SOURCE: "Newman as Novelist," in The Novel and The Oxford Movement, Princeton University Press, 1932, pp. 54-68.

In the following essay, Baker discusses Newman 's novels, Loss and Gain and Callista as partly autobiographical reflections on spiritual faith as an "inner drama. "

John Henry Newman wrote two novels, both portraying a development of mind somewhat similar to his own,—a development which, for him, culminated in one of the most important events in the history of the Church since the Reformation, his conversion to Rome. Since fiction is freer than history, some of Newman's spiritual experiences are suggested here that are not set forth in the Apologia. Loss and Gain appeared in 1848, only three years after his conversion, and it reflects immediately the Oxford phase of the Movement. In the summer of 1847, some tale directed against the converts to the Catholic faith had been sent to Newman. "Its contents...