The Damnation of Theron Ware | Introduction
The Damnation of Theron Ware (London, 1896) by American novelist Harold Frederic—also published as Illumination in England the same year—is set in the fictional village of Octavius in upstate New York in the 1880s. Octavius, which is based on Utica, New York, as Frederic knew it as a boy and young man, has a strong Methodist community, and also a large Catholic minority made up of Irish immigrants. The Reverend Theron Ware, a young, ambitious Methodist minister is sent to Octavius, where he is disappointed to find an ignorant, narrow-minded congregation. Not long after his arrival, he meets three people who will have a profound effect on his mind and emotions: a learned but worldly Catholic priest who is well schooled in Biblical study associated with the “higher criticism,” a Darwinian scientist, and a free-thinking, and very attractive, young Catholic woman who idealizes art and beauty. Ware’s ordered and settled world is thrown into confusion by these new, unfamiliar intellectual influences, and his faith in the simple dogmas of Methodism collapses.
This dramatic tale of a young minister seduced by ideas and infatuated with a beautiful woman presents a vivid portrait of the intellectual forces in late-nineteenth century America that were challenging the traditional verities of religion. Although the novel has not been accorded a place amongst the very highest achievements of American fiction, it has nonetheless attracted enthusiastic readers for more than one hundred years.
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