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''Robert Elsmere'' is a novel by Mrs. Humphry Ward published in 1888. It was immediately successful, quickly selling over a million copies and gaining the admiration of Henry James.〔Ashton, Rosemary (1989). "Doubting Clerics: From James Anthony Froude to Robert Elsmere via George Eliot." In: Jasper, David, and T.R. Wright, ''The Critical Spirit and the Will to Believe: Essays in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Religion.'' New York: St. Martins Press, p. 72.〕 ==Background== Inspired by the religious crises of early Victorian clergymen such as her father Tom Arnold, Arthur Hugh Clough, and James Anthony Froude (particularly as expressed in the last's novel ''The Nemesis of Faith''), it is about an Oxford clergyman who begins to doubt the doctrines of the Anglican Church after encountering the writings of German rationalists like Schelling and David Strauss.〔Peterson, William S. (1976). ''Victorian Heretic: Mrs Humphry Ward's Robert Elsmere''. New York: Humanities; Leicester: Leicester University Press.〕〔Prickett, Stephen (1988). "Biblical Prophecy and Nineteenth Century Historicism: The Joachimite Third Age in Matthew and Mary Augusta Arnold," ''Literature and Theology,'' Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 219–236.〕 Instead of succumbing to atheism or Roman Catholicism, however, Elsmere takes up a "constructive liberalism" (which Ward received from Thomas Hill Green)〔Richer, Melvin (1956). "T. H. Green and His Audience: Liberalism as a Surrogate Faith," ''Review of Politics,'' Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 444–472.〕 stressing social work amongst the poor and uneducated. Ward was inspired to write ''Robert Elsmere'' after hearing a sermon by John Wordsworth in which he argued that religious unsettlement, such as that experienced in England throughout the nineteenth century, leads to sin; Ward decided to respond by creating a sympathetic, loosely fictionalized account of the people involved in this unsettlement at the present, including her friends Benjamin Jowett, Mark Pattison, and her uncle Matthew Arnold.〔Ashton (1989), pp. 83–84.〕 The novel was the subject of a famous review by William Ewart Gladstone in which he criticized the novel's advocacy of the "dissociation of the moral judgment from a special series of religious formulae."〔Gladstone, W.E. (1888). ("'Robert Elsmere' and the Battle of Belief," ) ''The Nineteenth Century'', Vol. 23, pp. 766–788.〕〔Peterson, William S. (1970). "Gladstone's Review of Robert Elsmere: Some Unpublished Correspondence," ''The Review of English Studies'', Vol. 21, No. 84, pp. 442–461.〕〔Towheed, Shafquat. (1997). "W.E. Gladstone’s Reception of Robert Elsmere: A Critical Re-Evaluation," ''English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920,'' Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 389–397.〕〔Erb, Peter C. (2001). "Politics and Theological Liberalism: William Gladstone and Mrs Humphry Ward," ''Journal of Religious History,'' Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 158–172.〕 In a more jocular manner, Oscar Wilde in his essay "The Decay of Lying" famously quipped that ''Robert Elsmere'' was "simply Arnold's ''Literature and Dogma'' with the literature left out."〔Ashton (1989), p. 73.〕 The novel was a runaway best-seller,〔Bassett, Troy J. and Christina M. Walter (2001). "Booksellers and Bestsellers: British Book Sales as Documented by ''The Booksman'', 1891-1906," ''Book History'' 4, pp. 205–236.〕 but it may have suffered the same fate as other Victorian era novels dealing with crises of faith had it not been for Ward's sensitive treatment of the subject. It was revolutionary in the nineteenth century when readers were acutely sensitive to anything they saw as blasphemy,〔Morsberger, Robert E. & Katharine M., (1980). ''Lew Wallace: Militant Romantic''. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, p. 293.〕 and the presence of Jesus Christ in any but serious scholarly and devotional books was taboo. Then Lew Wallace included him in his novel ''Ben-Hur'' less than a decade before Ward published ''Robert Elsmere''. This broke new ground but it was successful only because Wallace portrayed him as the Savior.〔Mott, Frank Luther (1947). ''Golden Multitudes, The Story of Best Sellers in the United States.'' New York: The Macmillan Company, p. 172-73.〕 Had Wallace followed his original purpose to portray Jesus as a mere man, he might have undergone the attacks that were then launched at Ward. ''Robert Elsmere'' generated enormous interest from intellectuals and agnostics who saw it as a liberating tool for liberating times and from those of faith who saw it as another step in the advancement of apostasy or ism. Like so many big-sellers, though, it was pirated and sales of the unauthorized editions matched or surpassed those of the authorized. The book was out of print for twenty-five years, but was republished as a scholarly edition in 2013 which includes extracts from Gladstone's review.〔Ward, Mrs Humphry, ''Robert Elsmere'', ed. by Miriam E. Burstein (Brighton: Victorian Secrets, 2013)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Elsmere」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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