The Dream of Gerontius
1865
What happens when we die? Gerontius, an old man with breath failing and pulse waning, knows his time has come. In verse of staggering beauty and terror, Cardinal John Henry Newman imagines the soul's passage from the deathbed through the shadows of the afterlife, attended by a guardian angel and assailed by demons, toward the dread throne of judgment. This is no easy afterlife fantasy but a vision steeped in Catholic theology, where mercy and judgment intertwine, where the soul must account for every moment of its mortal life, and where the prayers of the living remain the dying's only sure hope. First published in 1865 and later set to music by Edward Elgar as his greatest choral masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius has moved readers and listeners for over a century. It speaks to anyone who has ever lain awake in the small hours, confronting the great silence that waits beyond this life.
