Abide with Me (novel)
Abide with Me is a 2006 novel (ISBN 1-4000-6207-1) by Elizabeth Strout.
Literary significance and reception
The novel received mixed reviews from critics. Atlantic Monthly said that "this lovely second novel confirms Strout as the possessor of an irresistibly companionable, peculiarly American voice: folksy, poetic, but always as precise as a shadow on a brilliant winter day."Publishers Weekly said in their review of Abide with Me that "the uplifting ending arrives too easily, but on the whole, Strout has crafted a harrowing meditation of exile on Main Street."Kirkus Reviews was critical of the book saying that "most of the characters in this novel are fundamentally bewildered, and many of them are quite bitter as well. The narrator's folksy tone does nothing to enliven this dispiriting story; the overall effect is rather like listening to a slightly cantankerous maiden aunt dispensing local gossip."
Notes
Abide with Me
"Abide with Me" is a Christian hymn by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte most often sung to English composer William Henry Monk's tune entitled "Eventide".
Lyte wrote the poem in 1847 and set it to music while he lay dying from tuberculosis; he survived only a further three weeks after its completion.
The hymn was hugely popular in the trenches of the First World War, and sung by Nurse Edith Cavell the night before the Germans shot her for helping British soldiers to escape from occupied Belgium.
The song is a great favourite of the Royal Family and was played at the weddings of both George VI to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and their daughter Elizabeth II to Prince Philip Mountbatten.
Lyrics
The hymn is a prayer for God to remain present with the speaker throughout life, through trials, and through death. The opening line alludes to Luke 24:29, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent", and the penultimate verse draws on text from 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?":
Abide with Me (play)
Abide with Me is a 1935 play by American playwright Clare Boothe Luce.
External links
Abide with Me (disambiguation)
Abide with Me is a Christian hymn composed by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847.
Abide with Me may also refer to:
Podcasts:
