Sanctuary [Paperback]

Edith Wharton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2004 | ISBN-10: 1419146041 | ISBN-13: 978-1419146046

It was to serve, on this occasion, as the scene of a tea designed, as Kate Peyton was vividly aware, to introduce a certain young lady to the scene of her son's labours. Mrs. Peyton had been hearing a great deal lately about Clemence Verney. Dick was naturally expansive, and his close intimacy with his mother--an intimacy fostered by his father's early death--if it had suffered some natural impairment in his school and college days, had of late been revived by four years of comradeship in Paris, where Mrs. Peyton, in a tiny apartment of the Rue de Varennes, had kept house for him during his course of studies at the Beaux Arts.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Originally published by Scribners in 1903, this is the story of Kate Orme, who marries a man of weak moral character. When they have a child, she fears that the sins of the father will be the sins of their son. Kate dedicates herself to instilling morality in the boy as he grows, especially after her husband dies. This is a typical Wharton examination of upper-crust society strewn with flaws.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"It is good, ethically and artistically, to read and read again a book with such a lift."—New York Times

"A striking little book, striking in its simplicity and penetration, its passion and restraint."—Times Literary Supplement

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419146041
• ISBN-13: 978-1419146046
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,226,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Are Flaws in Morality Passed From Father to Son By Nature?, October 20, 2004

By 

L. Young "palmtree2000" (West Orange, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sanctuary (Pine Street Books) (Paperback)

In Part One, Kate Orme discovers shortly before her marriage to Denis, that her fiance has covered up the fact that his dissolute brother was secretly married to a lower class woman, and had a child with her. By this deception Denis prevents the woman from inheriting her husband's estate, and is able to hold on to his own inheritance, resulting in the suicide of the woman and child. Kate is repelled by her finance's deception, but marries Denis anyway. In Part Two of the novel, many years have passed. Denis has died at a young age, leaving Kate alone to raise their son, Dick who is now an adult. When Dick is confronted with a moral dilemma in his professional life, Kate waits to see whether the father's 'moral' flaw has been passed to her son, or if her nurture of her son has been strong enough to cure it. The novel is beautifully written and exquisitely nuanced, yet the difficulty for the modern reader is how to react to the story in our own modern age of moral equivalency. A modern reader may view Kate's extreme reaction to the moral dilemma provided to her son to be overblown.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Unusual Story, October 31, 2009

By 

Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sanctuary (Paperback)

"Sanctuary" is a novella by Edith Wharton, published in 1903. From what I have read, the plot did not cause any surprises at the time, but today the story seems rather unusual. It is a story which deals with ethics, morality, and family honor. While there is nothing particularly unusual in that, some of the choices made by the main character, Kate, seem rather drastic today, and one has a difficult time imagining that any woman today would make similar choices. The story is divided into two parts.

In the first part, we get to know Kate Orme, a woman who is engaged to Denis Payton. She is a woman who has been sheltered from the realities of the world, and comes to learn of an unpleasant situation involving Arthur, Denis' half-brother after he has passed on. Through learning about the situation and how Arthur's family handles it, Kate is upset with Denis and pushes him to do the moral thing. Arthur mother comes to talk with her, and Kate learns that it isn't just Denis who is willing to protect the family name regardless of the act. Lastly, she learns from her own father that scandal's have been covered up in her own family. After a bit of soul-searching, Kate comes to the conclusion that the most moral thing for her to do is to marry Denis so that she can try to remove the character taint which his yet to be conceived son have. This decision appears to be very unusual and it is doubtful that anyone today would reason in such a way. Kate also seems to ignore that she herself must be tainted since her own father and family also has displayed moral weakness.

Part two picks up several years later. We learn that Denis passed on when their son, Dick was young, and that he squandered most of their money. We also learn that Kate has put her own interests aside to get Dick the best education she can. Dick is starting his career and an ethical dilemma arises which has Kate worried. She is suspicious of the motives of those around Dick, and becomes worried that he is making the wrong choice. Everything seems to be pushing him towards the wrong path, and the similarities between his reaction and that of his father Denis when he was trying to hide the truth from her are readily apparent.

It will likely be difficult for many modern-day readers to understand the motivation of Kate in this story, but that is due to changes in our society, and not a flaw in the book itself. Nevertheless, I don't think this book is quite as good as Edith Wharton's previously published works and so I round this one down to three stars. It is still worth reading, especially for those who enjoy her other works, but it isn't quite as accessible.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sacrifice and secrets, June 2, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sanctuary (Hesperus Classics) (Paperback)

Edith Wharton's writing wallows in moral struggles and societal pressures, usually about adultery and social-climbing. But she tries a different approach for the novella "Sanctuary," a story that is thought-provoking and well-written, but feels more like the outline to a full-length novel than a story in its own right.

Kate Orme is wrapped up in her idyllic engagement to Denis, when a woman claiming to be his dissolute brother's wife kills herself and her child. To Kate's shock, Denis confesses that the woman was, but to avoid having a low-class person in the family, he suppressed evidence and lied. Even worse, he feels no guilt because he considers it worth the sacrifice.

Kate breaks off the engagement, but to protect any child of Denis' from his hypocrisies, she marries him. Many years later, Denis is dead, and their young son Dick is a blossoming architect about to enter a prestigious contest. But then a friend of his dies tragically, and leaves Dick his brilliant architectural plans... to enter in the contest as his own. Now Kate must see if her careful upbringing will make Dick do the right thing, or if he will follow in his father's footsteps.

Most of Wharton's books are wrapped up in ethical dilemmas or one kind or another, but "Sanctuary" tackles a very different kind of problem. And Wharton does a good job spinning out a sense of suspense, all about a young man who could tip either way, and inspiring disgust and outrage at Denis' weak, whiny defense of his crimes.

Sadly, the second half reads like Wharton was sketching out an enlarged outline for a novel, but got bored and just published it as-is. Details are sketchy, as is the society that these people live in, and more than two decades are skipped over instantly. Little of the storyline is fleshed out except for Kate's (seemingly endless) angst, which trickles on throughout way too many of the few pages.

Kate herself isn't easy to relate to -- she marries wussy Denis for a kid that might or might not be born, and spends most of the book torturing herself over Dick's future choices. She comes across as naive at best, manic at worst. Dick himself is a far more interesting character, since he exists in the grey area that most human beings inhabit -- he's a partying, slightly slackerish guy, but essentially good at heart.

"Sanctuary" tackles the grey areas and hypocrises of many "upright" people, but the second half drizzles off into a lot of bad angst and extreme reactions. Interesting, but it feels half-written.