“The Cynic puts all human actions into only two classes, — openly bad, and secretly bad. All virtue, and generosity, and disinterestedness, are merely the appearance of good, but selfish at the bottom. He holds that no man does a good thing except for profit.” — H. W. BEECHER.

Joseph Hocking is the Lutheran Librarian’s favorite Christian novelist. During his lifetime he was widely read and greatly beloved throughout the English speaking world. Most of his books deal in some way with the struggles and conflicts of living as a Christian in the modern world.

The Lutheran Library is republishing many of Joseph Hocking’s novels. If you have any of Hocking’s 50 “lost” books, please contact us.

Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed.

Book Contents

• About The Author
• Contents

Part 1. Education.

• 1 Luke Edgcumbe, Cynic.
• 2 Uncle And Nephew.
• 3 Dreams And Visions.
• 4 Love’s Young Dream.
• 5 The Cynic’s Religion.
• 6 Ralph Hussey’s Gratitude.
• 7 The Cynic’s Views About Professions.
• 8 Stephens Coach.
• 9 The Question Of Marriage From A Cynic’s Stand-point.

Part 2. Ordeal.

• 1 Disillusionment.
• 2 The Parting Of The Ways.
• 3 Shrimp.
• 4 A Saturday Night In Battersea.
• 5 Sunday In Battersea.
• 6 The Cynics Views On Literature.
• 7 Current Morality.
• 8 Unconventional Society.
• 9 The Coming Night.
• 10 The Morality Of The “ Deserving Poor (?) ”
• 11 A Wife’s Faithfulness.
• 12 A Look At Hell.
• 13 The March Of Events.
• 14 The Last Straw.
• 15 After Five Years.
• 16 Fifteen Chainly Alley.
• 17 A Product Of Cynicism.
• 18 Stephen’s Story, — And After.
• 19 The Logic Of Pessimism.

Part 3. Hope.

• 1 Beginnings.
• 2 “I Bid You Hope.”
• 3 Struggling Upward.
• 4 The Curse Of The Past.
• 5 Hopes And Fears.
• 6 How Stephen Paid His Debt.
• 7 Back To Work Again.
• 8 The Refining Fire.

Publication Information

• Lutheran Library edition first published: 2023
• Copyright: CC BY 4.0