Part I
The first section, set mainly in Paterson, New Jersey, is centered on Clarence Wilmot, a minister in his forties who abruptly loses his faith one very hot afternoon shortly before a dinner party. His loss of faith is presented as coinciding with the fainting spell of the 17 year old silent film actress Mary Pickford, who is at local landmark Lambert Castle making a film with D.W. Griffith. His decision to leave the ministry has serious social and financial consequences for his wife and three children, 16 year old Jared, 14 year old Esther and 10 year old Ted. Unable to find work suitable for a man of his education, Clarence is reduced to selling encyclopedias door to door, a job he performs poorly. Growing more and more depressed and withdrawn, he only finds solace in the nickelodeon cinemas of the time and dies prematurely.
Read more about this topic: In The Beauty Of The Lilies
Famous quotes related to part i:
“For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer’s gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)