John Updike's seventeenth novel begins in 1910, and traces God's relation to four generations of an American family, beginning with Clarence Wilmot, a Presbyterian clergyman in Paterson, New Jersey. He loses his faith, and becomes an encyclopedia salesman and a motion-picture addict. The remainder of Clarence's family moves to the small town of Basingstoke, Delaware, where his cautious son, Teddy, becomes a mailman. Faithless himself, Teddy marries a good Methodist girl and begets Esther, whose prayers are always answered; she becomes an object of worship, a twentieth-century goddess. Her neglected son, Clark, makes his way back to the fiery fundamentals of Protestant piety. The novel ends in 1990, in Lower Branch, Colorado, and on television. Taking its title from the "Battle-Hymn of the Republic" ，In the Beauty of the Lilies spins one saga, one wandering tapestry thread, of the American Century. （librarything.com）
简介和描述：厄普代克的第十七部小说《圣洁百合》从上世纪1910年写起，追溯一个美国家族四代人与上帝的关系，始于帕特森市的长老会教堂牧师克拉伦斯（袁凤珠译）。他失去了自己的信仰，之后成为一个售卖《通俗百科全书》的推销员，并对电影成瘾。其余家庭成员从泽西州搬到特拉华州的小镇，在那里，克拉伦斯的小儿子，腼腆？的特迪做着一份送报员的工作，特迪自己亦无基督信仰，但他与一位善良的卫斯理教派女孩结婚并生下了女儿埃茜，“她（埃茜）认为上帝对她有求必应”，成为了一个供人膜拜的对象，一个二十世纪的玛丽莲梦露式的女神。埃茜对儿子克拉克疏于教育？最终克拉克回归新教虔敬的炽烈基本原则，“逃离电影到宗教里寻找安慰，却不幸成为邪教的牺牲品”（译后记）。小说以上世纪1990年代科罗拉多州下河镇的电视新闻画面结尾。标题取自共和国战歌（按：诗歌的前半阙印象较深，但名字显得过于激昂，没有读过〈飘〉，对美国的理解有限），《圣洁百合》编织了一部史诗，一条属于美国世纪的曲折画卷的脉络。
