Initiation

The fifth of Robert Hugh Benson's "mainstream" novels, first published in 1914, "Initiation" relates a man's redemption, or initiation into his full humanity, through pain. The novel explores the different types of pain with which people are afflicted - spiritual, psychological, and physical - none of it deserved, yet all of it leading to greater self-awareness and understanding of what it means to be human. Despite the grimness of the theme, the novel is both entertaining and profound. This edition features a foreword by Benson scholar Michael D. Greaney.