Robert Elsmere

Robert Elsmere is a young Oxford graduate whose fervent Christian faith leads him into the Anglican clergy and a rural parish in the Surrey countryside. He marries the devout Catherine Leyburn, and together they minister to the poor and the skeptical squire of the district. But when Elsmere encounters the writings of modern historians and the arguments of a brilliant freethinking neighbor, his faith begins to unravel. Torn between his love for his wife and his deepening intellectual convictions, he must decide whether to abandon the church he has served—and risk losing everything he holds dear. This faithful modern retelling preserves all the drama and moral seriousness of Mary Augusta Ward’s classic novel of a soul in crisis. It is a story of love, doubt, and the search for a faith that can survive the light of reason. Part of Timeless Classics.