The Damnation of Theron Ware (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: The progress of self-delusion
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: This sleeper classic tops most books written today
Review: 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.



Rating:
Summary: Faustian Indeed!
Review: Although this is a Faustian tale, the redemption is not uncertain-it is completely absent. The much put out Theron faces his new future in the West as a hopeless innocent, only his wife expresses modest doubt about his re-education. Having succcessfully ruined the surprise ending, I can only suggest everyone find a copy of this wonderful novel, set aside a day, and read it straight through. An amazing work from an under appreciated author.

Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL!!!!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and shamefully neglected American novel
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and shamefully neglected American novel
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Something to Remember Him By
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorite American novels.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorite American novels.
Review: 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.