Pages

Friday, January 15, 2010

Sanctuary by Edith Wharton




Go here: http://classics.rebeccareid.com/ for details. :D

Dammit, I just looked at the blog and this is two days late! I thought I was scheduled for the 15th, not the 13th - really sorry!
Um. The nicest thing I can say about Sanctuary is that I finished it. It's 94 pages long, and it really kind of dragged.
I understand it's an early work of Wharton's and I haven't read anything else by her, so I can't compare, but Sanctuary - to me - read like a tired, dry little morality tale. And it IS a morality tale, but I felt like I was eating sand. Which could have been my mood, or the fact I nearly fell asleep while I was tring to finish it, or any one of a dozen things.
Kate Orme is about to get married when her husband-to-be lets her in on a family secret that is set to inform the rest of Kate's life.
She chooses to marry Denis Petyon anyway, and the story picks up in the future - Denis having passed away several years ago, leaving Kate to raise their son, Dick.
A rising architect, Dick finds himself with a moral dilemma after the death of a friend and colleague.
There's a lot going on for such a short piece, but I nearly found myself skimming parts of it that felt more like exposition than anything. The best thing in Sanctuary is Clement Verney - a young woman of unashamed ambition, who breathes life into the pages and the characters.

4/10 Why am I here?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw! Sorry this wasn't better for you. I've never read any Waugh, but he seems to be a love-him-or-hate-him kind of guy.

Rebecca Reid said...

Wharton is the queen of the moral dilemma! I like that, but I can see how it's not everyone's cup of tea!

Thanks for joining the Circuit, and don't worry about posting late. Not a big deal.

PS. in the title, you have "Evelyn Waugh" which I assume was a mistake?

Maree said...

rebeccareid What??? Oops! I'll fix that now.

Jodie said...

Oh no, sad this one didn't work out for you. I think I've picked my next Wharton book from recommendations on this tour.

Randall said...

I had the same kind of experience reading "Madame de Treymes" for the tour. Wharton probably deserves her Classics status, but I think she is definitely an acquired taste.