Barriers Burned Away

Edward Payson Roe wrote this, his first novel, after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and the disaster becomes the story’s climax. Dennis Fleet arrives in Chicago poor and grieving after his father’s death, taking work in an art dealer’s store while pursuing an education and the affection of Christine Ludolph, his employer’s proud, cultured daughter. Faith, honest labor, and hardship slowly wear down the social and spiritual barriers between them until the city itself goes up in flames. Roe was a Presbyterian minister, and the book carries a plain evangelical earnestness that made it one of the runaway bestsellers of its day. A period romance and a vivid record of Chicago before and during the fire. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.