The Damnation of Theron Ware: Or Illumination

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.

This book flows and entertains 'til the end. Frederic combines naturalism, realism, and romanticism all in one book and truly touches the heart. The tragedy of this common man opens our eyes to how easy it is to lose our innocence and fall from our pride. I definately recommend this book to anyone who ever ponders about life and the meaning of it.

"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.

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.