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Grandmother and the Priests/ UK title: To See the Glory (1963)
Grandmother and the Priests is a novel by Taylor Caldwell published by Fawcett Publications, Inc. in 1963. The book tells the tales of eleven priests as they visit the house of Rose Mary O'Driscoll.

About the Author
Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell was born in Manchester, England in 1900, but she spent the majority of her life in America. Though she began writing stories at a early age, she didn't publish her first novel, Dynasty of Death, until 1938. This debut novel became a best-seller. By the time of her death in 1985, Caldwell had written over 25 best-selling novels.

Historical Context
When Caldwell published her first novel, she chose to use the name "Taylor" rather than "Janet," so that her gender might remain ambiguous. For the first several years of her career, it was widely assumed that "Taylor" was a man, especially since her writing was so "masculine."

Grandmother and the Priests was published in the same year as The Feminine Mystique, which is hailed as an essential text of second-wave feminism. When the knowledge of Caldwell's gender became more widely known, some hailed her as a feminist simply because she was a successful female author. However, many of her contemporaries, along with Caldwell herself, declared that she was very much the traditionalist.

Grandmother and the Priests, as the title suggests, uses Catholicism as a backdrop for each of the priests' stories. At the time of its publishing, America was represented by the first (and only) Roman Catholic president in U.S. History.

Plot Summary
Grandmother and the Priests 's structure is framed by Rose McConnell's childhood visits to her grandmother's house. This grandmother, Rose Mary O'Driscoll, is described as a lively and eccentric woman, who regularly invites a large number priests into her home for dinner. The priests attend these dinners in the hopes of saving Grandmother's soul. The bulk of the novel is taken up by eleven fable-like stories from eleven different priests, told around Grandmother's fireplace:

Monsignor Harrington-Smith and the Dread Encounter

Father MacBurn and the Doughty Chieftain

Father Hughes and the Golden Door

Father Ifor Lewis and the Men of Gwenwynnlynn

Father Donahue and the Shadow of Doubt

Father Padraic Brant and the Pale

Father Alfred Ludwin and the Demon Lady

Father Thomas Weir and the Problem of Virtue

Father Shayne and the Problem of Evil

Father Daniel O'Connor and the Minstrel Boy

Bishop Quinn and Lucifer

Each tale involves spiritual and/or moral conflict, be it between a priest and his parishioners, neighbors, or the Devil himself. At the end of the novel, Rose McConnell reflects on these stories she heard in her childhood, and bemoans how the world has changed since that time. However, the novel does end on a note of hope, applauding those who devote their lives to God and their efforts to save souls.

Cultural Connections
Caldwell's novel was a best-seller, in part, because of her established literary reputation. Also, the novel itself was written to be entertaining, but not so morally challenging as to upset the reader. Compared to other best-sellers of the time, such as The Group or The Shoes of the Fisherman, Grandmother and the Priests is relatively tame in the way it addresses sex, scandal, and political intrigue. The novel is more concerned with addressing theological and philosophical questions rather than constructing complex drama.