I got interested in the book When it was Dark, written by Guy Thorne and first published in 1903 because it was mentioned in a speech by Christopher Hitchens as an example of what people believe would happen to the world without religion. In my opinion, this Christian novel is quite an interesting reading. The book was written in 1903, and it shows. As expected, religious people are the good guys, while atheists are the bad guys. The central assumption of the book is that people, without religion, are mostly incapable of moral behavior. As a work of fiction, the author doesn’t have to prove this assumption, he uses it as a base to develop the plot. Other assumptions showing the age of the novel are the roles and descriptions of female characters. There is no point in accusing the author of sexism or bigotry (as some reviewers do), he was a man of his time. It is much more interesting to read the book and observe how much our culture changed (improved) in 100 years.
BTW, the Kindle edition of “When it was Dark” is free!
Franco Folini 