I spent a month of my free time transcribing an influential 1800s religious novel. And having just completed it, I can say it was so worth every minute.

Theodosia Ernest by Amos Cooper Dayton made an immense impact on American Protestants, especially Baptists. Dayton, a physician turned minister, was convinced of believer’s baptism in his 40s and thus joined a Baptist church. Soon afterward he wrote Theodosia Ernest, rumored to have been made to convince his still-Presbyterian wife (it worked, by the way).