3 h 23 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does love become when a poet looks to the clouds for signs of beauty and comfort?
In The Angel in the Cloud, Edwin W. Fuller brings earthly love close to religious faith. This book of verse belongs to the devotional and romantic tradition of nineteenth-century American poetry. Its central stance is that of a watcher looking upward, seeking meaning in the heavens and asking how belief shapes human affection.
The title points to a figure seen in the sky, an image of beauty and comfort. Fuller’s poetic vision links love with the hope of heaven, treating affection as a gift that points beyond itself. For readers drawn to devotional poetry, the appeal lies in this meeting of intimate feeling and heavenly imagery.
What you’ll discover
- A gaze turned upward Follow a poetic imagination that looks to the heavens for meaning and comfort.
- Love beside faith Explore how romantic feeling and religious belief share a place within Fuller’s verse.
- The angel in view Consider the title’s skyward figure as an image of beauty and reassurance.
- Affection reaching beyond itself Encounter a vision of human love understood as a gift with spiritual meaning.
- Room for lingering Read slowly, letting each line finish before moving into the next.
Who will love it
Readers who love extended poems on great questions will enjoy its dream journey, vivid storms, heavenly gates, and quiet verse on grief and faith.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Doubt and faith belong together
- A storm unsettles nature's beauty
- Suffering puts Providence on trial
- Motives seem to imprison human freedom
- Human reason reaches its boundary
- Wonder opens another way of seeing
- Prosperity is no proof of goodness
- Faith enters the rooms of grief
- Humility connects questioning with faith
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The Angel in the Cloud
by Edwin W. Fuller · 1871
A man flees the August heat, lies down in an orchard, and rides a winged horse into a storm cloud.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture an August noon so hot that the birds pant in their cages and the fountain barely lifts its water. A young man lies down under an old orchard tree as a thunderstorm gathers on the mountains.
The Angel in the Cloud at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 5 min1 h 40 min fast, 2 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 29,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1871by Edwin W. Fuller
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
A Southern poet sets a plan for his readers
Edwin W. Fuller wrote from Louisburg, a small town in North Carolina. His book appeared in 1871, when the South was still living with the losses of the Civil War. Its poems carry dates from 1866 to 1875, so the book reads like a notebook of a young life. The last pieces belong to a husband and father who has learned that he is ill.
The preface gives the rule for reading it. Fuller believes the best way to deal with doubts is to state them and then answer them. In his title poem the doubts and the replies sit far apart. He regrets this, so he asks the reader to finish what he starts. Reading only the doubts would defeat his purpose, and reading only the answers would leave them without a reason.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1871
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Fuller, Edwin W. The Angel in the Cloud. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-angel-in-the-cloud.
Fuller, E. W. (2026). The angel in the cloud. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-angel-in-the-cloud (Original work published 1871)
Fuller, Edwin W. The Angel in the Cloud. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-angel-in-the-cloud.
@book{fuller2026angel,
author = {Fuller, Edwin W.},
title = {The Angel in the Cloud},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-angel-in-the-cloud},
note = {First published 1871}
}
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What is The Angel in the Cloud about?
It is a long poem in which a dreamer, troubled by storms and unfair suffering, travels in a cloud to Heaven. An Angel answers his doubts about Providence and free will, and shorter poems follow.
Who wrote The Angel in the Cloud and when?
Edwin W. Fuller of Louisburg, North Carolina wrote it. The preface bears the date January 1871, and the shorter poems carry dates between 1866 and 1875. The author died in 1876.
What does the Angel tell the dreamer?
The Angel says God's wisdom is larger than human sight. People are free, natural laws serve the common good, and goodness must be sought for itself. He urges humble trust over doubt.
The author
Edwin W. Fuller
American poet and novelist
Edwin Wiley Fuller was an American poet and novelist, born in Louisburg, North Carolina, in 1847. He wrote The Angel in the Cloud, a poem published in 1871, and Sea-Gift, a novel published in 1873. He lived in Louisburg, where he died in 1876 at the age of 28.
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