Inspirational romances are like hot chocolate on a rainy winter day. They’re sweet, uplifting love stories about characters who are trying to find true love, raise happy families, and live a good life. Even though the genre is rooted in Christianity, they allow room for characters who doubt and for characters who sin. What they don’t allow room for is graphic sex or violence, which is why I love them. When I pick one up, I know I’m going to read something that will warm my heart and touch my soul. Some of the earliest inspirational novels were written by women during the nineteenth century when faith-based fiction was not just a sub-genre—it was the norm. These stories are true historical fiction, and some of them are now available for free as part of Project Gutenberg.
1) Susan Warner (1819-1885), a descendent of Puritan Pilgrims, wrote thirty novels under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. Her fiction portrays rural domestic life with an emphasis on faith and morality. She wrote her first novel The Wide, Wide World in response to her family’s financial struggles, and it became a best seller. The Wide, Wide World is about Ellen Montgomery, a young, naïve girl sent to live with her cruel aunt. She faces numerous obstacles that conspire to undermine her faith, but with the help of her good friend Alice Humphreys, a minister’s daughter, she trusts in God and finds love and her own happy ending.
Random Fact: At Susan’s request, her sister Anna Bartlett Warner wrote the first verse of the popular hymn “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” which was popular with West Point cadets. Susan was buried at West Point.
2) Augusta Jane Evans Wilson (1835-1909) was raised in the South and lived in Georgia, Texas, and Alabama. Like Susan Warner, her writing career began, in part, as a result of her father’s financial losses. She wrote novels inspired by social and political issues of the time, such as the Civil War. Her most popular novel, St. Elmo, describes the sexual tension between a bluestocking female named Edna Earl and a misanthropic bad boy hero named St. Elmo Murray. Eventually, Edna converts St. Elmo with her religious arguments and strong faith, and they live happily ever after.
Random Fact: Augusta Jane Evans Wilson was the first female American author to make over $100,000 on her writing. She sold over a million copies of St. Elmo in the first four months after it was published, ending her family’s financial woes following the Civil War.
3) Mary Jane Holmes (1825-1907) was a quiet literary powerhouse largely ignored by the male critics of her time, despite publishing 39 novels and numerous short stories. She sold over 250,000 copies of her first novel, Tempest and Sunshine, which is about two sisters—one good and one bad—and the choices they make on their path to faith and love. While Holmes’ novels are not overtly religious, moral issues are an important theme grappled with by her characters, and Holmes was herself an active Episcopalian.
Random Fact: Holmes sold over two million books in her lifetime and was second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe in overall sales.
4) Grace Livingston Hill (1865-1947), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, sold her first novel, Chautauqua Idyl, in order to finance a family vacation. Despite a turbulent personal life—including the death of her first husband and a failed second marriage to a much younger man—she continued to use writing as a way to supplement her income, and eventually published over 100 novels, most of which dealt with the themes of good versus evil and the potential for redemption. In Marcia Schuyler, one of her early popular novels, seventeen-year-old Marcia enters a loveless marriage with an older man named David out of duty to her family after her selfish sister Kate jilts him and runs off with another man. When Kate comes back, a love triangle ensues.
Random Fact: At 39-years-old, Grace married a 24-year-old church organist who was rumored to be verbally abusive. Grace didn’t believe in divorce, but her husband eventually left, and she stopped using his surname.
5) Myrtle Reed (1874-1911) was a novelist, poet, and journalist. As the daughter of a preacher, she wanted to influence young women indirectly through the subtle religious philosophy portrayed in her fiction. Despite her literary success, she believed in the importance of domestic life for females. She eventually married her Canadian pen-pal and settled into a flat in Chicago, where sadly she ended up overdosing on sleeping medication used to treat her chronic insomnia. Set at the turn of the century, her novel Lavender and Old Lace is a romantic mystery that details the love lives of Miss Jane Hathaway and her niece Rose Thorne. The novel eventually became a popular play.
Random Fact: Myrtle Reed’s suicide letter was published in the local paper the day after she died. She left her maid $1,000 and blamed her husband for her death.
Hot chocolate image courtesy of striatic via Flickr
Brittany is a freelance writer, aspiring novelist and small business owner who hopes that heaven will be like a bookstore with an endless supply of free books, free coffee and super comfy chairs.
