one of the greatest critics of everything Modern. The cultural criticism that he wrote in the 20s and 30s is certainly applicable today.
Very much so. Three of my favorite writers (for very different reasons) lived virtually parallel lifespans:
GK Chesterton: 1874 - 1936
Rudyard Kipling: 1865 - 1936
MR James: 1862 - 1936
While their subject matter and worldviews were rather different, all three seemed to be the last vestiges of an older, simpler world being relinquished to a more complex and less sane one.