Garner, Stanton. “The Damnation of Theron Ware,
or Illumination: The Title of Harold Frederic’s
Novel.” Proof: The Yearbook of American Bibliographical
and Textual Studies. Vol. 5 Ed. Joseph Katz. New York: J.
Faust, 1979. 57-66.
Jolliff, William. “Frederic’s The Damnation
of Theron Ware.” The Explicator 47.2 (1989):
37-38.
Garner, Stanton. “The Damnation of Theron Ware,
or Illumination: The Title of Harold Frederic’s
Novel.” Proof: The Yearbook of American Bibliographical
and Textual Studies. Ed. Joseph Katz. Vol. 5. New York: J.
Faust, 1979. 57-66.
Garner’s chapter is a textual analysis that focuses upon
the title of Harold Frederic’s “finest novel” (57),
published simultaneously as The Damnation of Theron Ware in
the United States and as Illumination in England. Garner
examines “the
possibility that one title should have priority over the other”
and produces evidence for both arguments: either the different
titles were intentional, meant “to attract the two distinct
bodies of readers to whom the novel was offered for sale,”
or the Damnation title was unintended, printed in error
(58). Evidence supporting the former argument includes the fact
that (1) Frederic, in correspondence, referred to the novel as
“The Damnation of Theron Ware” nearly two
years before its publication in the U.S., (2) he did not change
the Damnation title on the publisher’s proofs,
and (3) the two different titles appear on the title pages of
the U.S. and English original editions. However, evidence supporting
the argument that the Damnation title was appended
in error includes (1) literary gossip appearing in the London
Daily Chronicle, The New York Times, The
Critic,
and The Review of Reviews as little as two months after
the novel’s publication, (2) the addition of the English
title as a subtitle to later American editions, (3) Frederic’s
habit of making changes to his compositions up to the last
possible
moment, and (4) his documented difficulty in selecting titles
for his works. Garner judges the evidence to be in favor of Illumination
as Frederic’s preferred choice of title: “A return
to Illumination would in all probability rectify an
error which has for nearly eight decades misrepresented Frederic’s
final intention” (65).
Jolliff, William. “Frederic’s The Damnation of
Theron Ware.” The Explicator 47.2 (1989):
37-38.
Jolliff’s textual approach to Frederic’s novel
reveals that one of the working titles for The Damnation
of Theron Ware was “Snarl,” a term popularly
interpreted as suggesting the tangled relationships of the novel’s
characters. Jolliff offers another explanation. In his note,
he suggests the title “would
direct the reader to consider the beast within Theron Ware”
and points to the “abundance of animal imagery” in
the novel. Dr. Ledsmar renames one of his lizard specimens “the
Rev. Theron Ware,” and “Theron’s name derives
from a Greek word meaning ‘wild beast.’” At
his lowest point, Theron Ware bemoans to Sister Soulsby, “[I]sn’t
there any God at all—but only men who live and die
like animals?” (37). Ware likens himself to a “mongrel
cur,” one that Sister Soulsby threatens with a “good
cuffing” if he does not shape up (38). Jolliff concludes
that such an interpretation of the working title “Snarl”
must certainly have been deliberate on the part of the author.
