Robert Elsmere
A Victorian Crisis of Faith, Historical Biblical Criticism, and the Search for Ethical ChristianityBy Humphry Mrs. Ward
Length25h 31m
About this audiobook
Published in 1888, Robert Elsmere is a searching Victorian novel about the collision between inherited Christian belief and modern historical criticism. Its protagonist, an idealistic Anglican clergyman, gradually loses confidence in orthodox doctrine as scholarship, moral doubt, and contact with social suffering compel him to reconsider the foundations of faith. Combining psychological realism, theological debate, and the expansive social panorama of the nineteenth-century novel, Mrs. Ward's work dramatizes the period's crisis of belief without reducing it to mere polemic. Its measured prose, earnest dialogue, and intellectual architecture place it within the tradition of the problem novel, while its concern with ethical action anticipates later fiction of religious and social reform. Mary Augusta Ward, who published under the name Mrs. Humphry Ward, was formed by a profoundly literary and religious family: she was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold and the niece of Matthew Arnold, and she knew the intellectual tensions of Victorian Anglicanism from within. Her engagement with contemporary biblical scholarship, theological liberalism, and debates over agnosticism gave the novel its unusual authority. Ward's own movement toward a more intellectually flexible Christianity informs Robert Elsmere's central conflict, even as the book preserves sympathy for traditional devotion and communal faith. Robert Elsmere is especially rewarding for readers interested in Victorian culture, the history of religious thought, and the relationship between literature and intellectual controversy. Though its discussions are demanding, its emotional seriousness and humane depiction of conscience give them dramatic force. It remains a valuable, challenging book for anyone wishing to understand how nineteenth-century fiction confronted modernity, doubt, and the possibility of an ethical life beyond dogma.
Audiobook details
GenreGeneral Fiction
Length25 hrs 31 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 12, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1CHAPTER III
26BOOK IV CRISIS
2CHAPTER IV
27CHAPTER XXVI
3CHAPTER V
28CHAPTER XXVII
4CHAPTER VI
29CHAPTER XXVIII
5CHAPTER VII
30CHAPTER XXIX
Show all chaptersShow less
6CHAPTER VIII
31CHAPTER XXX
7CHAPTER IX
32BOOK V ROSE
8CHAPTER X
33CHAPTER XXXI
9BOOK II SURREY
34CHAPTER XXXII
10CHAPTER XI
35CHAPTER XXXIII
11CHAPTER XII
36CHAPTER XXXIV
12CHAPTER XIII
37CHAPTER XXXV
13CHAPTER XIV
38CHAPTER XXXVI
14CHAPTER XV
39BOOK VI NEW OPENINGS
15CHAPTER XVI
40CHAPTER XXXVII
16CHAPTER XVII
41CHAPTER XXXVIII
17CHAPTER XVIII
42CHAPTER XXXIX
18BOOK III THE SQUIRE
43CHAPTER XL
19CHAPTER XIX
44CHAPTER XLI
20CHAPTER XX
45CHAPTER XLII
21CHAPTER XXI
46CHAPTER XLIII
22CHAPTER XXII
47CHAPTER XLIV
23CHAPTER XXIII
48CHAPTER XLV
24CHAPTER XXIV
49BOOK VII GAIN AND LOSS
25CHAPTER XXV
50CHAPTER XLVI
More from Humphry Mrs. Ward
Fields of VictoryHumphry Mrs. Ward6h 58m3.7 (20)$1 · $0.00
Lady ConnieHumphry Mrs. Ward11h 54m3.4 (23)$1 · $0.00
Miss BrethertonHumphry Mrs. Ward5h 58m$1 · $0.00
Towards the GoalHumphry Mrs. Ward6h 9m$2 · $0.00
Bessie CostrellHumphry Mrs. Ward2h 34m$2 · $0.00
Delia BlanchflowerHumphry Mrs. Ward11h 14m3.5 (23)$2 · $0.00
HelenaHumphry Mrs. Ward7h 29m$1 · $0.00
Lady Merton, ColonistHumphry Mrs. Ward5h 59m$2 · $0.00
The Testing of Diana MalloryHumphry Mrs. Ward13h 57m3.6 (10)$1 · $0.00
The Story of Bessie CostrellHumphry Mrs. Ward2h 34m3.6 (29)$1 · $0.00
Milly and OllyHumphry Mrs. Ward3h 37m3.6 (17)$1 · $0.00
Towards the GoalHumphry Mrs. Ward4h 9m$2 · $0.00
The History of David GrieveHumphry Mrs. Ward24h$2 · $0.00
Fenwick's CareerHumphry Mrs. Ward9h 45m$2 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00