8 h 55 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when love becomes worship, and the past refuses to stay in shadow?
In Idolatry, his 1874 Gothic romance, Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, brings love close to danger through obsession, ancient mysteries, and forbidden feeling. The title points toward worship given to the wrong thing: a person, a dream, or an idea that can take hold of the mind.
This Victorian romance belongs to a tradition of old secrets, shadowed settings, and strong passions. Its slower pace gives mood and scenery room to unfold. Hawthorne invites a patient reading, one that makes space for openly expressed feeling and the troubling pull of the past.
What you’ll discover
- Love close to danger Explore a Gothic romance where forbidden love and obsession bring desire into unsettling territory.
- The meaning of idolatry Consider the title's troubling suggestion: devotion can fasten on the wrong person, dream, or idea.
- A past that presses Enter a tradition where ancient mysteries give present feelings a deeper, darker weight.
- Atmosphere worth lingering in Take time with shadowed settings and descriptions that let mood gather around strong emotion.
- Feeling in the open Meet a Victorian style that states passion plainly rather than keeping it carefully hidden.
Who will love it
Readers who love gothic atmosphere, Egyptian relics and a narrator with a sly wink will find plenty here. It also suits anyone drawn to stories of pride, guilt and love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two strangers almost meet
- The ring carries a hidden wrong
- Family questions disturb Balder’s confidence
- Pride welcomes a dangerous promise
- Violence breaks Balder’s belief in himself
- Gnulemah mistakes a man for God
- Honesty begins where worship ends
- Every idol makes someone its servant
- Love and confession answer false gods
Who’s who
- Balder HelwyseA tall, yellow-bearded philosopher and eye doctor who dreams of godlike knowledge and goes searching for his uncle.
- GnulemahA young woman raised behind a wall who knows only nature, believes her life is a lamp, and trusts without doubt.
- ManethoAn Egyptian-born clergyman, adopted by Doctor Glyphic, gentle in manner and driven by an old hidden grudge.
- Hiero GlyphicAn eccentric antiquarian who built an Egyptian temple in New Jersey and walled himself off from the world.
- Amos MacGentleThe kind, dreamy old president of the Beacon Hill Bank, a friend of Balder's father.
- Mr. DykeMacGentle's blunt, sharp-memoried clerk, a family man who guards the door and corrects the president's facts.
- NurseA silent, scarred old woman who keeps the walled house and watches Balder with one bright eye.
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Idolatry in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Idolatry
by Julian Hawthorne · 1874
A foggy steamer, a diamond ring and a walled garden pull Balder Helwyse toward a woman named Gnulemah.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Sin is culture!”
In short
What if two names written a line apart could decide a whole life? In a Boston hotel in late May 1853, Balder Helwyse signs the register at the top of page one hundred.
Idolatry at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 20 min4 h 15 min fast, 6 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 76,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1874by Julian Hawthorne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two hotel rooms and one sleeping stranger
The book opens in a granite hotel in Boston. The narrator leads you into Room 27 at two in the morning. There lies Doctor Hiero Glyphic, asleep, with the door locked and a black violin case beside the bed. A diamond ring on his finger can tell its own history to anyone who looks closely. The narrator promises to keep to plain truth and avoid the supernatural, but his pledge is already half broken.
Next door, in Room 29, Balder Helwyse wakes at half past four on a bright May morning. He is tall, with yellow hair and a great beard, and he loves being alive. Through the wall he hears a violin played with a master's touch. He decides to invite the player to breakfast, but the fiddler leaves before Balder is dressed, and the two miss each other by minutes.
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Which edition is right for me
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1874
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hawthorne, Julian. Idolatry. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/idolatry.
Hawthorne, J. (2026). Idolatry. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/idolatry (Original work published 1874)
Hawthorne, Julian. Idolatry. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/idolatry.
@book{hawthorne2026idolatry,
author = {Hawthorne, Julian},
title = {Idolatry},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/idolatry},
note = {First published 1874}
}
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What is Idolatry by Julian Hawthorne about?
It follows Balder Helwyse, a proud young philosopher who comes to Boston looking for his eccentric uncle. A fateful night on a steamer, a magic diamond ring and a walled house with a mysterious young woman draw him into a story of guilt and love.
What does the diamond ring with two serpents mean?
The gold and black iron serpents bite at the diamond from opposite sides, which the narrator calls a symbol of the human soul fought over by good and evil. The ring also records its own past, so it links the characters across the years.
Who is Gnulemah in Idolatry?
Gnulemah is a young woman who has grown up inside a brick wall, dressed in ancient Egyptian style. She believes her life is a lamp and that people beyond the wall are shadows, and she meets Balder with complete trust.
The author
Julian Hawthorne
1846–1934 · American novelist and journalist
Julian Hawthorne was an American novelist and journalist, born in Boston in 1846. He was the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody Hawthorne. He wrote novels, short stories, biographies, and journalism. His novel Idolatry appeared in 1874. He lived in Europe and the United States and died in San Francisco in 1934.
“Sin is culture!”
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