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Ceremony of the Innocent
New York Times Bestseller: The quest for the American Dream soars to new heights in this coming-of-age story of a young woman and her country.
Living with her aunt in poor, rural Preston, Pennsylvania, thirteen-year-old Ellen Watson loves books and music and is completely oblivious to her own beauty. But her extraordinary looks arouse envy and malice in the female townspeople—and lust in the males. Hired as a housemaid in the palatial home of the village mayor, Ellen soon catches the attention of his son, Jeremy Porter, who captures her heart in turn. He offers to send her to school, and four years later he proposes marriage.
As the years pass, Ellen’s life parallels the hopes, dreams, and fears of a no-longer innocent nation. As America’s enemies gather, Ellen must face her own demons. The wife of the scion of a powerful political family, she has everything she could ever desire: security, children, and a successful, adoring husband. But when tragedy rips her life apart, Ellen will be forced to confront some terrible truths about her marriage, her family, and herself.
Played out against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America, Ceremony of the Innocent intertwines Ellen’s personal journey with America’s emergence from the devastation of World War I. It raises vital questions, such as: Are we as good as we believe we are? And is faith enough to keep us moving forward even in the face of unimaginable loss?
Living with her aunt in poor, rural Preston, Pennsylvania, thirteen-year-old Ellen Watson loves books and music and is completely oblivious to her own beauty. But her extraordinary looks arouse envy and malice in the female townspeople—and lust in the males. Hired as a housemaid in the palatial home of the village mayor, Ellen soon catches the attention of his son, Jeremy Porter, who captures her heart in turn. He offers to send her to school, and four years later he proposes marriage.
As the years pass, Ellen’s life parallels the hopes, dreams, and fears of a no-longer innocent nation. As America’s enemies gather, Ellen must face her own demons. The wife of the scion of a powerful political family, she has everything she could ever desire: security, children, and a successful, adoring husband. But when tragedy rips her life apart, Ellen will be forced to confront some terrible truths about her marriage, her family, and herself.
Played out against the backdrop of early twentieth-century America, Ceremony of the Innocent intertwines Ellen’s personal journey with America’s emergence from the devastation of World War I. It raises vital questions, such as: Are we as good as we believe we are? And is faith enough to keep us moving forward even in the face of unimaginable loss?
752 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
462 people are currently reading
604 people want to read
About the author
Taylor Caldwell
152 books556 followers Also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner.
Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it remained unpublished until 1975). Her father did not approve such activity for women, and sent her to work in a bindery. She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health. (In 1947, according to TIME magazine, she discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.)
In 1918-1919, she served in the United States Navy Reserve. In 1919 she married William F. Combs. In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York. In 1924, she went to work for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo. In 1931 she graduated from SUNY Buffalo, and also was divorced from William Combs.
Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, a fellow Justice employee. She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith, in 1932. They were married for 40 years, until his death in 1971.
In 1934, she began to work on the novel Dynasty of Death, which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, This Side of Innocence was the biggest fiction seller of 1946. Her works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, though she still lived near Buffalo.
Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. During her career as a writer, she received several awards.
She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion.
Around 1970, she became interested in reincarnation. She had become friends with well-known occultist author Jess Stearn, who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. Supposedly, she agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "past-life regression" to disprove reincarnation. According to Stearn's book, The Search of a Soul - Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives - eleven in all, including one on the "lost continent" of Lemuria.
In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer, but divorced him in 1973. In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith over the estate of Judith's father Marcus; in 1979 Judith committed suicide.
Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, though she could still write. (She had been deaf since about 1965.) Her daughter Peggy accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell, and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.
She died of heart failure in Greenwich, Conn
Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England. In 1907 she emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother. Her father died shortly after the move, and the family struggled. At the age of eight she started to write stories, and in fact wrote her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, at the age of twelve (although it remained unpublished until 1975). Her father did not approve such activity for women, and sent her to work in a bindery. She continued to write prolifically, however, despite ill health. (In 1947, according to TIME magazine, she discarded and burned the manuscripts of 140 unpublished novels.)
In 1918-1919, she served in the United States Navy Reserve. In 1919 she married William F. Combs. In 1920, they had a daughter, Mary (known as "Peggy"). From 1923 to 1924 she was a court reporter in New York State Department of Labor in Buffalo, New York. In 1924, she went to work for the United States Department of Justice, as a member of the Board of Special Inquiry (an immigration tribunal) in Buffalo. In 1931 she graduated from SUNY Buffalo, and also was divorced from William Combs.
Caldwell then married her second husband, Marcus Reback, a fellow Justice employee. She had a second child with Reback, a daughter Judith, in 1932. They were married for 40 years, until his death in 1971.
In 1934, she began to work on the novel Dynasty of Death, which she and Reback completed in collaboration. It was published in 1938 and became a best-seller. "Taylor Caldwell" was presumed to be a man, and there was some public stir when the author was revealed to be a woman. Over the next 43 years, she published 42 more novels, many of them best-sellers. For instance, This Side of Innocence was the biggest fiction seller of 1946. Her works sold an estimated 30 million copies. She became wealthy, traveling to Europe and elsewhere, though she still lived near Buffalo.
Her books were big sellers right up to the end of her career. During her career as a writer, she received several awards.
She was an outspoken conservative and for a time wrote for the John Birch Society's monthly journal American Opinion and even associated with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. Her memoir, On Growing Up Tough, appeared in 1971, consisting of many edited-down articles from American Opinion.
Around 1970, she became interested in reincarnation. She had become friends with well-known occultist author Jess Stearn, who suggested that the vivid detail in her many historical novels was actually subconscious recollection of previous lives. Supposedly, she agreed to be hypnotized and undergo "past-life regression" to disprove reincarnation. According to Stearn's book, The Search of a Soul - Taylor Caldwell's Psychic Lives, Caldwell instead began to recall her own past lives - eleven in all, including one on the "lost continent" of Lemuria.
In 1972, she married William Everett Stancell, a retired real estate developer, but divorced him in 1973. In 1978, she married William Robert Prestie, an eccentric Canadian 17 years her junior. This led to difficulties with her children. She had a long dispute with her daughter Judith over the estate of Judith's father Marcus; in 1979 Judith committed suicide.
Also in 1979, Caldwell suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, though she could still write. (She had been deaf since about 1965.) Her daughter Peggy accused Prestie of abusing and exploiting Caldwell, and there was a legal battle over her substantial assets.
She died of heart failure in Greenwich, Conn
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
August 25, 2020
This book was ten kinds of painful.
I'm not sure exactly when it started to go wrong. All I know is the train dashed off the tracks somewhere around page 100 -- but contrary to known laws of physics, the caboose continued plowing through dirt at an obscene angle, squashing a bunch of hobos & donkeys before it ground to a halt in a grove of sickly apple trees.
So much minute examination of emotional response to the least little thing...yet the characters are either completely unpredictable or stuck in a behavioral rut that never changes from one eon to the next. So much tangential infodumping of political situations...that attack the reader with all the subtlety of a lumberjack on PCP. So much repetitious conversation & non-progression of plot...which serves to perfectly showcase the assholes therein.
And on that note, I'm thrilled to present a screenplay of the first 200 pages. Enjoy.
- CEREMONY OF THE DAMNED INNOCENT;
or, PROLETARIAT BLUES -
ELLEN: Woe is me, I'm a hideous servant girl. I have big tits & long legs & red hair. And my cheekbones are so high!
AUNT MAY: No matter. I got you working dawn to dusk for a dollar -- they don't care if kitchen maids are fugly as sin.
ELLEN: A whole dollar?! Good thing my cheekbones will scare away the menfolk. I can't wait to make you proud, my dearest beloved aunt.
ALL OTHER WOMEN: You look like a whore.
ALL OTHER MEN: You look like a saint.
ELLEN: Boohoo, woe is me. I like to read. I wish I wasn't fugly as sin.
JEREMY: Hey cutie, know what's sexy? Reading! Thoreau is a fucking genius. I'd love to find a girl who appreciates whatever the hell he writes about.
FRANCIS: Hey baby, know what's sexy? Politics! Marxism is so fucking hot. I just got a boner from thinking about the socio-economic impact of the proletariat.
ELLEN: You're both sweet. Thank you for being nice to a homely servant girl like me -- a girl with big tits & long legs & red hair. Oh, I'm sorry I offend your eyes!
FRANCIS: Damn right. I'd like to put you to work in a nicer house.
JEREMY: You suck just like my mom & dad & neighbors & cook & butler & everyone else I know, because I am not a robot!
FRANCIS: Blah blah blah, Marxism, blah blah blah.
ELLEN: Oh, why are you fighting over me?! I'm so hideous! I don't deserve to be an object of desire!
JEREMY: Wait a minute. You really think you're hideous, don't you?
ELLEN: Duh. And I hope you don't burst into flames of hellfire for not treating me like dirt.
FRANCIS: Yeah, she's a servant. They deserve help, but not so much as to rise above their deserved station.
AUNT MAY: Ellen shames poor people everywhere by not being hideous.
ELLEN: I'm sorry, Aunt. I can't seem to help having big tits & long legs & red hair. And I read books on the sly, which has somehow gotten me a rich-as-sin suitor.
AUNT MAY: I am shocked & appalled!
ALL OTHER WOMEN: She's a servant. She looks like a freak!
ALL OTHER MEN: She's a servant. She looks like nobility!
ELLEN: Woe is me!
FRANCIS: Whatever. Your cheekbones are nothing to Karl Marx. You give me feels.
JEREMY: But Ellen reads Thoreau, see?
ELLEN: Now I realize I seek solitude & comfort above my station -- somewhere I can hide my big tits & long legs & red hair so they don't offend more eyes than necessary. Beware my cheekbones!
AUNT MAY: Unclean heifer!
ALL OTHER WOMEN: Uncouth whore!
ALL OTHER MEN: Beautiful goddess!
JEREMY: My one true love!
FRANCIS: Servants can't read.
ELLEN: And my hair is red. I'm such a freak.
JEREMY: I think you're hot.
ELLEN: No you don't.
JEREMY: Yes I do.
ELLEN: No you don't. I'm a hideous cow with huge tits & long legs & red hair.
JEREMY: Ha, I deflowered you. We have to marry now.
ELLEN: I adore you. I adore being happy. I adore being not treated like dirt.
AUNT MAY: You're going to hell.
JEREMY: Shut up, you old bat. Ellen & I are happy now. Aren't we happy, Ellen? Tell your aunt how happy we are.
ELLEN: We're happy, Aunt May! I'm pregnant...and it's all done within wedlock. How's the nurse we hired for your hundred-page hospice reign of terror?
AUNT MAY: Fuck you.
JEREMY: Just ignore her, my beloved wife. I love you.
ELLEN: And I love you. I'm sorry I offend your sensibilities with my naive conversation & huge tits & long legs & red hair. I'll do my best not to shame you with a hideous child that looks like me. I'm sorry I'll ruin your political future by being such an uncouth heifer.
FRANCIS: ....Did someone say political??
Okay, seriously. This book really cheesed me off. Then I clicked on another review & discovered that Ellen . Oh, HELL NO. Life is too short to suffer through doorstoppers like this. I don't demand bunnies & rainbows every time I close a book, but crikey. If 'human experience' fiction equals 550 pages of repetitive pain, whinging, & snooze-worthy political agendas capped by , then 'human experience' can stuff it.
1.5 stars, rounded high. Caldwell has a good grasp of language & description; it's unfortunate she chose to write some of the bleakest emo splooge I've ever encountered.
I'm not sure exactly when it started to go wrong. All I know is the train dashed off the tracks somewhere around page 100 -- but contrary to known laws of physics, the caboose continued plowing through dirt at an obscene angle, squashing a bunch of hobos & donkeys before it ground to a halt in a grove of sickly apple trees.
So much minute examination of emotional response to the least little thing...yet the characters are either completely unpredictable or stuck in a behavioral rut that never changes from one eon to the next. So much tangential infodumping of political situations...that attack the reader with all the subtlety of a lumberjack on PCP. So much repetitious conversation & non-progression of plot...which serves to perfectly showcase the assholes therein.
And on that note, I'm thrilled to present a screenplay of the first 200 pages. Enjoy.
- CEREMONY OF THE DAMNED INNOCENT;
or, PROLETARIAT BLUES -
ELLEN: Woe is me, I'm a hideous servant girl. I have big tits & long legs & red hair. And my cheekbones are so high!
AUNT MAY: No matter. I got you working dawn to dusk for a dollar -- they don't care if kitchen maids are fugly as sin.
ELLEN: A whole dollar?! Good thing my cheekbones will scare away the menfolk. I can't wait to make you proud, my dearest beloved aunt.
ALL OTHER WOMEN: You look like a whore.
ALL OTHER MEN: You look like a saint.
ELLEN: Boohoo, woe is me. I like to read. I wish I wasn't fugly as sin.
JEREMY: Hey cutie, know what's sexy? Reading! Thoreau is a fucking genius. I'd love to find a girl who appreciates whatever the hell he writes about.
FRANCIS: Hey baby, know what's sexy? Politics! Marxism is so fucking hot. I just got a boner from thinking about the socio-economic impact of the proletariat.
ELLEN: You're both sweet. Thank you for being nice to a homely servant girl like me -- a girl with big tits & long legs & red hair. Oh, I'm sorry I offend your eyes!
FRANCIS: Damn right. I'd like to put you to work in a nicer house.
JEREMY: You suck just like my mom & dad & neighbors & cook & butler & everyone else I know, because I am not a robot!
FRANCIS: Blah blah blah, Marxism, blah blah blah.
ELLEN: Oh, why are you fighting over me?! I'm so hideous! I don't deserve to be an object of desire!
JEREMY: Wait a minute. You really think you're hideous, don't you?
ELLEN: Duh. And I hope you don't burst into flames of hellfire for not treating me like dirt.
FRANCIS: Yeah, she's a servant. They deserve help, but not so much as to rise above their deserved station.
AUNT MAY: Ellen shames poor people everywhere by not being hideous.
ELLEN: I'm sorry, Aunt. I can't seem to help having big tits & long legs & red hair. And I read books on the sly, which has somehow gotten me a rich-as-sin suitor.
AUNT MAY: I am shocked & appalled!
ALL OTHER WOMEN: She's a servant. She looks like a freak!
ALL OTHER MEN: She's a servant. She looks like nobility!
ELLEN: Woe is me!
FRANCIS: Whatever. Your cheekbones are nothing to Karl Marx. You give me feels.
JEREMY: But Ellen reads Thoreau, see?
ELLEN: Now I realize I seek solitude & comfort above my station -- somewhere I can hide my big tits & long legs & red hair so they don't offend more eyes than necessary. Beware my cheekbones!
AUNT MAY: Unclean heifer!
ALL OTHER WOMEN: Uncouth whore!
ALL OTHER MEN: Beautiful goddess!
JEREMY: My one true love!
FRANCIS: Servants can't read.
ELLEN: And my hair is red. I'm such a freak.
JEREMY: I think you're hot.
ELLEN: No you don't.
JEREMY: Yes I do.
ELLEN: No you don't. I'm a hideous cow with huge tits & long legs & red hair.
JEREMY: Ha, I deflowered you. We have to marry now.
ELLEN: I adore you. I adore being happy. I adore being not treated like dirt.
AUNT MAY: You're going to hell.
JEREMY: Shut up, you old bat. Ellen & I are happy now. Aren't we happy, Ellen? Tell your aunt how happy we are.
ELLEN: We're happy, Aunt May! I'm pregnant...and it's all done within wedlock. How's the nurse we hired for your hundred-page hospice reign of terror?
AUNT MAY: Fuck you.
JEREMY: Just ignore her, my beloved wife. I love you.
ELLEN: And I love you. I'm sorry I offend your sensibilities with my naive conversation & huge tits & long legs & red hair. I'll do my best not to shame you with a hideous child that looks like me. I'm sorry I'll ruin your political future by being such an uncouth heifer.
FRANCIS: ....Did someone say political??
Okay, seriously. This book really cheesed me off. Then I clicked on another review & discovered that Ellen . Oh, HELL NO. Life is too short to suffer through doorstoppers like this. I don't demand bunnies & rainbows every time I close a book, but crikey. If 'human experience' fiction equals 550 pages of repetitive pain, whinging, & snooze-worthy political agendas capped by , then 'human experience' can stuff it.
1.5 stars, rounded high. Caldwell has a good grasp of language & description; it's unfortunate she chose to write some of the bleakest emo splooge I've ever encountered.
February 27, 2017
This book was first published in 1976. It took four years to be written. Some critics consider "Captains and the Kings (1972)" as its "sequel."
I would rate this book with 4 stars if the main characters were not so naive in my humble opinion.
Despite this fact, I still think that Taylor Caldwell is one of the great writers of the 20th century fiction.
4* The Arm and the Darkness
5* A Pillar of Iron
4* Dear and Glorious Physician
4* The Earth Is the Lord's: A Tale of the Rise of Genghis Khan
4* The Final Hour
5* Captains And The Kings
2* The Romance of Atlantis
3* The Late Clara Beame
3* Ceremony of the Innocent
TR Dynasty Of Death (1938)
TR The Wide House
TR Testimony of Two Men
TR This Side of Innocence
TR Answer as a Man
TR Glory and the Lightning
TR Never Victorious, Never Defeated
I would rate this book with 4 stars if the main characters were not so naive in my humble opinion.
Despite this fact, I still think that Taylor Caldwell is one of the great writers of the 20th century fiction.
4* The Arm and the Darkness
5* A Pillar of Iron
4* Dear and Glorious Physician
4* The Earth Is the Lord's: A Tale of the Rise of Genghis Khan
4* The Final Hour
5* Captains And The Kings
2* The Romance of Atlantis
3* The Late Clara Beame
3* Ceremony of the Innocent
TR Dynasty Of Death (1938)
TR The Wide House
TR Testimony of Two Men
TR This Side of Innocence
TR Answer as a Man
TR Glory and the Lightning
TR Never Victorious, Never Defeated
May 16, 2009
This quote from Taylor Caldwell is what this book is about:
“We, perhaps, have corrupted our children and our grandchildren by heedless affluence, by a lack of manliness, by giving the younger generation more money and liberty than their youth can handle, by indoctrinating them with sinister ideologies and false values, by permitting them, as young children, to indulge themselves in imprudence to superiors and defiance of duly constituted authority, by lack of prudent, swift punishment when the transgressed, by coddling and pampering them when they were children and protecting them from a very dangerous world – which always was and always will be. We gave them no moral arms, no spiritual armor.” – Taylor Caldwell, in On Growing Up Tough
“We, perhaps, have corrupted our children and our grandchildren by heedless affluence, by a lack of manliness, by giving the younger generation more money and liberty than their youth can handle, by indoctrinating them with sinister ideologies and false values, by permitting them, as young children, to indulge themselves in imprudence to superiors and defiance of duly constituted authority, by lack of prudent, swift punishment when the transgressed, by coddling and pampering them when they were children and protecting them from a very dangerous world – which always was and always will be. We gave them no moral arms, no spiritual armor.” – Taylor Caldwell, in On Growing Up Tough
November 13, 2019
I started out thinking I really liked this book and had found a new author to love. She does a wonderful job of describing the characters and their lives. However, by 2/3 of the way through, I had decided I hated the book, and most especially, its lead character, Ellen Porter. The author wrote a character who is in every way unbelievable and unrealistic in order to prove a point about the perils of overtrusting. While we can certainly glean lessons from fiction, it helps tremendously if the story is at least partially believable.
Ellen trusts all the wrong people, and pays a terrible price for it, over and over, never learning the lesson, and never wising up. This is somehow apparently supposed to prove that the United States is also wrong in much of its foreign and domestic policy of the last 100 or so years. A surprising chunk of the book was devoted to the author ranting (often through her characters) about how terrible various U.S. policy proposals were, and how our country is going to die a well-deserved and horrible death because of it. I felt like I was reading an Ayn Rand novel, but where the moralistic theme was far less subtle.
All in all, this was a ridiculous book and I can't believe the author thought it would make any point at all. The entire thing is fantastical and absurd, to the point where none of it can be taken seriously.
Ellen trusts all the wrong people, and pays a terrible price for it, over and over, never learning the lesson, and never wising up. This is somehow apparently supposed to prove that the United States is also wrong in much of its foreign and domestic policy of the last 100 or so years. A surprising chunk of the book was devoted to the author ranting (often through her characters) about how terrible various U.S. policy proposals were, and how our country is going to die a well-deserved and horrible death because of it. I felt like I was reading an Ayn Rand novel, but where the moralistic theme was far less subtle.
All in all, this was a ridiculous book and I can't believe the author thought it would make any point at all. The entire thing is fantastical and absurd, to the point where none of it can be taken seriously.
September 20, 2010
Ms. Caldwell has one of the characters quote Aristotle:
"Politicians are not born. They are excreted."
Have things changed?
"Politicians are not born. They are excreted."
Have things changed?
March 16, 2014
The main character Ellen is supposed to personify a young innocent America. There is a lot of politics written into the story, but to me it's not about politics at all. It's about a Barbie Doll of a woman who has some kind of learning disability, perhaps Asperger's Syndrome, that causes her to trust everyone and blinds her to the truth all her life. Women hate her and think she's ugly, men lust after her.
It's a totally depressing story but I liked how it was written and it moved along smoothly. If it had been written any other way I probably would have abandoned it. It was like a train or auto wreck, I just couldn't look away.
It's a totally depressing story but I liked how it was written and it moved along smoothly. If it had been written any other way I probably would have abandoned it. It was like a train or auto wreck, I just couldn't look away.
May 26, 2009
This is the first Taylor Caldwell book I have ever read. I loved it so much that I want to read it all over again, this time to look up all of the words I did not know!
Taylor Caldwell has such a way with words and it is obvious that she is extremely intelligent. If you have not read this book yet, I would not look at any other reviews on Goodreads, as I already noticed one spoiler in the reviews and it would be a shame to spoil the outcome of this story for yourself.
Taylor Caldwell has such a way with words and it is obvious that she is extremely intelligent. If you have not read this book yet, I would not look at any other reviews on Goodreads, as I already noticed one spoiler in the reviews and it would be a shame to spoil the outcome of this story for yourself.
September 25, 2019
If this were a book that had been written in this day and age some author would have had the main character plotting vengeance; however it was not and maybe we can thank god for that. At first I was a little put off by some of that political sub story but I think I know where the author was going with it. Ellen was an amazing character and all you could do was hope for her. Are there still people in this day and age who live with her naive innocence? There were so many people who were close to her that wanted to tear her down and destroy her that you could only feel pity that she could not see it or understand it. All it took for her to fold was someone telling her that the one person she truly loved did not love her.
May 11, 2012
When asked what my favorite Romance book is I always mention this book. This book brought up so many emotions in me that I caught myself crying one minute, laughing, and angry the next. Anytime I find this book I buy it and share it with friends.
October 23, 2015
Love Caldwell's character development. Lovely novel!
November 23, 2017
Well, it certainly is not a "romance" in the stereotypical sense; it's actually really depressing. Thoroughly entertaining, though. I've never been so annoyed with a protagonist! Ellen Watson is an absolute moron. I really felt like this book is somewhat autobiographical, especially considering the real-life turmoils of Taylor Caldwell.
April 30, 2018
I read this book for the 1st time years ago. This book is sad but you keep rooting for the main character hoping for a different ending. Taylor Caldwell has a way of developing the reader’s emotional reactions to her characters, frustration & sympathy for the main character, Ellen, & hatred for others.
July 13, 2021
Have always read and loved Taylor Caldwell. Maybe it is just me but I didn’t care for the long political discussions. Also I found it hard to believe that the main character, Ellen, was not intellectually challenged. The only characters, somewhat likable, are minor characters. A sad story, not entirely believable.
February 2, 2008
I loved this book. It is my most favorite book by Taylor Caldwell. The intricacy of the story and main character are very timeless and applicable across many centuries.. Reasons why being an ostrich isn't a good method for happiness.
March 1, 2015
3.75 stars. this is one of my friend's favorite books. if you like train wrecks, you will like this. the writing was quite good though and the history was intriguing. the aunt is a study of magnitude. amazing.
March 1, 2017
True today as yesterday.
Not enough can be said about how well written this book is or how accurate a description it gives of how American has deteriorated. It is a must read for every one that is concerned about their future.
Not enough can be said about how well written this book is or how accurate a description it gives of how American has deteriorated. It is a must read for every one that is concerned about their future.
May 6, 2008
A naive servant girl marries her "Prince Charming"...only to be driven to suicide by her own avaricious children.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2010
a protagonist who isn't one, except for maybe 5 minutes? Mix conspiracy theory with discussions of whether it is right to love & trust in a world full of manipulators & idiots.
Read
July 29, 2011Sure has taken a long time for women to come into their own. Gives some insight to the fact that there were a few males that saw women as humans and not property
August 5, 2011
I really enjoyed the coming of age story, and only skimmed over the political conversations, *yawn*.
February 4, 2018
Poorly written
I know this book was written decades ago, but it's schlock. The main character weeps and moans throughout the entire book.
I know this book was written decades ago, but it's schlock. The main character weeps and moans throughout the entire book.
June 17, 2008
LOVED IT! This was the book that started my love affair with Taylor Caldwell's books.
June 5, 2010
A very good but very sad book
October 29, 2023
Every day I receive a list of bargain e-books from Book Bub. Most are low-priced, and occasionally there's even a freebie. If I find a free book of interest available on Prime, I add it to my Kindle/iPad. I also get others from Edelweiss and other sources. Between those, and the ones on my shelves and in several full shopping bags, I don't think I'll ever have the time to read them all – especially since I keep finding new and enticing titles at the library. It's a dilemma that my book loving friends will understand.
Ceremony of the Innocent (the correct title) was one of those Book Bub books, and I read a little of it on its Prime page, and initially intrigued, I requested it from my library. I was somewhat shocked when I received it but I wanted to give it a chance: The cover art and copy of this mass market paperback version is lurid and repulsive, but so indicative of the 70s, when it was first published. Refusing to be put off, I decided to delve further into it.
I was drawn at first into the sad story of the impoverished young Ellen Porter and her Aunt May, who raised her. The time is roughly the 1890s, and they live in a small Pennsylvania town, somewhere in the northeastern area of the state. Ellen is a tall, beautiful redheaded girl who looks older and more mature than her thirteen years; May is a seamstress who also works as a maid to try to make ends meet, she is probably barely forty but poverty has aged and broken her. Seeing no alternative, she forces Ellen to end her education and persuades her client and employer, the mayor's wife, to take Ellen on as a maid in training, saying she is already fourteen, though with her height and mature looks, Ellen might pass for fifteen or sixteen.
The small town constantly gossips about Ellen and May. Some say she is May's illegitimate daughter, that with her flaming hair and mature body, she must be sexually active – a harlot. Of course she is none of that, and is rather just a poor disadvantaged girl who looks different from the pale blondes who are considered the town beauties. There seems to be no future for her other than a life of struggle and servitude.
One day, though, she meets Jeremy, the handsome, well-educated and successful son of her employers. She is overwhelmed, as is he. Their brief encounter will stay with both of them until they meet again, and he sweeps her off and marries her.
From this point forward, the book becomes a strange stew of their continued love story, politics, religion, and commentary on the America of the early decades of the twentieth century. I found the policies she eventually ascribed to Jeremy, who had been elected to Congress, and who had originally seemed so kind and passionate, to be distasteful and hateful, to say the least. She portrayed many of the leading progressive political figures of the time with a peculiar, distorted view, bordering on what felt like an underlying paranoia, or at the very least, a deep hate for working and middle class Americans, immigrants, and others. At the same time, she seemed to warn against excesses of greed, power and capitalism, while supporting both communism and fascism almost simultaneously.
All in all, in retrospect, the entire novel becomes as lurid and offensive as this edition's cover. Her prose is dense, melodramatic, and wandering, but I kept reading in the hope that somehow Ellen would overcome her struggles – let's just say she didn't. I can only wonder how this book became the "national bestseller" touted on the cover.
Ceremony of the Innocent (the correct title) was one of those Book Bub books, and I read a little of it on its Prime page, and initially intrigued, I requested it from my library. I was somewhat shocked when I received it but I wanted to give it a chance: The cover art and copy of this mass market paperback version is lurid and repulsive, but so indicative of the 70s, when it was first published. Refusing to be put off, I decided to delve further into it.
I was drawn at first into the sad story of the impoverished young Ellen Porter and her Aunt May, who raised her. The time is roughly the 1890s, and they live in a small Pennsylvania town, somewhere in the northeastern area of the state. Ellen is a tall, beautiful redheaded girl who looks older and more mature than her thirteen years; May is a seamstress who also works as a maid to try to make ends meet, she is probably barely forty but poverty has aged and broken her. Seeing no alternative, she forces Ellen to end her education and persuades her client and employer, the mayor's wife, to take Ellen on as a maid in training, saying she is already fourteen, though with her height and mature looks, Ellen might pass for fifteen or sixteen.
The small town constantly gossips about Ellen and May. Some say she is May's illegitimate daughter, that with her flaming hair and mature body, she must be sexually active – a harlot. Of course she is none of that, and is rather just a poor disadvantaged girl who looks different from the pale blondes who are considered the town beauties. There seems to be no future for her other than a life of struggle and servitude.
One day, though, she meets Jeremy, the handsome, well-educated and successful son of her employers. She is overwhelmed, as is he. Their brief encounter will stay with both of them until they meet again, and he sweeps her off and marries her.
From this point forward, the book becomes a strange stew of their continued love story, politics, religion, and commentary on the America of the early decades of the twentieth century. I found the policies she eventually ascribed to Jeremy, who had been elected to Congress, and who had originally seemed so kind and passionate, to be distasteful and hateful, to say the least. She portrayed many of the leading progressive political figures of the time with a peculiar, distorted view, bordering on what felt like an underlying paranoia, or at the very least, a deep hate for working and middle class Americans, immigrants, and others. At the same time, she seemed to warn against excesses of greed, power and capitalism, while supporting both communism and fascism almost simultaneously.
All in all, in retrospect, the entire novel becomes as lurid and offensive as this edition's cover. Her prose is dense, melodramatic, and wandering, but I kept reading in the hope that somehow Ellen would overcome her struggles – let's just say she didn't. I can only wonder how this book became the "national bestseller" touted on the cover.
October 19, 2024
As an unsually beautiful girl of thirteen in rural Pennsylvania, Ellen Watson catches the eye of two men, Jeremy Porter, the mayor's son, and his cousin Francis. While Jeremy, impressed by the girl's intelligence, integrity and eagerness to learn, despite her status as a servant girl, is eager to send her to school, Francis, despite his socialist views, wants yo send her and her aunt, May, to work for his aunt in another Pennsylvania town, to protect her from Jeremy's "predations". Although May accepts Francis's offer, he is not successful in his ultimate aim when Ellen and Jeremy, who are deeply in love, marry four years later.
While Jeremy is caught up in a struggle to protect his country and his wife, Ellen has to struggle with her aunt's inability to adjust to her change in status, even as she becomes a mother. Although she is a part of New York society, her insecurities and lack of self-esteem, which her aunt, Francis, and others play upon, undermine her at a time of terrible crisis. However, there is a strength in her that her enemies have to reckon with.
Although I admire Taylor Caldwell's ability to carry a story along, she focuses too much on internal monologues compared to action. Also, there's a lack in her understanding of political ideas that comes through in her later work. There is the conflating of socialism with communism that reflects something of America's fears when she was writing this book.
While Jeremy is caught up in a struggle to protect his country and his wife, Ellen has to struggle with her aunt's inability to adjust to her change in status, even as she becomes a mother. Although she is a part of New York society, her insecurities and lack of self-esteem, which her aunt, Francis, and others play upon, undermine her at a time of terrible crisis. However, there is a strength in her that her enemies have to reckon with.
Although I admire Taylor Caldwell's ability to carry a story along, she focuses too much on internal monologues compared to action. Also, there's a lack in her understanding of political ideas that comes through in her later work. There is the conflating of socialism with communism that reflects something of America's fears when she was writing this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2018
Taylor Caldwell is always good for laughs. In this one, the main character's kids grow up to despise her - and actually go out of their way to literally destroy her - for no other reason but that she was too nice to them. We hate the woman for being a pin cushion her whole life, but we hate her bullies too since they are C. Montgomery Burns evil. It's an extreme example all of Caldwell's books: inter generational, historical family sagas - soap operas - where each character's personality and destiny is predicted by physical tell-tale traits present from birth. Everyone's fates are sealed from the first chapter and we just gawk at the train wrecks for like 350 pages. Not tragedy porn exactly, because they are not graphic, but weirdly entertaining books. Like Forrest Gump, her characters are at the center of all the Big Historical Events. Prologue To Love is actually kind of a good Caldwell book, but this one is the funniest.
March 20, 2023
I love historical fiction but COE was almost straight political ideology laden with well researched facts and a spare storyline--too heavy on the explicit political diatribe to make good fiction. I made a heroic effort as I was interested in the work of this famous female author after reading about her memoir, "On Growing up Tough" but I was disappointed. It bored me and I feel I am a very generous reader. I may try reading her again, as I don't think one book is a good sample and I am sure she MUST have written better books as she is still well respected. I think I read "Dear and Glorious Physician" (about Luke) about 100 years ago. Maybe I'll read it again.
October 16, 2025
I loved this book and yet hated it, or rather despised Ellen’s naïveté, so much so that I stopped reading it for a few days. Still thinking about it, I kept reading and am so very glad I did! Ellen finally grew a backbone at the end, which was very satisfying, although the ending was tragic. Of great interest was Caldwell’s very astute understanding of American politics in early 1900s (and even pertinent today) and depicting Ellen as a very trusting and naive personification of America. The parallels are intriguing and thought provoking, as well as eye-opening.
January 9, 2018
This is my first introduction to this author. I really loved the book, it was rather long and covered lots of issues. the book has parallel themes, about a young servant girl, who marries above her " station" and never really adjust to her new role in life, and about the political currents in America at the beginning of the 19th century. The author writes really well. Even though Ellen is not a 20th century women , one felt a lot of sympathy towards her.
January 17, 2021
Read this a long time ago as a teenager.
It was probably my first Taylor Caldwell book and the blatant cruelty most people displayed towards the protagonist, Ellen, (including that person’s children) was quite confusing. Even the person who professed to love her the most cheated on her with her frenemy.
Despite my confusion, I read this book a number of times before it faded out of memory. That is until I heard part of the title from a Yeats poem.
It was probably my first Taylor Caldwell book and the blatant cruelty most people displayed towards the protagonist, Ellen, (including that person’s children) was quite confusing. Even the person who professed to love her the most cheated on her with her frenemy.
Despite my confusion, I read this book a number of times before it faded out of memory. That is until I heard part of the title from a Yeats poem.
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