The Vicar of Sorrows: A Novel [Paperback]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1995

In this powerful novel that will confirm his reputation as one of Britain's brightest literary lights, A. N. Wilson recounts the downward spiral of Francis Kreer, a clergyman who does not believe in God and whose life starts to come apart at the seams.

When his mother dies, Francis is shocked to discover that she had a lover and that he must share his inheritance with this (awful) man. Then Francis falls in love—painfully, absolutely—with an irresistible but most unsuitable young woman.

A. N. Wilson traces Francis's descent through various circles of the English establishment, a tragi-comic journey that takes the hapless hero to the outer edges of both absurdity and despair.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A nonbelieving clergyman sees his life fall apart after the death of his mother, whom he learns had been keeping a lover, and after his own affair with a young woman.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In his 1992 biography, Wilson made clear his acceptance of the human, but rejection of the divine, Jesus ( Jesus, LJ 9/15/92). This theme carries over into his latest and, to date, best novel, in which he takes on the Anglican church and middle-class sanctimony. Francis Kreer, the vicar of sorrows, is a clergyman who has lost his belief in God and is trapped in a loveless marriage. He remains a faithful shepherd to his flock until a chain of events, triggered by his mother's death and the discovery that she once had an illicit love affair, propels him into madness and despair. Job-like, he loses all he holds dear and is "compelled to confront the terrible truth about life on this planet," truth that the biblical writers understood but that the bland bishops do not: "the fact of death, the fact of evil, the difficulty of virtue, the fickleness of one's own heart." God may not exist, but the human heart still needs to find him. It is this fact, Wilson suggests, that makes us "beautiful beings." Wilson's send-up of the Anglican clergy and the all-too-typical "parishoner" frequently lighten the otherwise serious tone of this Waugh-like work. Highly recommended for serious collections of British fiction.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393312941
• ISBN-13: 978-0393312942
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,436,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly funny yet infinitely sad story of faithless priest, December 13, 1998

By 

Rick Hunter (Malone, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vicar of Sorrows: A Novel (Paperback)

A.N. Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows is the wickedly funny, yet infinitely sad, story of an English country rector who has lost his faith. Francis Kreer starts this novel as the "perfect" priest, able to generally satisfy the various factions in his parish, saying a good mass, cutting a good figure. His marriage, however, is loveless, and Francis makes the unfortunate mistake of falling in love with a young "hippie" squatting nearby. From this point, Francis' life tumbles inexorably into the abyss, and the descent is both mortifying and a masterpiece of dry wit. Wilson treats Francis, and other of his characters, with a certain affection but does not allow this regard to spare anyone from the most awful of fates. There is no mercy in Francis' descent, or in Wilson's telling about it. As a member of the Episcopal Church of America, I saw and enjoyed many of the somewhat precious characters and stock situations of this book. I wonder how much of Wilson's scene would be lost to the unchurched or the Pentecostal.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A holy fool in an un-Godded age, January 1, 2009

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vicar of Sorrows: A Novel (Paperback)

A.N. Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows is an extraordinary novel. On the most obvious level, it's the story of the decline and fall of Francis Kreer, a middle-aged Anglican clergyman who tumbles into a life crisis after the death of his mother. Francis has long since ceased to believe in God, but hangs onto his parish largely out of inertia. Ditto with his marriage to Sally. The only thing that seems to enliven him is his relationship with his thirteen year old daughter Jessica.

But then Mummy dies, and the life of denial Francis has been living catches up with him. He loses his parish, his family, his reputation, and eventually his sanity, and then, with "no further boundaries to be crossed" (p. 383), Francis becomes something very much like the Holy Fools found in the Eastern Orthodox tradition--but with the qualification that Francis' holy foolishness is an ungodded one.

And that's what takes the story away from Francis and, at a deeper level, makes it a reflection on life in post-Christian culture. Arnold's "Sea of Faith" lament is just as appropriate today as it was in the 19th century. In reading the story of Francis Kreer's decline and collapse--or is it resurrection?--one is given the opportunity to reflect on how to cope in a culture in which the centre hasn't held.

But I don't want to give the impression that the book is a gloomy piece of postmodern philosophy. It's hilarious, as well as heartbreaking (more and more of the latter as the book progresses). Wilson has a Dickensian gift for creating wonderfully funny characters: Terry Widger, the evangelical Anglican priest who makes faith 'relevant" by delivering sermons accessorized with balloons; Damian Wells, high-churched Anglo Catholic priest who also frequents public lavatories; Jay, the young hippie musician who proves to be Francis' femme fatale; and Lindie Spittle, sexually frustrated parishioner who's convinced that every priest she encounters is hitting on her.

A wonderful novel. Six stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This comedy of Anglican manners grows ever sadder: worth it., August 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vicar of Sorrows: A Novel (Paperback)

Read The Vicar of Sorrows. It's about an Anglican vicar who goes off the deep end when his mother perversely leaves half her estate to an old flame (the mother's). The novel begins in a Barbara Pym vein--comedy of Anglican manners, characters amusingly high and low, in both the Church and class sense--but as the vicar looses his faith, his family, and finally his mind the going gets sad and even, in the word of one reviewer, "harrowing." Both the funny and the not-so-funny parts are done well. A.N. Wilson has a knack for catching the odd things that go on in peoples' minds while they appear to be blandly living their social lives. There's even a gay Anglo-Catholic in a minor part (always a plus in this genre). Wilson's bestseller about Jesus (really a book of lit. crit. applied to the gospels, but how are you going to sell That?) is also worth a try.