James Anthony Froude
In 1849, James Anthony Froude published his novel The Nemesis of Faith, a work that would mark a significant moment in his early career as a writer working in the English language.
Born on 23 April 1818 in Dartington, Froude was educated at Westminster School and subsequently at Oriel College. He was ordained as a deacon and served as a priest, though his career would encompass a range of intellectual pursuits well beyond the church. Over the course of his life he worked as a historian, novelist, and essayist, producing writing that spanned multiple genres. His work in biography also formed part of his literary output, reflecting the breadth of his engagement with historical and literary subjects.
Among his most substantial undertakings was the History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, a large-scale work of historical writing that drew on his identity as a historian and his command of the English language. He also served as editor of Fraser's Magazine, a position that placed him at the center of literary and intellectual publishing in Britain during his tenure. As a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Froude worked throughout his career within the cultural and institutional life of his country.
Froude died on 20 October 1894 in Kingsbridge, bringing to a close a career that had moved from early fiction and theological controversy through ambitious historical scholarship and editorial work. The Library of Congress Name Authority records him under the authorized label "Froude, James Anthony, 1818-1894," a form of recognition that reflects the lasting documentary presence of his contributions as a historian, novelist, essayist, and editor within the English-language literary and historical tradition.
Quotes by James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude's insights on:
No person is ever good for much, that hasn't been swept off their feet by enthusiasm between ages twenty and thirty.
In every department of life – in its business and in its pleasures, in its beliefs and in its theories, in its material developments and in its spiritual connections – we thank God that we are not like our fathers.
The soul of man is not a thing which comes and goes, is builded and decays like the elemental frame in which it is set to dwell, but a very living force, a very energy of God’s organic will, which rules and moulds this universe.
There are at bottom but two possible religions – that which rises in the moral nature of man, and which takes shape in moral commandments, and that which grows out of the observation of the material energies which operate in the external universe.
Women’s eyes are rapid in detecting a heart which is ill at ease with itself, and, knowing the value of sympathy, and finding their own greatest happiness not in receiving it, but in giving it, with them to be unhappy is at once to be interesting.
What is called virtue in the common sense of the word has nothing to do with this or that man’s prosperity, or even happiness.
No person is ever good for much, that hasn’t been swept off their feet by enthusiasm between ages twenty and thirty.
The secret of a person’s nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.
Instead of man to love, we have a man-god to worship. From being the example of devotion, he is its object; the religion of Christ ended with his life, and left us instead but the Christian religion.