The Damnation of Theron Ware or Illumination

The central figure in Harold Frederic''s novel is a Methodist minister self-educated untutored in the ways of the world and intensely earnest. He is brought into intimate association with a woman who is in every way his spiritual and intellectual antithesis - a Roman Catholic brilliant beautiful and self-indulgent who seeks a new sensation in tempting the raw country preacher who has yet to learn the perils of a prolonged flirtation. The scene like that of most of Mr. Frederic''s books is laid in a small country town and he once more draws to the life the crudities and curiosities of American provincial life.