Ethel's trial : $b in becoming a missionary
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2025-12-12 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77449 |
Description
"The homosexual in literature" by Noel I. Garde is a bibliographic and critical survey written in the mid-20th century. It likely catalogs and evaluates depictions of homosexuality across eras and genres, offering annotations, thematic analysis, and guidance for readers and researchers interested in how authors encoded, debated, or represented same-sex desire in print. The opening of this work follows Ethel Dalton, a well-brought-up but intensely timid girl living with her sister and brother-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Ray, in Ironton, as her missionary brother Henry arrives home. After Ethel panics at the sight of a foundry boy admiring their flowers—who proves kind and dutiful—Henry gently but firmly challenges her habitual fears, tying courage to Christian usefulness. A nighttime scare, caused by Ethel bolting the doctor out and mistaking his return for burglars, deepens her shame. In a long, searching talk, Henry links persistent cowardice to a lack of trust in God and reveals he had hoped to take her to Persia to assist in mission schools—plans he says her fears would thwart. He then begins “prospecting” a local Sunday-school among foundry families, where Ethel’s panic over a dog and cow ends in a public fall but also introduces them to the good-hearted Trim family, with whom plans for a neighborhood mission take shape. Ethel, stung yet drawn to do good, offers to help but is confronted by how her fears would undercut her role; as she tries to compensate with church work, her spiritual dryness grows, and the section closes with her telling small untruths and inwardly resisting the admission of fault. (This is an automatically generated summary.)