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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The Home Mission

by T. S. Arthur 1809–1885

The book, and the century it came out of.

A congregation decides to do good in its own town, and discovers that charity administered by committee among neighbours is a different animal from charity sent abroad. Arthur wrote to instruct his readers and outsold nearly all of them; the mission here is domestic, the difficulties are the ones every parish knows, and the portrait of well-meaning people getting in each other’s way is exact. Illustrated with 58 full-page plates — paintings by Mount, Bingham and Cole among them.

IF it were possible to trace back to their beginnings, in each individual, those good or evil impulses that have become ruling affections, in most cases the origin would not be found until we had reached the home of childhood.
The first sentence of The Home Mission
A note on this edition

The Home Mission, by T. S. Arthur, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 160 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486345623
The plates

58 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Caught Napping (Boys Caught Napping in a Field), William Sidney Mount
Caught Napping (Boys Caught Napping in a Field) William Sidney Mount 1848
Sunset - Little Miami Valley, Charles Wilson Knapp
Sunset - Little Miami Valley Charles Wilson Knapp 1850
Interieur met soldaat en dienstmeid, Abraham van Strij
Interieur met soldaat en dienstmeid Abraham van Strij 1825
Helmingham Dell (Louvre), John Constable
Helmingham Dell (Louvre) John Constable 1823
Boslandschap, Adolf Karel Maximiliaan Engel
Boslandschap Adolf Karel Maximiliaan Engel 1829
Vue des côtes normandes, Richard Parkes Bonington
Vue des côtes normandes Richard Parkes Bonington 1823
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Home Mission as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Home Mission as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Home Mission, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486345623, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Home Mission?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. T. S. Arthur's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 160 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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The Home Mission
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