The Damnation of Theron Ware
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2022
ISBN-13: 9781436264082
Description: <p>Theron Ware is a young Methodist pastor raised in a strict religious tradition and without much of a worldly education. As his career begins, he quickly finds himself reassigned to a congregation in Octavius, a small town in the Adirondacks. As Ware and his wife settle into their new roles in small-town America, he meets Celia, a young girl fascinated by music, poetry, and literature—and he quickly finds himself struggling with both carnal temptation, and the world of experience outside of religion.</p> <p><i>The Damnation of Theron Ware</i> (published in the U.K. as <i>Illumination</i>) is <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/harold-frederic">Frederic’s</a> most famous novel. Its realistic style—Frederic modeled the fictional Octavius after Utica, New York—paints a nuanced portrait of the small-town American religious life of the era. It was received very positively, becoming the fifth best-selling book in the U.S. in 1896 with outfits like the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> saying that “it is a book which every one must read who wishes to hold his own in popular literary discussions.” It garnered literary allusions in works like <i><a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/sinclair-lewis/main-street">Main Street</a></i>; like <i>Main Street</i>, <i>The Damnation of Theron Ware</i> skewers small-town life, but unlike <i>Main Street</i>, its primary focus is religion. It also earned a mention from <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/f-scott-fitzgerald">F. Scott Fitzgerald</a>, who in a letter wrote that he once considered it the best American novel.</p>