Robert Elsmere

by Mrs. Humphry Ward, Miriam Elizabeth Burstein (Editor)

First published in 1888, Robert Elsmere was probably the biggest-selling novel of the nineteenth century. Inspired by the religious crises of her father, Ward tells the story of an Oxford clergyman who begins to doubt the doctrines of the Anglican church after he encounters the work of German rationalists. Rather than becoming an atheist, Elsmere pursues the idea of "constructive liberalism," stressing the importance of social work among the poor and uneducated. The Times called it "a clever attack upon revealed religion", and William Gladstone's copy was annotated with objections to Ward's heterodoxy. In the Victorian age, nothing was more likely to generate publicity than religious controversy, and Robert Elsmere became a runaway success. More than one million copies were sold, generating around £4,000 in royalties, which would today put Ward in the millionaire author bracket. Her earning would have been higher if it weren't for the absence of international copyright laws when Robert Elsmere was first published. Many cheap US editions were hurriedly produced to cash in on its success. Some were sold as loss leaders for just 4 cents, and other copies were given away free with every cake of Maine's Balsam Fir Soap, conveying the idea that cleanliness was next to godliness. Out of print for twenty five years, this new edition brings Ward's publishing phenomenon to a new audience. The text is completely reset, and the edition * critical introduction by Miriam Elizabeth Burstein * explanatory notes * excerpts from Gladstone's famous review of Robert Elsmere * extracts from Ward's David Grieve

Genres: Fiction, Victorian, Classics, 19th Century, Novels, Literature, Religion

626 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Mary Augusta Ward CBE (nee Arnold) was an English novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mary Augusta Arnold was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, into a prominent intellectual family of writers and educationalists. Mary was the daughter of Tom Arnold, a professor of literature, and Julia Sorrell. Her uncle was the poet Matthew Arnold and her grandfather Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby School. Her sister Julia married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas Huxley, and their sons were Julian and Aldous Huxley. The Arnolds and the Huxleys were an important influence on British intellectual life.Mary's father Tom Arnold was appointed inspector of schools in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and commenced his role on 15 January 1850. Tom Arnold was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 12 January 1856, which made him so unpopular in his job (and with his wife) that he resigned and left for England with his family in July 1856. Mary Arnold had her fifth birthday the month before they left, and had no further connection with Tasmania. Tom Arnold was ratified as chair of English literature at the contemplated Catholic university, Dublin, after some delay. Mary Augusta Ward died in London, England, and was interred at Aldbury in Hertfordshire, near her beloved country home Stocks.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROBABLY NOT TOO SURPRISING NOBODY READS HER ANY MORE

First – what’s with this author’s name? Mrs Humphry Ward? Not only does she not write under her own name of Mary Ward, she used her husband’s name and insists on the Mrs! * (Apparently disrespectful contemporaries called her “Ma Hump”.)

She was born in Hobart, Tasmania, a long way from anywhere, you might think, but a grandfather was Thomas Arnold and one of her sisters became the mother of Aldous Huxley. She was connected. Her family came to England when she was five. She must have been a clever clogs because she learned six languages. She started turning out novels around age 30 and they sold like hot cakes (these were very popular types of cakes at the time). Her real big hit was this one, Robert Elsmere, which sold over a million very quickly and made her rich. Henry James liked it. Now it’s out of print. As far as I can tell, all her books are out of print.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE NOBODY

By 1900 she was considered to be the second most famous woman in the country. In 1908 she was making a great successful tour of the USA and befriending Teddy Roosevelt. After that things went south – son and husband lost fortunes (gambling, art market) and just to put the tin hat on it she became president of the Women’s Anti-Suffrage Movement – something we don’t remember fondly these days.

THE FIRST 70 PAGES

The first 70 pages of this novel are ghastly, duller than any ditchwater you ever encountered, and I deserve a medal for perseverance.

IT’S GETTING BETTER (CAN’T GET NO WORSE )

After that it gets into gear and there are a couple of hundred pages that are really compelling. I wouldn’t want to oversell this long ass thing but it’s a sensitive, earnest investigation into the painful realities of a marriage between two highly Christian people, one being a young slender curlyheaded vicar (this is often emphasised) and the other being Catherine, an ultra-serious pious woman who has to have every joke explained to her. Except she doesn’t because there are no jokes in this book. Robert speaks to her vivacious younger sister Rose :

‘Your sister, I suppose, has been always happy in charity?’ he said.
‘Oh dear, yes,’ said Rose irritably; ‘anything that has two legs and is ill, that is all Catherine wants to make her happy.’

So they are made for each other. So they get married and he gets appointed as a vicar in a little village which is owned by an evil Squire and his even eviller agent who trample on the poor and refuse to patch their cottage roofs and insist they all catch tuberculosis. Our dashing young vicar goes to war and so on and so forth. Then he gets to be friends with the Squire (a Christian thing to do) but it’s a poisoned chalice because the Squire is a guy inclined to think of Christianity as

The passionate acceptance of an exquisite fairy tale

The Squire has been some time away from England

Fresh from the speculative ferment of Germany and the far profaner scepticism of France, he had returned to a society where the first chapter of Genesis and the theory of verbal inspiration were still regarded as valid and important counters on the board of thought.

(Ouch!)

JESUS NOT DIVINE, SAYS VICAR

So Robert borrows a few books from Squire’s vast library and before you can say German Biblical Criticism he is having Grave Doubts. He ends up concluding wow, so Jesus didn’t resurrect after all, and miracles are impossible. Naturally he can’t stay in the church and he resigns. The Squire says

Good God, what nonsense! As if any one inquired what an English parson believed nowadays, so long as he performs all the usual antics decently!

Catherine looks on in bafflement and horror. He can’t explain his new thinking to her because he doesn’t want to crush her faith and he doesn’t want her to think he’s become an atheist, which he hasn’t, and he doesn’t want her to think he now thinks she’s a fool for continuing to believe in all the supernatural stuff, even though he kind of does, and kind of babies her along, since she thinks of the supernatural stuff as the very essence and proof of it all, and he thinks of it as a terrible distraction from the Truth. He believes in Jesus the Son of Man, not Son of God. It’s complicated.

The portrait of these two people who love each other and whose precious beliefs are slowly pulling them apart is so sad. This is the best part of the book.

‘I can believe no longer in an incarnation and resurrection,’ he said slowly, but with a resolute plainness. ‘Christ is risen in our hearts, in the Christian life of charity. Miracle is a natural product of human feeling and imagination .

and

It is not that Christianity is false, but that it is only an imperfect human reflection of a part of truth. Truth has never been, can never be, contained in any one creed or system!

So they go off to live in London where he gets involved, naturally, in charitable work for the poor, and gradually starts to build up what we would now call a New Age cult. He gives lectures promoting the idea of the non-supernatural Jesus who doesn’t rise from the dead and doesn’t feed the 5000 and the sturdy stevedores and navvies lap this stuff up and think he is a wonderful human being.

A large chunk of this very longwinded novel is all about the drop dead younger sister Rose who is a fantabulous violinist and would be a shoo-in for the André Rieu orchestra, one might think, had it have been in existence back then. Just like any Victorian novel, she has a couple of suitors who say things like

I should be content with anything that brought me nearer to her, were it but by the thousandth of an inch.

That part just drones on and on and only two things happen in a hundred pages.

However, all the religious stuff is most interesting, should you find the Victorian crisis of faith worth contemplating, as I do.

I’m giving this 4 stars because although it’s so massively flawed it really does wrestle with a subject nobody takes seriously any more. And there’s a bit of Literary Stockholm Syndrome mixed in too. And there are a lot worse books that are in print!





*John Sutherland says ; a “chattel” name she was proud to bear but which has always made later admirers (alas, few of them) as uneasy as would, for example, “Mrs Leonard Woolf”.

[Issicratea · Rating 4 out of 5]

To get a sense of the cultural chasm between us and our Victorian forebears, you can’t do much better than to consider that Mary Augusta Ward’s Robert Elsmere (1888) was one of the best-selling novels of the era (‘probably the best-selling “quality” novel of the century’, to quote John Sutherland in The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature). Today, by contrast, it must be one of the most deeply forgotten of all Victorian novels. I had never heard of it until I spotted it in the Victorian Secrets series, and it has all of 13 reviews on Goodreads.

The reason for its past popularity and its present neglect is essential the same: its central theme is religion. It explores the spiritual trajectory of a young vicar, the title character, who loses his faith around half-way through the novel. Christianity and its crumbling in the wake of scientific rationalism was one of the most urgent and compelling themes of the late-Victorian era, and the source of extraordinary levels of anguished self-searching, of the kind dramatized in the novel. The theme now has far less traction, so a novel of this kind becomes more difficult to engage with. I can’t imagine that Robert’s religious end point—a type of vaguely Unitarian belief system that denies the historical truth of the Bible while passionately espousing the moral truths enshrined in Christianity—would frighten many horses today.

I’m not sure quite how generally I’d recommend Robert Elsmere. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, nor for the time-poor (it’s inordinately long—I kept thinking I must be getting near the end and then seeing that my Kindle version was on 15 or 20%). Robert Elsmere fell early within Ward’s literary trajectory, and my sense is that she hadn’t yet completely mastered how to structure a novel—Helbeck of Bannisdale, published ten years later and the first of her novels that I sampled, is a much more accessible introduction to her work.

All that said, though, I do think ‘Mrs Humphry Ward’—to cite the name she published under—is a very interesting writer and someone whose work deserves to be better known. Once you get used to the novel’s leisurely pace, there’s a lot to like here: the initial long segment narrating Robert’s courtship of his wife Catherine, set in a lyrically evoked Cumbria; just about everything to do with the sub-plot involving Catherine’s rebellious, ‘New Woman’, violinist sister Rose; the portrayal of the novel’s two chief rationalist tempter figures, the bitter, impatient, charismatic Squire Wendover and the melancholy, self-hating Edward Langham. Robert, too, isn’t bad as a character, considering that his role is as pawn in a novel of ideas. Ward’s sensitive depiction of his complex relationship with Catherine, as their marriage is strained almost to breaking point by his religious crisis, saves Robert from being a cipher, as does his tortuous, quasi-filial relationship with Wendover.

Moving aside from the more personal narratives of the novel to its social dimension, I also quite liked Ward’s representations of the plight of the poorer strata of society: both the rural poor of Robert’s Surrey parish, in their insanitary, cholera-breeding hovels, and the intellectually questing East End poor to whom his new ‘church’ ends up ministering. These are top-down, philanthropist’s-eye views of working people, but interesting, nonetheless, especially given Ward’s own experience within the ‘settlement movement’, which provided educational opportunities and practical help to the urban working classes. (She founded the Passmore Edwards Settlement in Bloomsbury in the 1890s—now Mary Ward House— drawing on the precedent of Toynbee Hall, founded in 1884 in the East End, which is surely the model for Elsmere’s own ‘settlement’ in the novel.)

I’ll leave you with some interesting observations on Robert Elsmere by Henry James, which I just encountered online. He wrote to Ward, after finishing the first two volumes, that ‘the book has great & rare beauty, & interest of a high order’, complimenting her particularly for her ambition (‘the things you attempt in it are so interesting, & the intelligence you bring to bear on it so great’). A later letter, written when he has finished the novel, introduces an element of criticism with regard to the figure of Rose, whom James clearly loved and felt deserved more than her fate in the novel (‘I’m afraid I don’t like her rich, fashionable marriage and find it too conventionally third volume-y … If she is not to affirm the full artistic, aesthetic … view of life, I don’t see why you gave her so much importance’).

Chapeau, Henri! I think he's quite right on that detail. It’s intriguing to think where this quintessentially Jamesian character might have finished up in James’s own hands.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating portrayal of the high and low church issues in 19th century England, the way science was challenging belief, and the different ways that people of faith responded: some by denial of science, some by attempts to move from a literal interpretation of the Bible to something still spiritual. I was not aware of the role that German linguistics research early in the century and then geological research had already played in breaking the science-vs-literal-Bible issue wide open before Darwin published his research (don't worry--there isn't any actual linguistics or geology discussion in the novel).

There is some rather tough sledding in romantic (in the 'vs classical' sense) passages, and she assumes a lot of knowledge about the religious controversies. That means a lot is unsatisfying and a bit mystifying because she says "he thought, read and talked about it" and you're supposed to know what that constituted; I had to do some additional research to figure out what he was agonizing about. But well worth reading to understand how serious this was to some sections of English society, and (per my addl reading) how many people fell away from any church connection during this time. It makes an interesting contrast to Trollope's high vs low church portrayal in the Barchester Towers series, and it highlights how lacking Dickens is in almost any mention of church or clergymen (at least in the five or six novels of his that I've read recently).

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. It has the best (only) literary depiction of myself I've come across. Not Elsmere but Edward Langham.

The philosopher in the book, Gray, is based on T.H. Green.

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

1888 novel about a clergyman's doubts. Robert is a boyishly likeable people person with an intellectual side. The beginning section is about Robert trying to get married to Catherine, an ascetically beautiful oldest sister who's a little too rigidly good for anyone's peace of mind. The battle Robert and Catherine's family have is to persuade Catherine she doesn't need to sacrifice herself to look after her family. Catherine's younger sister Rose is musical and rebellious and really quite anxious to get Catherine out the door. Ward is quite good at presenting both sisters sympathetically.

Once Robert and Catherine are married the novel is much more solidly focused on clerical stuff, with occasional breaks to follow Rose. Rose almost gets engaged to a friend of Robert's, a depressed atheist with issues, but in the end he decides he has too many issues. It's not that I thought he would be much of an asset to Rose but I was aggrieved by his refusal to grow and change. Robert gets to know the local Squire, who has written controversial intellectual books, and starts writing his own book about religious history. This book gives a lot of weight to intellectual shifts as a force, and a lot, or all, of the shifts represented are very 1888. It's a book very rooted in its time, that wants to speak to 1888 people. And it did. It was, allegedly, the best selling novel of the nineteenth century. But you're not going to want to read it if you don't have even a cursory interest in late Victorian stances on religion.

After agonising over the bible's authenticity as an historical document Robert decides that he still believes in God and is a big fan of Jesus of Nazareth but doesn't believe he was the Son of God or came back to life. His wife finds it very hard to adjust to this "But it's still a beautiful story!" approach but does her best. Robert leaves the Church and eventually sets up his own little cult thing. I think I found this the least satisfactory part of the novel; it's sugary and hasty. It's an optimistic looking forward to a reassuring compromise that we know now didn't quite work out.

It's a very earnest, thorough novel in that Victorian way. I would imagine the gentle middlebrow tone helped to make the message that traditional Christianity had had it more convincing.

[Marc Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs. Humphrey Ward, she would never have appreciated being listed as Mary Augusta, was one of the most popular and important novelists of her day. Robert Elsmere would probably would have been listed as the most important novel for at least ten years after publication (1888). She was extremely popular in America, and was the first author to secure internation writes of her works. She is largely forgotten now as she was one the wrong side of the early woman's rights movement. She was against it, although all her writing confirms this even the biographer seems unable to deal with it, intimating that she probably held a private view contrary to her public one. Nonsense! It was, I admit a very odd stand for a very "modern" woman. Her husband was worthless and she supported his wealthy lifestyle completely one her own. She was a courageous, brilliant woman. Her point about womens sufferage was that since women did not have the vote that when issues that they felt deeply about occured that the men in thier lives would be compeled to vote as thier wives wished. That once women had the vote, the men could do as they wished and women would never take as much interst in politics as men so would always be in the minority, thus by having the right to vote they would in some ways decrease their power. She thought that from weakness thus came strength, and from the strength of the vote, thus weakness.
However this book does not deal with those issues, it does deal mainly with a theological split that was occuring with the Anglican Church at that time, and one might do well to peruse a brief history of that struggle before attemptimg this book.
Yes the book is long and at times tedious, but no more so than say a P.D James modern book. It is full of complete characters and a compelling story.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs. Humphry Ward's "Robert Elsmere" was mentioned in Somerset Maugham's "Cakes and Ale" so I marked it to read sometime ago and I finally decided to read Ward's story.

From "Cakes and Ale"

"Mrs. Encombe knew Mrs. Humphry Ward and admired Robert Elsmere. My uncle considered it a scandalous work, and he was surprised that Mr. Gladstone, who at least called himself a Christian, had found a good word to say for it. They had quite an argument about it. My uncle said he thought it would unsettle people’s opinions and give them all sorts of ideas that they were much better without. Mrs. Encombe answered that he wouldn’t think that if he knew Mrs. Humphry Ward. She was a woman of the very highest character, a niece of Mr. Matthew Arnold, and whatever you might think of the book itself (and she, Mrs. Encombe, was quite willing to admit that there were parts which had better have been omitted) it was quite certain that she had written it from the very highest motives. Mrs. Encombe knew Miss Broughton too. She was of very good family and it was strange that she wrote the books she did."


As in the introduction I included below Ward wanting to comment via a novel about the present day about those troubled by the orthodox Anglican doctrine, so this is an interesting way at looking back at those times. As I read this story which was indeed interesting for several reasons, I had many thoughts about the characters and arguments put forward. It seemed to me that the not believing in miracles and the present day factional reasoning brings forth more non believers, Robert turning away from the doctrine and the beliefs surrounding Christ, made me wonder if one does not believe in miracles, how can you believe in God? For God is not a visible as the things in our direct line of vision or things tangible. There is a lot unknown to me and things that I need to trust to faith but an understanding and an attempt to be kinder without changing too much. I was aggravated at times with Robert Elsmere who was so much one way and then turned so much in the other direction. Even science and facts can change with new developments and there also needs to be some faith in things unknown in this regards. There is too much unknown to me to put up an argument and too much to discuss but when all is said and done, faith in God and Christ is a decision that is of the mind and heart. Even though Robert did good in his deeds and not evil, I kept on thinking him kind of like the Biblical wives of the Kings who tried to change their spouse to follow their own beliefs which turned away from God. Again how can someone just looking historically and the facts believe in God? There has to be some faith that does not include that at all. I wonder how people of the past would look at this present day world that is turning away from God and religion in general, which is so important to humanity and peace in general. Though this story is religion focused, it also includes several other plots that are outside that line which makes it more enjoyable.

Story in short- Robert Elsmere starts to question his belief in the doctrines of the church and that effects his family life.

While reading this story I was thinking about Vincent von Gogh's letters which talk about his religious trials with his trying the church before going the opposite direction. His father was also a minister. It would be interesting to know his mindset more about how this about change occurred.

Also I was thinking how Zola's "Abbe Mouret's Transgression" had dealt with his troubles with his religious struggles but ended up being more devote in dogma.

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From Delphi works of Mrs. Humphry Ward which included the bel0w-

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Robert Elsmere was first published in Britain in April 1888 by Smith, Elder and in America by Macmillan & Co in same year. Ward’s previous two books had been warmly received by critics, but neither had sold very well. Robert Elsmere, by contrast, was an immediate commercial success; it sold tens of thousands of copies in Britain within a year and hundreds of thousands of copies in America. The novel was such a triumph that it secured Ward
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a £7,000 deal from an American publisher for her next novel. This was an incredible amount of money in the late nineteenth century and it placed Ward amongst the highest paid novelists of the time. The book was going to be adapted for Madison Square Theatre on Broadway by the actor and playwright William Gillette, who was keen to have Ward’s approval, even though he did not need it. When she refused to give her permission, Gillette abandoned the dramatisation. The adaptation was quickly picked
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up by interested theatre producers and the play debuted at Hollis Street Theatre in Boston in April 1889 to warm reviews.

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From Delphi works of Mrs. Humphry Ward which included the synopsis below-

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Robert Elsmere involves an Anglican clergyman from Oxford, whom upon encountering the works of German Rationalist theologians and thinkers, such as David Strauss, begins to question the dogmas of the Anglican Church. Over the course of the novel, he explores ideas and theories that he hopes will lead him to the truth. Ward was inspired to write the book by

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the religious crises which engulfed her father as well as her some of her friends. She had been angered by a lecture given by Reverend John Wordsworth at Oxford University, in which he argued that those expressing doubts were intellectually defective, prejudiced and sinful. She wished to show the real reasons and beliefs of those who could no longer be content with orthodox Anglican doctrine. The fact the book addressed an important intellectual, religious and moral issue of the
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time was undoubtedly a significant factor in its commercial success.

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The country is blithe, but soberly blithe. Nature shows herself delightful to man, but there is nothing absorbing or intoxicating about her. Man is still well able to defend himself against her, to live his own independent life of labor and of will, and to develop that tenacity of hidden feeling, that slowly growing intensity of purpose
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which is so often wiled out of him by the spells of the South.

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The windows in them were new, the doors fresh painted and closely shut; curtains of some soft outlandish make showed themselves in what had once been a stable, and the turf stretched smoothly up to a narrow gravelled path in front of them, unbroken
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by a single footmark. No, evidently the old farm, for such it undoubtedly was, had been but lately, or comparatively lately, transformed to new and softer uses; that rough patriarchal life of which it had once been a symbol and centre no longer bustled and clattered through it. It had become the shelter of new ideals, the home of another and a milder race than once possessed it.

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The speaker lifted inquiring eyes to her sister as she spoke, her cheek plunged in the warm fur of a splendid Persian cat, her whole look and voice expressing the very highest degree of quiet, comfort, and self-possession. Agnes Leyburn was not pretty; the lower part of
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the face was a little heavy in outline and moulding; the teeth were not as they should have been, and the nose was unsatisfactory. But the eyes under their long lashes were shrewdness itself, and there was an individuality in the voice, a cheery even-temperediness in look and tone, which had a pleasing effect on the bystander. Her dress was neat and dainty; every detail of it bespoke a young woman who respected both herself and the fashion.
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Her sister, on the other hand, was guiltless of the smallest trace of fashion. Her skirts were cut with the most engaging naïveté, she was much adorned with amber beads, and her red brown hair had been tortured and frizzled to look as much like an aureole as possible. But, on the other hand, she was a beauty, though at present you felt her a beauty in disguise, a stage Cinderella as it were, in very becoming rags, waiting for the fairy godmother.
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Catherine’s clear eyes, which at the moment seemed to be full of inward light, kindled in them by some foregoing experience, rested kindly, but only half consciously, on her younger sister as Agnes softly nodded and smiled to her. Evidently she was a good deal older than the other two — she looked about six-and-twenty, a young and vigorous woman in the prime of health and strength.
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When you first saw the other sisters you wondered what strange chance had brought them into that remote sparely peopled valley; they were plainly exiles, and conscious exiles, from the movement and exhilarations of a fuller social life. But Catherine impressed you as only a refined variety of the local type; you could have found many like her, in a sense, among the sweet-faced serious women of the neighboring farms.

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Frugality, a dainty personal self-respect, a family consciousness, tenacious of its memories and tenderly careful of all the little material objects, which were to it the symbols of those memories — clearly all these elements entered into the Leyburn tradition.

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‘I met Mr. Thornburgh and Mr. Elsmere driving from the station,’ Catherine announced presently; ‘at least there was a gentleman in a clerical wideawake with a portmanteau behind, so I imagine it must have been he.’ ‘Did he look promising?’ inquired Agnes. ‘I don’t think I noticed,’ said Catherine simply, but with a momentary change of expression. The sisters, remembering how she had come in upon them with that look of one ‘lifted up,’ understood why she had not noticed, and refrained from further questions.
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Late that night, long after she had performed all a maid’s offices for her mother, Catherine Leyburn was busy in her own room arranging a large cupboard containing medicines and ordinary medical necessaries, a storehouse whence all the simpler emergencies of their end of the valley were supplied. She had put on a white flannel dressing-gown
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gown and moved noiselessly about in it, the very embodiment of order, of purity, of quiet energy. The little white-curtained room was bareness and neatness itself. There were a few book-shelves along the walls, holding the books which her father had given her. Over the bed were two enlarged portraits of her parents, and a line of queer little faded monstrosities, representing Rose and Agnes in different stages of childhood. On the table beside the bed was a pile of well-worn books — Keble, Jeremy Taylor, the Bible —
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connected in the mind of the mistress of the room with the intensest moments of the spiritual life. There was a strip of carpet by the bed, a plain chair or two, a large press; otherwise no furniture that was not absolutely necessary, and no ornaments. And yet, for all its emptiness, the little room in its order and spotlessness had the look and spell of a sanctuary.
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But the looking-glass got no smile in return for its information. Catherine Leyburn was young; she was
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alone; she was being very plainly told that, taken as a whole, she was, or might be at any moment, a beautiful woman. And all her answer was a frown and a quick movement away from the glass. Putting up her hands she began to undo the plaits with haste, almost with impatience; she smoothed the whole mass then set free into the severest order, plaited it closely together, and then, putting out her light, threw herself on her knees beside the window, which was partly open to the starlight and the mountains.

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I was glad Robert and Catherine married but when he started to change his beliefs I felt so sorry for Catherine who trusted him. I felt the tide was turning from him caring for what concerns her and their life to doing whatever he finds helps in his quest. He spends more time on this than his family which started to irritate me. I suppose since his mother was critical of religion which is not unhealthy, it was in him but what I didn't like was his not trying to be more understanding of his wife, especially his outside activities that did not include her, not that he should have given them up but been more supportive. The Squire who looked to have a son and change him to his unbelief, helped change Robert which probably would have happened eventually but he helped speed up the process. The Squire didn't understand Robert's want of any religious beliefs and was looking for him to be ensnared by Lady Netteville. Catherine in the end after Robert's death stays in London instead of going back home to the country, she loved Robert and though he did not change her mind in her beliefs, he had changed her enough to give many things for her husbands stake. In the end he remembers the birth of their baby and before his change, did he finally find out the truth then? If he had not tried of saved that man could he have lived longer, it seems but that holiday was because he was looking ill. It just seemed destined for his life to be short lived though his work went on with the help of his wife in her way. I was glad that Rose started to be less self centered after the Langham affair, he was too troubled to have anyone around him. I started to soften up to Hugh and his love for Rose. What will happen to Agnes, I am hoping for her with the help of her sister Rose.


*** Mrs. Leyburn is a widow who is not strong so she relies on her eldest daughter, Catherine to help in all things. Catherine is religious and dresses with that in mind, though she is told she will be beautiful. She even refuses to wear her hair more pleasing after being complimented. Rose and Agnes are younger. Rose likes her music and Agnes avoids activities though she likes to dress in fashion. The money is tight here. Catherine helps Dr. Baker with his patient. A new young man, Robert Elsmere is coming to stay which makes the town wonder about him.

[Greta V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mrs Ward does here a remarkable work in representing the various elements of nineteenth-century belief and doubt as they effect the personal life of the hero, Robert Elsmere, and especially his marriage with Catherine. It is an attack on orthodox Christianity and a sort of glorification of the heresy of modernism.
“Every great religion is, in truth, a concentration of great ideas, capable, as all ideas are, of infinite expansion and adaptation." states Robert Elsmere. Religion must change because the world is changed. What seemed to be a loss, will, in the end, only be a gain.
If you are interested in the religious turmoil of the 19th century this is certainly a must-read. But I suggest you to read also William Gladstone’s long critique of the novel. Gladstone, many times prime minister of Britain and a devout Anglican of the high-church, argues that Christian morality is inseparable from Christian belief. The latter is truly the foundation of the former, and once you get rid of Christian belief, Christian morality is destined to collapse.

[Zandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad to have read this forgotten, classic, bestseller. I found the story overlong, but still really engaging and thought-provoking. It provided a fascinating insight into the various intellectual and social challenges to orthodox belief in the late nineteenth century. Mrs Humphrey Ward has a fine moral sensibility and I admired her capacity to portray a host of characters and milieu - Oxford dons, the rural poor, the working classes, the aristocracy, and fashionable, artistic London. Skillfully, she portrayed these different worlds colliding and clashing, or sometimes coming to a new understanding, and, even, love, of a sort.

Yet I felt Mrs Humphrey Ward was too idealistic and optimistic about human nature, too determined to suggest that a creed was essential, even if it was not the creed of Orthodoxy. The books was too preachy and controlled. Mrs Humphrey Ward was very respectfully, disrespectful to the Church of England, as I might have guessed by the name she chose to use for herself.

[Mauberley]

I was recently reminded of this novel when I was reading Karen Armstrong's recent book on scripture and I could not have enjoyed it more. It is a terrific novel and its depictions of the late Victorian world's reactions to Darwin, David Strauss, Unitarianism, poverty, etc. is handled with extraordinary skill. Once or twice I found myself wondering how some one writing close to 140 years ago would have known enough to write bits of my biography but that simply speaks to Mrs Ward's sensitivities. This is not everyone's cup of tea (or communion chalice) but anyone interested in the issues raised will find it fascinating. (Wilde said that it reminded him of Arnold's 'Dogma and Literature' with the latter left out.) All who read this book will benefit immeasurably from reading Gladstone's response to it.

[Tom Mobley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though written over 130 years ago, Robert Elsmere speaks to my Humanist outlook on life by how it explored questions of faith, identity, and purpose. Mary Augusta Ward’s writing and philosophical insight bring out the inner struggle of a man torn between religious tradition and intellectual truth. As I read, I found that Elsmere’s journey of discovery was in someways like my own in unexpected ways—his longing for meaning and his desire to serve others resonated with me. Despite its Victorian setting, the novel speaks powerfully to anyone wrestling with belief and transformation in a modern world.

Happy that I have been able to devote the last 4 days on the houseboat digging deep into it and reflecting as I read.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was amazing to be reading a popular 1888 novel on an iphone! The author knew RH Charles, a man my husband is researching, and thus he found this book. We were both enjoying reading it at first. I gave it up about 60 % through--at a point when the spiritual crisis occurred.

[L. M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply sad novel, at times painful to read. I found it tremendously insightful on the relationship between modern forms of Arianism and Pelagianism.

[John Musgrove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated, but interesting story. Even more surprising that a woman of the time could get a published work such as this without resorting to a male pen name, ala George Sand.

[Robert Tessmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Trudged through about 2/3's of the book, but just could not finish.

[Bill Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author two weeks ago, but HG Wells mentioned her in a novel of his I read recently. This is an extremely well written novel set amidst the religious turmoil on late nineteenth century England. I intend to look for some more of her books. Pam, you once said you read The first sentence to gauge if you were interested, or not. Well, this is The second second sentence.
The spring had been unusually cold and late, and it was evident from the general aspect of the lonely Westmoreland valley of Long Whindale that warmth and sunshine had only just penetrated to its bare, green recesses, where the few scattered trees were fast rushing into their full summer dress, while at their feet, and along the bank of the stream, the flowers of March and April still lingered, as though they found it impossible to believe that their rough brother, the east wind, had at last deserted them.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tale of the conflict between faith and knowledge, this novel is in some respect an extended study of the changes to the theological and intellectual life of Victorian Britain. Accordingly, it can be highly recommended to historians of the period as useful background reading. As a story, it is perhaps over-long and the ending feels rushed, but the sensitivity with it addresses the emotional struggle within and between the characters is affecting and convincing.

[Dymphna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. What an under-appreciated book, which I only came upon reading that interview between Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain.

The beautiful, and always captivating story not only about the central character but the main turns in the lives of those around him. I'm always pleasantly surprised when a book from another age draws me in like this; such sympathetic and philosophical prose.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story, but I think that the book is way too long. There is a lot of really flowery description of landscapes, homes, people's clothes, etc. that really drag the story out without much purpose.