Great Missionaries

There are books that aim to entertain, books that aim to inform, and books that set out with the quiet confidence that they might improve the moral character of an entire civilisation. Great Missionaries, published in 1895 by Hodder and Stoughton, belongs very firmly in the third category.

Written by C. C. Creegan during the high-water mark of the Victorian age, this is exactly the sort of volume that reminds modern readers just how ambitious nineteenth-century publishing could be. It was apparently not enough merely to tell stories. One was expected to educate, inspire, uplift, and preferably encourage readers to contemplate noble deeds before tea.

The title itself is magnificently direct. Great Missionaries. No ambiguity. No hedging. No Some Missionaries Who Were Quite Good, All Things Considered. The verdict has already been reached and the reader is invited to examine the evidence. This is Victorian certainty at its most reassuringly robust.

Within its pages, Creegan recounts the lives and achievements of missionaries who travelled to distant lands, crossed oceans, endured hardships, learned unfamiliar languages, encountered cultures radically different from their own, and generally demonstrated levels of commitment that make most modern complaints about delayed Wi-Fi seem faintly embarrassing. Whatever one’s views on the missionary movement itself, there is no denying that many of the individuals involved led extraordinary lives.

One of the pleasures of reading a book like this today is that it serves two purposes simultaneously. It tells the stories of the missionaries themselves, but it also reveals a great deal about the world that produced the book. Every page is infused with late Victorian assumptions, aspirations, and attitudes. It is part biography collection and part time machine.

There is also something wonderfully grand about nineteenth-century religious biography. Modern publishing often prefers heroes who are flawed, conflicted, and burdened by existential uncertainty. Victorian heroes, by contrast, frequently seem to wake up each morning determined to cross a continent, translate several thousand pages of text, survive tropical diseases, and improve humanity before dinner. Their energy is frankly exhausting.

The physical age of this volume adds greatly to its charm. This is not merely a book about the nineteenth century; it is a book from the nineteenth century. When this copy was published, Queen Victoria was still on the throne, Sherlock Holmes stories were appearing in magazines, and the motor car was little more than an alarming novelty. Entire empires have risen and fallen since these pages first left the printer.

As a historical object, it possesses the peculiar magic of surviving well beyond the expectations of its original readers. Someone purchased this book in 1895. They may have read it by gaslight. They may have placed it proudly on a parlour shelf. They certainly did not expect it to be changing hands more than a century later through a company cheerfully called Crappy Old Books.

Condition-wise, this copy is described as Very Good, which is rather impressive considering it has been quietly existing since the year MDCCCXCV. Many books from the period have endured far rougher journeys. This one remains a handsome survivor, retaining both its historical interest and its considerable shelf appeal.

Whether you are interested in religious history, Victorian culture, biography, imperial-era publishing, or simply enjoy owning books old enough to remember the nineteenth century firsthand, Great Missionaries offers a fascinating glimpse into another world. Earnest, ambitious, informative, and wonderfully Victorian, it stands as both a record of remarkable lives and a relic of a vanished age.

Exactly the sort of substantial, dignified, and gloriously old volume that Crappy Old Books delights in rescuing from obscurity, dusting off gently, and introducing to a new generation of readers.

Keep browsing: See more Religion books Other books by CC Creegan