The Damnation of Theron Ware

Novelist Harold Frederic (1856-1898) played a critical role in the development of realistic American fiction. His best work analyzes the narrow-mindedness of the small towns of his native upper New York State. Frederic's most famous novel, The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896), chronicles the life of an idealistic young Methodist minister who, as he falls under the influence of progressive ideas, becomes a skeptic. He comes to regard his old religion as intellectually and spiritually bankrupt, but in the process is nearly destroyed by those who condemn him for "going to the bad".