The Damnation of Theron Ware - Harold Frederic

Last night I finished "The Damnation of Theron Ware," which had been sitting on our bookshelf for quite some time from one of Katie's classes. While it's not one of my favorite books I've jumped into recently, I was impressed and somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. This surprise was amplified because for the first 150 pages or so I thought I was reading "The Chronicles of a Very Naive and Boring Methodist Minister Who Doesn't Do Anything Exciting, Interesting, or Significant." I still feel like the first half of the book was about 5 times as long as it needed to be.

Yet the "Damnation" part, which consisted of the second half of the book (though the slippery slope starts in the first half), is what caught my attention. Frederic seems to make a point of showing both the good and the bad in the path that Theron Ware begins to follow, and this is indeed the reason the original name of the book was "Illumination." To Theron, of course, he is following a path of enlightenment, moving away from his narrow-minded orthodoxy to a much broader world of science, acceptance of other religions, and freedom of thought. Yet instead of taking enlightenment in moderation with his former religious conviction and family life, he can't help but let himself be swallowed up in his new fascination...but wait, I can't go spoiling a good story.

Overall, though it wasn't a very exciting book (especially the first half), it was worth the read. Theron was a character I think we all can relate to in many ways, or at least we learn from his experience. I think the book has special significance to Mormon culture (as well as other religions). Many people, raised in straight-forward orthodoxy, never come to terms with the fact that there is a larger world, and not everything secular is evil. On the other end of the spectrum, many of the same type of people go to far and completely abandon what they've always known for "enlightenment." The great applicability in this novel is in the two opposing titles. Surely "Damnation" fits at times, but at other times "Illumination" cannot be disregarded.

Genre: Fiction/19th Century American Lit