The Cloister and the Hearth was published by Trübner in 1861, and it is Reade’s undisputed masterpiece — the one book by which he is remembered, and one of the finest historical novels in the English language. The novel tells the story of Gerard Eliassoen, a young Dutchman of artistic talent and scholarly ambition, who falls in love with Margaret Brandt. Their love is opposed by Gerard’s family, and Gerard is forced to flee, embarking on a picaresque journey across fifteenth-century Europe that takes him from Holland through the dark forests of Germany, across the Alps, through the corrupt splendor of Renaissance Italy, to Rome itself.
The historical research is prodigious. Reade spent years reading chronicles, letters, and documents from the period, and his recreation of late medieval and early Renaissance life is packed with authentic detail — the food, the roads, the inns, the dangers of travel, the structure of the church, the state of medicine, the texture of daily life in a world before printing, before Protestantism, before the modern state. The novel contains some of the most vivid adventure writing in Victorian fiction: Gerard’s escape from a tower, his battle with a bear, his encounter with bandits in the forests of Germany, his near-drowning crossing a river — each episode is rendered with the pace and immediacy of the best picaresque tradition.
The deeper theme is the conflict that gives the novel its title: the cloister (the monastic life of celibacy and scholarship) versus the hearth (domestic love and family). Gerard, tricked into believing Margaret is dead, takes religious vows and becomes a monk, eventually rising to become a respected churchman. When he discovers that Margaret is alive and that he has a son, he must choose between his vows and his love — a choice that destroys his happiness either way. The son, we learn, will grow up to be Erasmus of Rotterdam — the great humanist who tried to reform the church from within, a man suspended, like his father, between the cloister and the hearth.
Collecting The Cloister and the Hearth
First edition (Trübner, London, 1861): Four volumes in cloth. Rare in complete sets. The novel was first serialized in Once a Week in 1861.
Market values:
- First edition, four volumes, good condition: $500–$2,000
- Single-volume Victorian editions: $20–$60
- Illustrated editions (various, late 19th century): $30–$100
- Modern reprints: $5–$15