The Damnation of Theron Ware

Literature & fiction classic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, published in England as Illumination, is an 1896 Christian based historical fiction novel by American author Harold Frederic. The Damnation of Theron Ware centers on the life of a Methodist pastor named Theron Ware who has recently moved to a fictional small town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. A promising young pastor recently married, Theron has a number of experiences that causes him to begin to question the Christian Methodist religion, his role as a minister and even the very existence of God. His moral decline, or illumination, is heightened through his dealings with various supporting characters. The Damnation of Theron Ware reveals a great deal about early 20th century provincial America, religious life, and the depressed state of intellectual and artistic culture in small towns, and it has often been a novel that is categorized in the history & criticism genre. Whether categorized as Christian fiction, historical fiction, or history & criticism, The Damnation of Theron Ware is a literature & fiction classic and remains a popular best selling novel more than a century after its original publication.