Mrs. Ward, Humphry 1851-1920: Critical Essay by Major Works

Ward's works largely comprise moralistic considerations of various issues that engaged Victorian society. Her most famous novel, Robert Elsmere, details the theological crisis of an Anglican clergyman who renounces his faith and devotes himself to performing charitable works. In the story Elsmere is plagued by doubts regarding the miraculous underpinnings of Christian doctrine and finally settles on a simplified version of Christianity that rejects Christ's divinity. Elsmere resigns his country parish and moves to London, where he establishes a new church and begins offering assistance to the neighborhood poor. Often viewed as an attack on evangelical Christianity, Robert Elsmere typifies Ward's works in that it promotes spiritual independence and social improvement at the expense of traditional religious institutions and beliefs. Religious questions provided the basis for such later novels as Helbeck of Bannisdale (1898), in which a Roman Catholic faces a crisis of faith when he falls in love with a skeptic, and The Case of Richard Meynell (1911), a sequel to Robert Elsmere. Other novels combine romantic interest with questions of political or social reform, including women's suffrage and concepts of feminine duty. Ward also wrote a number of works based on historic characters, notably The Marriage of William Ashe (1905), which was inspired by the affair of Lord Byron with Lady Caroline Lamb. During the First World War, Ward undertook a series of articles at the request of Theodore Roosevelt that were later collected and published as England's Effort (1916), Towards the Goal (1917), and Fields of Victory (1919).

Read the rest of this Criticism with our Mrs. Ward, Humphry 1851-1920: Critical Essay by Major Works Access Pass.