Several critics have noted the close affinity between The Damnation of Theron Ware and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), in terms of allegory, symbolism, and the relationship between science and religion. Hawthorne's novel is set in Puritan Boston, where a woman convicted of adultery is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing.

Frederic admired Stephen Crane's novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895). Like The Damnation of Theron Ware, it features a young protagonist who finds himself suddenly thrust into a new situation in which he must learn more about life and about himself. But for Crane's protagonist, Henry Fleming, the scene is not a village in New York but a Civil War battlefield.

Elmer Gantry (1927), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satire of fundamentalist religion that caused a storm of controversy when first published. Set in the Midwest, the...