The Damnation of Theron Ware: 3 (Harold Frederic Edition, Vol 3) - Hardcover

Frederic, Harold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803219679 ISBN 13: 9780803219670

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1985

Synopsis

The novel centers on the life of a Methodist pastor named Theron Ware who has recently moved to a fictional small town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, which Frederic modeled after Utica, New York. A promising young pastor recently married, Theron has a number of experiences that cause him to begin to question the Methodist religion, his role as a minister and even the very existence of God. His moral decline (or illumination) is heightened through his dealings with Father Forbes, the town's Catholic priest; Dr. Ledsmar, a local atheist, philosopher, and man of science; and Celia Madden, a local Irish Catholic girl, a species of aesthete, with whom Theron becomes hopelessly infatuated. In the end, these three "advanced" characters find Theron a bore, and tell him so. He goes on a binge, and is saved by Brother and Sister Soulsby, common-sensical fund-raisers for Methodist congregations. Their feet are on the ground, and they pack Theron and his wife off to the new state of Washington, where—who knows?--he might end up in politics.

About this title

Review

A young pastor plunges into a moral decline after encounters with a priest, an atheist, and an aesthete. This classic of 19th century American realism offers a revelatory look at small-town life and an innocent's seduction by strange new ideas. Gripping storytelling and keen characterizations recapture the era's religious, scientific, philosophical, and sexual anxieties.

About the Author

Harold Frederic (1856–1898) was an Anglo-American journalist and novelist. Frederic was born in Utica, New York to Presbyterian parents. After his father was killed in a train accident when Frederic was 18 months old, the boy was raised primarily by his mother. He finished school at fifteen, and soon began work as a photographer. For four years he was a photographic touch-up artist in his hometown and in Boston. In 1875 he began work as a proofreader for the Utica Herald and then the Utica Daily Observer. Frederic later became a reporter, and by 1882 he was editor of the Albany Evening Journal. Two years later he went to live in England as London correspondent of the New York Times, and was soon recognized for his ability both as a writer and as a talker. He wrote several early stories, but it was not until he published Illumination (1896), better known by its American title, The Damnation of Theron Ware, followed by Gloria Mundi (1898), that his gifts as a novelist were fully realized. Jonathan Yardley called Damnation "a minor classic of realism". Frederic married Grace Green Williams in 1877, and they had five children.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0803219679
• ISBN 13: 9780803219670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 506
• Editor: Dodge C., Garner Stanton