A Day Of Fate

by Edward Payson Roe

1880. The book begins: Another month's work will knock Morton into pi, was a remark that caught my ear as I fumed from the composing-room back to my private office. I had just irately blamed a printer for a blunder of my own, and the words I overheard reminded me of the unpleasant truth that I had recently made a great many senseless blunders, over which I chafed in merciless self-condemnation. For weeks and months my mind had been tense under the strain of increasing work and responsibility. It was my nature to become absorbed in my tasks, and, as night editor of a prominent city journal, I found a limitless field for labor. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Reverend Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888) was an American novelist born in Moodna, Orange County, New York. He studied at Williams College and at Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1862 he became chaplain of the Second New York Cavalry, U.S. V., and in 1864 chaplain of Hampton Hospital, in Virginia. In 1866-74 he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Highland Falls, New York. In 1874 he moved to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, where he devoted himself to the writing of fiction and to horticulture. During the American Civil War he wrote weekly letters to the New York Evangelist, and subsequently lectured on the war and wrote for periodicals. Amongst his works are Barriers Burned Away (1872), What Can She Do? (1873), Opening a Chestnut Burr (1874), Near to Nature's Heart (1876), A Face Illumined (1878), Success with Small Fruits (1880), A Day of Fate (1880), Without a Home (1881), An Unexpected Result (1883), His Sombre Rivals (1884), A Young Girl's Wooing (1884), An Original Belle (1885), He Fell in Love with His Wife (1886), Driven Back to Eden (1886) and The Earth Trembled (1887).

Reviews

[Anete Ābola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't take your theology from this.

With that being said, I enjoyed the story. Edward P. Roe has a way with words. That 19th century banter and that close and deep scrutiny of mind, heart and soul that comes only by knowing human character was fun to listen to (on Librivox). Made me smile on more than one occasion.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story follows Richard Morton, an overworked newspaper man who stumbles into a Quaker meeting house, falls in love with a vision of beauty in the personage of young Quakeress Adah Yocomb. As fate would decree, her mother is the leader of the meeting house and the Yocombs invite him home to dinner, and to stay with them as long as he needs to.

Richard quickly shifts his affections from his dream girl, to the very real woman also staying with the Yocombs, Miss Emily Warren. The rest of the tale is taken up with Richard’s raptures at all that Miss Warren is. And her in turn teasing him, mocking him, spurring him on to better, more honest wholesome ways, and finally revealing the truth that she is engaged to be married.

What follows of course is the struggle that ensues as they both try to be honourable, but continue to wrestle with their feelings for one another. The book ends of course in a happily ever after, agreeable to all.

While not inherently dull, it is redundant. Like a hymn that’s supposed to have four verses, this ones goes well beyond with say, 95 verses. The book is all written from Richard’s perspective, and at 367 pages he has a lot to share. It’s interesting, but moves so slowly. And, it’s very Victorian. You just have to be prepared for that from the get go. I can’t say much for their faith. While the Yocomb’s seem to genuinely know God, you don’t ever get the sense that Richard does. I wished that being with the Yocombs would have brought both Richard and Emily to faith, but that seems unimportant. Which, feels surprising given that the book is written by a Reverend. The most telling line seemed to be this… “ ‘I must either renounce heathenism or get away from your (Mrs. Yocomb’s) influence’… But to tell the truth, I was too far gone in human idolatry to think long upon her words, but they lodged in my memory, and I trust will never lose their influence.”

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Day of Fate is a novel by Edward Payson Roe written in 1880. It is also one of the most boring books I've ever read. I've read that one of his consistent criticisms that his work resembled sermons. I could have used a sermon during the part of the book where he went to church, or not church really, I think they called it a meeting. They were there for an hour or so and no one talked. No one, ever. They just sat there looking straight ahead. So did I. So I got to read every little unimportant thought that went through our main character's head while he sat there silently, never looking around, never moving, for what seemed like forever.

Oh, there is a story to it when they aren't sitting around saying nothing, which happens often. Or when they sit around talking which ends up really not saying anything anyway, which also happens often. Our main character goes home with a family from that silent meeting and falls in love with a girl living there, who is in love with someone else, but the daughter living there falls in love with him, and everyone always calls each other by first and last name, which gets on my nerves, and says thee and thou, which also gets on my nerves, and all the love affairs going on aren't much better than the silence, and I can't say much of how it ends because, and this is unusual for me, I gave up around the halfway mark. I would say maybe I'll give it another try someday, but seeing how bored I was I can't imagine remembering it long enough to remember to read it over again. On to a more interesting book.