Overview
The Guardian Angel is a domestic and romantic novel by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that blends family history, intellectual curiosity, and questions about medicine and social morality.
This title is catalogued in Art & Aesthetics. Its reading profile is Medium and Moderate, with themes including ideas, literature, social questions, emotion, beauty.
One-Page Summary
The Guardian Angel is a domestic and romantic novel by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that blends family history, intellectual curiosity, and questions about medicine and social morality. Holmes was interested in the ways scientific ideas and personal beliefs interact, and his fiction often uses educated characters to test assumptions about family, health, religion, and social expectation. The story follows relationships that become complicated by questions of inheritance, affection, reputation, and the tension between personal choice and family duty. The title suggests protection, but the novel repeatedly asks whether people can really protect one another from the consequences of their own decisions.
Its world is one in which ideas matter because they shape relationships.
Key Themes
Ideas: This title is tagged with ideas as one of its main themes.
Literature: This title is tagged with literature as one of its main themes.
Social questions: This title is tagged with social questions as one of its main themes.
Emotion: This title is tagged with emotion as one of its main themes.
Beauty: This title is tagged with beauty as one of its main themes.