The Dearly Beloved

Charles Barrett is the son of a strict Harvard professor and a fun-loving mother. He loves comic books and baseball but also books and knowledge. He attends Harvard with a major in medieval history and, with summer approaching, goes to the library to buy comic books for his cousins. There, he meets a serious young woman named Lily, with whom he becomes fascinated. He also takes a class by an unconventional but engaging man named Tom Adams, of whose untraditional teaching Charles’s father disapproves despite their similar aim of promoting excellence. Tom’s class challenges Charles and forces him to think about his studies more critically.

Lily grew up in Maryville, Missouri, with an optimistic, close-knit family. She prefers being alone and reading. Her parents died in a car accident when she was 15, and afterward she lost much of her passion for reading as a pastime and threw herself into her studies. Her uncle and aunt allow her to go back to her childhood home, where she visits but finds it difficult to stay because of her grief. Her uncle gives Lily her parents’ will, in which they left their belongings, money, and house to her. She allows her relatives to take most of her parents’ clothes but becomes distressed by the reminders of her parents in the house. She tells her uncle that she wants to go to Boston for college, hoping she will escape her past there.

James MacNally grew up in a working-class family in Chicago with five siblings, a mother who worked for a telephone company, and a father who has post-traumatic stress disorder and an alcohol addiction after serving in the Vietnam War. James notices that other men who came back from the war appear to cope well with their lives as civilians. The sons of those men hope to escape their fathers’ fates and are also wary of alcohol, which James notices himself beginning to enjoy. After he turns 18, he must register for the draft and fears becoming like his father. He asks a young man who plans to join the military about this, and he replies that it is the only way out of their neighborhood. This makes James question whether he should join. At home, his Irish immigrant mother tells him that her brother, who almost became a priest but became a banker instead, wants to give James money for college; they both fear that James is in danger of becoming addicted to alcohol if he stays. James agrees and tells her that he will go.

Mary, or “Nan,” is a young minister’s daughter in Mississippi. Though she is privileged, her father instills in her a desire to help others and see herself as equal to those in lesser circumstances. She is devout in her faith and seeks to make both her father and God proud. She is slightly troubled when a man becomes too involved in the worship and takes off his clothes. Her father assures her that nothing is embarrassing or shameful about this, and her mother tells her to forget it happened. She treats the man as she always had but feels different for having seen him nude. When Nan is a senior in high school, her father tells her that he wants her to go to Wheaton College in Illinois instead of Ole Miss like the rest of her family. He wants her faith to be challenged so that it can grow. Nan agrees to go for at least one year and prays to God to show her his purpose.

After one class meeting, Tom Adams stops Charles and asks him if he is religious. Charles says he is not and recalls his father’s antitheism and reluctant church attendance to maintain a good reputation at the university. Tom encourages him to go to a lecture about faith in the Middle Ages, which confuses and interests Charles. There, Tom’s friend, a priest named Father Martin, talks about Joan of Arc and raises the question of whether Joan was truly a servant of God. He asks the students to consider the existence of God with their interest in medieval history. Following the lecture, Charles feels a pain inside him and then a sudden yearning to believe in and know God. He asks Tom if he believes in God, and Tom replies that he does not know. Charles agrees with Father Martin that he needs to believe that things can be understood, and this makes Tom glad. Charles tells his father that he wants to go to divinity school, which makes him happy because Charles will be able to chart his own scholarly path. Charles realizes that he does not want to become a professor and tells his father he wants to preach. Upset, his father leaves the house, but his mother assures Charles that he will accept it eventually. Charles knows this and begins his graduate education in theology.

Lily enjoys her education at Radcliffe, and after her visit home brings back her family’s grief at Christmas, she decides she will not return. She chooses to get her undergraduate and master’s degrees early and become a professor. In January 1956, she meets Charles, who has been thinking about her since he saw her in the library. He talks to her and tells her about their meeting before mentioning that he is attending divinity school. She replies that she does not believe in God, which takes him by surprise.

James attends the University of Chicago and befriends his roommate, Bill, whose lead James follows as he navigates college life. He finds his classes difficult and struggles with focusing solely on his studies. He realizes that he must be himself and starts partaking in social life with Bill, Bill’s girlfriend Millie, and their friends, enjoying drinks and allowing himself to finally relax.

Meanwhile, Nan is studying music at Wheaton and takes an interest in music composition. She recalls her love of music and her piano lessons, which started at 11, contrasting this with her mother’s strict upbringing concerning music. She enjoys her education and, thus, wants to mention little about it to her mother.

James attends a music recital, where he sees Nan as an accompanist. He becomes enamored with her and talks to her at the pub afterward. She tells him that she enjoyed the recital and was volunteering for a friend. He soon starts driving to Wheaton to see her. He decides that he must get a useful degree to be with her and asks for his uncle’s advice. He mentions something with philosophy and religion—as James is already studying philosophy—and then mentions law as well. James decides to become a lawyer. He and Nan continue to see each other, and they fall in love. She soon invites him to church but expresses worry about his nonreligious background and disinterest in the worship service. She loves him but is unwilling to compromise her faith in God