Robert Elsmere

This book is among the masterpieces of Victorian literature and was justifiably widely read and respected in its time. It helps in reading it to place it in the social and intellectual context of its time. Mrs. Humphrey Ward was a prolific and pedestrian novelist who in addition was related to the great critic and good poet, Matthew Arnold. She was thus positioned on the edge of the intellectuals and social reformers who struggled with the question of how do people live a moral life when they no longer accept Christianity as its base. Arnold, the Christian Socialists, Huxley, Newman, and Darwinists took sides in the passionate debate on the breakdown of the age of faith and, in the case of people like Newman, built their own new affirmation of belief. Arnold fought his own despair, expressed in his poems, and came through to become a powerful social critic and reformer of the education system. My own view is that Robert Elsmere is Ward's imaginative synthesis of the very personal struggles and doubts of many in her social sphere about their own faith and the rapidly shifting impact of science and commerce in the Victorian age, with all the disruption it brought to the certainties of a structured society. This is my explanation for why the book stands out from her other prosaic work. There is a strong flavor of Arnold in it. The novel is empathic and the reader comes to truly care about this good man whose loss of belief was such an anguish and such a responsibility to him. It is elegaic and genuinely compassionate in the literal sense of the word -- to suffer with. It is long but impeccably written. For lovers of Dickens, the Brontes and the other major novelists of the period, this is a book that adds an exra dimension to re-reading them: the sense of he search for spirituality. It may also point readers back to Matthew Arnold, whose Empedocles on Aetna and better known On Dover Beach (poetry to commit suicide for) are closely related o Elsmere's quieter but equally deep sense of anguish and fight against despair. I strongly recommend this novel. It may be second level in the rankings compared with Dickens but it is a small jewel, a unique, moving and resonant masterpiece. It must never be allowed to go out of print.

About a minister (Robert Elsmere) who loses his faith in orthodox Christianity. In the mid to late 19th century, this meant no longer believing in the miracles in the Bible and the physical resurrection of Christ. Elsmere's wife Catherine is a firm believer in the old traditions, and though she loves her husband greatly, she cannot accept his nonconformist views. He eventually leaves the church and devotes himself to helping the poor in London. The major criticism is that Elsmere loses his faith too quickly, which I think is true. Catherine, to my mind, ends up being the true hero of the book. Quite controversial in its day. Ward is an excellent writer, however, though this work is just a tad too long.

MRS. Humphrey Ward (this is the reason why computers or computer programmers should not take over the world). Most of her books are just average, but THIS has been undeservedly forgotten. This is a disturbing, actually tragic (who could manage that these days?) story of a clergyman who lost his faith, and his struggle to find a new place in the world. It's very long, but, believe me, every page is worth it!