The Nemesis of Faith

J.A. Froude’s powerful philosophical novel tells the story of Marcus Sutherland, a young priest whose crisis of faith has tragic consequences for himself and those close to him. One of the most controversial and influential novels of the Victorian period, it crystalized the agonising doubt that characterised reactions to recent developments in thinking about science, history and theology – and about humanity’s position in an apparently indifferent, amoral universe. More than a novel of religious ideas, however, Froude’s work is also an intensely moving coming of age story, whose vivid depiction of a loss of intellectual innocence remains tremendously effective.