"The Napoleon of Notting Hill" by G. K. Chesterton is a novel written in 1904, set in an unchanged London of 1984. When a prankster king institutes elaborate ceremonial costumes for London's district provosts as a joke, only one earnest young man takes the call for regional pride seriously—Adam Wayne of Notting Hill. What begins as royal amusement transforms into something far more significant when genuine passion meets calculated jest in this alternative reality where technology never advanced.