Morte d’Urban (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: J. F. Powers
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Satire, Novel
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Power, personal or social, Religion, Midwest, Chicago, Christianity, Corruption, Catholics or Catholic Church, Clergy, Satire, Materialism, Priests, Minnesota
- Locales: Chicago, IL, Minnesota
In the epigraph to Morte d’Urban, a quotation from J. M. Barrie, Powers sets forth the central ironic theme of his novel: “The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.” Father Urban (Harvey Roche), a clever, manipulative speaker and organizer dedicated to making the Church a prospering and efficient social institution, comes to discover in the eleventh hour that what really counts in the religious life is one's spiritual well-being.
Acknowledged by many critics as Powers's best book, Morte d’Urban was originally...
[The entire page is 1814 words long]
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