Robert Elsmere

A violin’s “triumphant shakes and turns” sweep across a quiet Westmoreland valley, drowning out the river and wind. At Burwood Farm, the old life has given way to something new—and Agnes Leyburn is taking her ease beneath an apple-tree with a Persian cat.

In late-Victorian England, amid the stark green fells and changing households of the north, Robert Elsmere is an Oxford clergyman whose faith is unsettled by the writings of German rationalists. As the beliefs that once guided him come under pressure, he must decide what remains of his vocation—and what he owes to people in need. Can a man surrender old certainties without surrendering his purpose?

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