Customer Reviews

The Damnation of Theron Ware or Illumination (Modern Library Classics)

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IMHO, this novel can and should be included with the other American novels that we cram down the throats of high-schoolers: Moby Dick, Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, etc. This is the almost painfully realistic story of a preacher who discovers that there is another world outside his previously sheltered existence. For many of us, this sort of discovery is a happy and broadening experience. But in Ware's case, his new discoveries cause him to reject all the good things about his old life, and to build fantasy castles in the air of his imagination. In his increasingly desperate attempt to escape into a fantasy life, he leaves behind many of his values and ethical standards - not least his responsibilities to those he loves.

This book will hit a nerve for many readers - it did for me. It is easy for the reader to identify with Ware and realize only too late, as Ware did, that he is embarking on an illusory and self-destructive quest. Frederick constructed both the plot and the character of Ware perfectly, and this novel is worth everyone's time to read. You will keep thinking about it long after you have closed the book for the last time.

"The Damnation of Theron Ware" starts out as a quietly damning portrait of small-town piety, but slowly gains momentum until, at the end, it hits you like a sledgehammer. The title character, a naive, self-satisfied young Methodist minister, is a cautionary figure for us all; introduced tentatively to a world of sophistication, he loses faith in all the old verities of his life, with nothing but a few poses and attitudes to replace them. Even at the end, trying to make a new start, his self-delusion is breathtaking. Harold Frederic had the misfortune to die at 42, just as he was starting to hit his stride as a novelist. Had he lived to write even another 10 years, he might be a household name today.

Over 20 years working as a bookseller, this is the novel I would most often recommend to customers who were seeking a truly entertaining out-of-the-ordinary novel. I've read it three times now, and am looking forward to a fourth in the next year or so. The main characters are fresh and utterly believable and they are surrounded by a fine cast of eccentrics. Frederic is a exceptionally visual writer. This book would make a fabulous movie.

This book flows and entertains 'til the end. Frederic combines naturalism, realism, and romanticism all in one book and truly touches the heart. The tragedy of this common man opens our eyes to how easy it is to lose our innocence and fall from our pride. I definately recommend this book to anyone who ever ponders about life and the meaning of it.

Okay, granted. In some ways, this is pretty thin soup. A short novel, after all, and not by any stretch of the imagination a major novel, certainly not in the sense that Middlemarch or Ulysses are major. But I'd put this on a list of personal favorites. And there are certain second rate novels which for all their second-rateness should not be lost. Frederic lived not too long, accomplished not very much, saw not everything there was to be seen - but in this little fable of a Methodist preacher who never quite got the point, Frederic himself pretty much gets it right. Not a mean achievement for a lifetime, and so one not to be forgotten.

This was a very popular novel of 1896, and is considered by many to be a literary classic. Theron Ware enters the scene as a small town Methodist Minister. He and his wife seem to be humble folk and settle into a small house near his church. Soon he meets a Catholic priest, an atheist physician, and a beautiful Irish lass. They make quite an impression on him. They are sophisticated, well educated, and quite worldly. Alas, they are such a strong influence on him that he starts playing the worldly role, and begins to look down on his job and his religion. He also finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Celia Madden. I should mention that in those days the Irish were assigned to the caste of untouchables.

Theron acts as if he is now a man of the world, although he knows nothing of the literature, music, and philosophy discussed by others. He becomes a boring, mean minded buffoon. The book continues with his steady degradation, a preacher who has become a victim of that secular humanism that our current day fundamentalists complain so much about.

The novel provides an interesting view of religion and culture of the late 1800s. It was somewhat difficult for me to understand how such a seemingly pious man could turn into such a churlish fellow. Perhaps his upbringing was quite religiously strict, and he developed a strong reaction formation to it all.

I won't bother repeating the plot line or lift any of the criticism found in the introduction, instead I will offer my thoughts on this amazing book.

1. It is an excellent picture of what religion may have really been like in the 1880s in upstate New York. I especially enjoyed the revelation that the barnstormer preachers didn't really believe in the religion, but rather did preached fire and brimstone because that was what they were good at and needed a gig. I am sure that is how it has been for centuries in any religion, I never considered that before.

2. What is most amazing to me is that Theron Ware was convinced he was making good decisions as he transformed himself, that he was improving himself by associating with intelligent interesting people, rather than the boring, uneducated people of his own religion. Yet, though he thought he was improving, in the eyes of those he wanted most to like him, he was devolving into a terrible person. This makes me wonder, I suppose, when we make decisions in life to pursue some course of action, or to be some sort of way, it doesn't necessarily make us a better person, although at the time we may think it might.

3. I didn't think the book was that clear on why the Catholics thought little of him. Granted they didn't like him talking bad about his own folks, still, that does not make a person unlikeable. To me this was confusing and perhaps poorly presented, but perhaps that is how life is.

4. It seems that Theron would have remained most likable and respectable if he would have kept to his own people and not dabbled with these "out of the box" type thoughts. But how can a man who sees the emptiness and backwardness of his co-religionists remain? That is what I don't understand.

5. Theron thought he was very clever, when actually he was somewhat uneducated, and looked down upon by those who were. Reminds me of myself. Whenever you start thinking you know something, remember Theron Ware.

6. Celia reminds me of some hard core left wing artist types I went to college with. It is hard for me to believe that people like that existed in the US in the 1880s. I have had to revise my understanding of history somewhat.

Overall, this is a thought-provoking book about life in general and how best to conduct it, but it doesn't offer any answers, but some difficult questions that I tried to present above.

Theron made some mistakes, but before we condemn him, I think it would be best to put yourself in his shoes and ask yourself, what would you have done differently? Probably nothing, and you would have ended up in the same place he did.

I have a version with an introduction by Everett Carter. If you have that introduction, don't bother reading it before and certainly not after. It is worthless unless you are a serious literature student.

I would love to recommend this novel. Frederic writes about realistic characters and issues pertinent to America during the 1890's with a touch of irony and subtlety. Frederic is somewhat comparable to William Dean Howells and Stephen Crane in that he was writing at the same time about similar issues. He incorporated techniques of both realism and naturalism, which blended into a unique style distinctly his own. Unfortunately, Frederic is currently a forgotten author. This is the only book of his that is now in print. Please read this novel and pass the word so that Frederic and his work does not remain forgotten.

Illumination (1896) has been an underground classic among serious writers and readers since its publication. Although it sold well in its day, it was largely lost to mainstream attention for most of the 20th century. Only in the 1980s did it first start appearing in school settings with the first critical edition by Nebraska Press (and Penguin Press editions around the same time). It has been called an "American classic" by more than one critic and writer.

First, an explanation of the odd title. Frederic intended the title to be simply "Illumination", which it was indeed published as in England, but due to some mis-communication at his (soon to be bankrupt) American publishers - a working draft had the internal working name of "damnation" - it was mistakingly published as "The Damnation of Theron Ware". Later publishers in the 1930s then combined the two into the full title "The Damnation of Theron Ware, Or, Illumination".

This is an important novel and can be critically approached from a number of perspectives. Probably most important and timeless (c.f. Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" (2006)) is Theron Ware's "Illumination" about truth in religion. Is the value of religion based on the belief in a real God, or just a belief in a god that may not even exist - the existence of which doesn't matter - the value in religion comes from _pretending_ to believe. It is unclear in the end if Sister Soulsby, Forbes and others truly believe, or just pretend to believe, and if it even matters.

The narrative technique of writing from Theron's perspective, hearing in the first person about his own "Illumination" and personal growth (a positive healthy thing it seems to him) - which is then re-played at the end of the novel from other peoples perspective, is very powerful and well crafted. It really makes the reader examine times in their own lives when they thought they were on the right and true path. It has a certain Rashomon theme of subjectivity and what is the truth of events from multiple perspectives.

Although I was a lit major, this book was never on any of my reading lists in college. I chanced upon it when it appeared on my son's required reading for a course..and wow, am I glad I did! It should be a classic, have no idea why it isn't, if only for the detail and insight about church politics and the workings of congregations in the 1800s.

This gem of a novel focuses on Theron Ware, a Methodist minister who has had a less than stellar career, which leads to his current posting in a small, backcountry town. He vows to make a new start and, for a time, things seem to go well. But alas, Theron is less certain than he appears, making him easy prey to those with questionable values and setting him on a parth towards destruction. For the first time in his life, Theron questions his calling, his values and even his marriage.

I couldn't wait to see how this one would end..and I won't give the ending away here. I'll just say that if you pick up this one, you won't be disaapointed.