Barriers Burned Away

In Short

Edward Payson Roe’s 1871 novel follows Dennis Fleet, a devout and talented young man from the country who arrives in Chicago to support his widowed mother and sisters. Forced to work as a store porter for the wealthy art dealer Baron Ludolph, Dennis falls secretly in love with the baron's brilliant, icy daughter, Christine, an artist who rejects religion and treats him with disdain. As Dennis struggles to maintain his faith through poverty, loss, and social class humiliations, Christine uses his genuine emotion to spark her own cold art. When the Great Chicago Fire sweeps through the city, destroying their material worlds, the catastrophic night forces both to confront their true values. Roe’s tale has endured as a classic popular romance of survival, moral transformation, and faith tested by historic disaster.

The Story

Dennis Fleet leaves his quiet rural home for Chicago with little more than high spirits, firm Christian principles, and a desire to provide for his family. The city offers cold comfort at first. Struggling to find employment, Dennis relies on the rough sympathy of strangers like Bill Cronk before securing work at a high-end art gallery owned by Baron Ludolph. Though Dennis possesses refined taste and a gifted singing voice, he is hired merely as a porter and man-of-all-work, subjected to menial tasks like cleaning the boots of arrogant senior clerks. Dennis swallows his pride, performing his duties with such integrity that he eventually earns a promotion to general salesman and store arranger.

In the gallery, Dennis encounters Christine Ludolph, the baron’s daughter. Christine is an accomplished painter of extraordinary technical skill, but her work lacks human warmth because she views life through a lens of cold, aristocratic detachment and outright skepticism toward religion. Dennis falls deeply in love with her, seeing both her exceptional beauty and the spiritual void in her soul. Christine, while intrigued by Dennis's character and artistic sensibilities, views him as a social inferior. Recognizing that Dennis feels deeply, she deceptively plays upon his emotions to observe genuine passion, using his painterly insights and emotional reactions to give her own artwork the life it lacks. When Dennis discovers that Christine has exploited his devotion purely to advance her artistic reputation while despising his humble background, his heart is broken, and he departs in deep sorrow.

Parallel to Dennis's romantic trial is his compassionate rescue of Ernst Bruder, a ruined, destitute painter, and his suffering wife. Dennis recognizes Bruder's latent genius, restores his dignity, and helps the family rebuild their lives. Yet personal tragedy soon strikes Dennis when his beloved mother falls ill and dies, leaving his young sisters in his care. Guided by his mother's dying faith, Dennis perseveres through his grief, continuing his mission work and maintaining his love for Christine from afar, praying that the dross in her character might one day be refined.

The crisis arrives on the night of October 8, 1871, when the Great Chicago Fire erupts. As the inferno consumes whole blocks of the city, Baron Ludolph is swept away in the chaos, and Christine finds herself trapped and helpless in her residence as the flames advance. Dennis rushes through the burning, panic-stricken streets to her rescue. Wrapped in a blanket and wearing improvised shoes Dennis constructs for her bleeding feet, Christine flees with him toward the shores of Lake Michigan and into crowded shelters.

Amid the terror, physical hardship, and horror of the night, Christine’s rigid self-reliance shatters. Watching Dennis risk his life for others with calm, selfless courage rooted in his faith, she experiences a profound spiritual awakening. In the crowded refuge, as Dennis sings words of hope to the displaced survivors, Christine yields her pride and embraces the faith she once mocked. Stripped of her wealth, her social pretenses, and her artistic arrogance, she realizes that the noble clerk she once looked down upon is her true equal. Surrounded by the smoking ruins of Chicago, the barriers of class, pride, and unbelief are entirely destroyed, clearing the way for their union.

How It Unfolds

The journey begins Dennis Fleet departs his country home with his mother's spiritual maxims fresh in his mind, arriving in Chicago full of hope but quickly meeting the cold realities of unemployment and poverty.

Lowering his head Taking a position as porter in Baron Ludolph's prestigious art store, Dennis endures menial indignities, including blacking a fellow clerk's muddy boots, while proving his integrity and sharp eye for artistic arrangement.

Artistic salvation Dennis discovers the impoverished artist Ernst Bruder and his starving wife, recognizing Bruder's true genius and restoring the broken painter's spirit through practical assistance and genuine appreciation.

The cruel inspiration Christine Ludolph uses Dennis's evident devotion and artistic sensibility to inform her own cold paintings, subtly manipulating his feelings to capture the human emotion she cannot feel herself.

Darkness and loss After Dennis realizes Christine has toyed with his heart, he retreats in sorrow, soon suffering the tragic death of his mother, who leaves his younger sisters under his sole care.

The inferno strikes As the Great Fire of 1871 engulfs Chicago, Dennis braves the flying cinders and choked streets to rescue Christine from her burning hotel, binding her injured feet and leading her through the panic.

Barriers fall Sheltering with other refugees, Christine witnesses Dennis's unwavering faith and courage, abandoning her icy pride and accepting both his God and his love amid the ashes of the city.

The People

• Dennis Fleet: A sanguine, deeply religious young man who travels to Chicago to support his family. He wants to earn an honorable living and pursue art, but his highest desire becomes the spiritual salvation and love of Christine Ludolph. Though initially humbled as a gallery porter, his courage, integrity, and faith sustain him through tragedy and catastrophe.
• Christine Ludolph: A proud, highly accomplished artist and daughter of a German baron. She wants absolute mastery over her art and lives for earthly beauty, but she lacks empathy and rejects Christian belief as weakness. Her manipulation of Dennis eventually yields to deep remorse, and the ordeal of the fire transforms her from an icy skeptic into a humble, faithful woman.
• Baron Ludolph: Christine’s father, an aristocratic art dealer in Chicago. He wants to restore his family's ancient noble fortune and status in Europe, treating his employees as mere tools and viewing his daughter's talent primarily as a means to achieve worldly glory.
• Bill Cronk: A rough, heavy-drinking, but warm-hearted traveller who meets Dennis early in his journey. Despite his own vices, he offers Dennis practical sympathy and good-natured encouragement when the young man is at his lowest ebb.
• Ernst Bruder: A brilliant German painter ruined by despondency and poverty. He wants only to practice his craft and care for his wife, a goal he achieves after Dennis recognizes his genius and helps him reclaim his lost artist-soul.
• Mrs. Fleet: Dennis’s pious, gentle mother. She wants her son to retain his heavenly wisdom over worldly ambition, and her dying prayers for Dennis and Christine echo throughout the rest of the story.

In Its Own Voice

"The stage carried him to the nearest railway station, and the express train bore him rapidly toward the great city where he expected to find all that a man's heart most craves on earth."

Dennis sets out from home, filled with high expectations for the life awaiting him in Chicago.

"Had God any hand in making that man what he is?"

Dennis challenges the rough traveller Bill Cronk in a tavern, pointing out a broken drunkard to defend his temperance principles.

"Ah! mine Gott be praised! mine Gott be praised! his artist-soul come back!"

Mrs. Bruder cries out in joy when Dennis's appreciation revives her husband's long-dormant creative passion.

"No hope for you, Dennis, but perfect certainty, for now EVERY BARRIER IS BURNED AWAY!"

Christine declares her love for Dennis after the destruction of the city wipes away their differences.

What It's Really About

Beneath its narrative of romantic longing and historical disaster, the book is an extended argument for the necessity of Christian faith as the ultimate refining fire of human character. It examines the contrast between worldliness and spiritual truth, asserting that artistic genius, high social standing, and intellectual refinement are hollow without empathy and divine love.

The plot poses fundamental questions about human suffering and pride: Can a heart encased in icy self-sufficiency learn true feeling without first losing everything it relies upon? Through Christine’s artistic struggle, the story contends that genuine passion cannot be stolen or counterfeited—it must be birthed through shared trials, humility, and faith. The Great Chicago Fire serves not merely as a dramatic backdrop, but as a moral crucible designed by Providence to strip away social barriers, material wealth, and personal arrogance, leaving behind only what is eternal and true.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to nineteenth-century popular fiction, Victorian melodramas, and historical disaster narratives will find much to admire in this story. It captures the atmosphere of post-Civil War Chicago—its rapid growth, its stark class divides, and the terrifying swiftness of the 1871 fire that reduced its grand halls to ashes. The narrative possesses a sincere, unpretentious energy, balancing intimate romantic tension with the sweeping catastrophe of an urban apocalypse.

Modern readers should be prepared for the distinct conventions of its era. The book is explicitly didactic, regularly pausing for evangelical reflection and moralizing dialogue. Its pace is leisurely over fifty chapters, allowing ample room for secondary subplots, missing heirs, and religious discussions. Some secondary characters are drawn with period dialects and national stereotypes common to late-nineteenth-century American popular writing. Yet despite these dated stylistic elements, the core narrative retains a genuine emotional core. The harrowing scenes of flight through the burning streets remain vivid and gripping, offering an authentic glimpse into how contemporary Americans processed one of the greatest national tragedies of their time.