Novela muy moralista que trata la culpa, la expiación, la felicidad y las obsesiones.
En ella se narra la situación de la protagonista, Kate orme, en diferentes momentos de su vida.
Kate Orme descubre un oscuro secreto moral sobre su prometido Denis que él mismo le confiesa, aún así después de mucho reflexionar sobre ello se acaban casando y tienen un hijo.
A la muerte de su marido, Kate dedicará su vida a proteger a su hijo pues está convencida de que el espíritu de Denis le afecta a este directamente pues muestra debilidades morales al igual que le ocurría a su padre y esto la llega a obsesionar.

Wharton presenta la maternidad como una forma íntima de expiar las culpas propias de la protagonista y cuestiona la moral y valores para conseguir la felicidad.

No es lo mejor que he leído de la autora.

2,5⭐ Edith Wharton siempre es muy top. Dicho esto, 'Santuario' no es lo mejor que he leído de la autora. A la historia le ha faltado chispa y a los personajes alma. Una lectura demasiado moralista para mi gusto.

Audiobook

Жила-была женщина, которая проглотила моральный ориентир, и он встал у нее поперек жизни, да так, что когда ее сыну потребовалось самому понять, что такое хорошо, а что такое плохо, он без мамы не справился.

Хорошая, хоть и ощутимо ранняя Уортон: стиль еще местами сложен из викторианских синтаксических кирпичей и мораль не везде просохла, но все люди вышли удивительно живыми, от чахоточного гения в широченном пальто до невесты-охотницы в топких, волнующихся мехах, от сына на этическом поводке до вертолетной мамы, которая дует сыну в задницу, чтобы тот ненароком не сбился с верного пути (и не женился на этой, в мехах, разумеется).

3.5

A Pernicious Praying Mantice.

Although a short novel, it was nevertheless the worst by this author I have read. Kate Peyton, with her ridiculous moral scruples gone mad, and her insidious influence on her son seemed a despicable mixture of self obsession, and sinister manipulative motherhood. Her unfortunate offspring, though a man, was forcibly wrapped in cotton wool and subjected to a form of incestuous domination. His privacy and personality were all but connivingly wound round the poisonous tendrils of a woefully misguided monster. Taking advantage of his weaknesses and dependence of her on many levels, she set about creating his world for him, thus prolonging the apron strings until there was no return. Constantly meddling and masquerading as the dutiful mama, his fiance certainly had no illusions though in the final analysis, was no match for her cunning stunts. The plot seemed flimsy and extremely padded out, with complex paragraphs repeating endlessly the same points and issues. The unexplained early death of Kate's husband was merrily glossed over in a few sentences as was her strange decision to marry for the sake of an unborn and unconceived child. It seemed as if she had superimposed one set of past deplorable misdemeanours, in which she was right to feel morally outraged, on to the present sequence of events, in which she was very definitely wrong. The wishes of a dying man, fully conscious of his well justified reasons, should not be ignored. Darrow, in rushing to finish his masterpiece drawings, did so for the love and best wishes towards his friend Dick. Kate's interference and sinister silence, simply carved an irrevocable wedge in his heart, from which he could never recover.

Four stars for the depth and detail of psychological insight, in this account of the battle for a young man's soul. Wharton makes the story particularly interesting by filtering the developments through the mind of a sensitive and thoughtful woman - the young man's mother who believes that her life's task is to thwart inherited weaknesses in her son by cultivating in him the highest moral integrity.
To judge fairly I guess one needs to get a handle on the kinds of ideas/arguments that were floating around at the time this was written - apparently Wharton is responding, partly, to the nature vs nurture debate of the day - but I'm not familiar with the currents therein.
To modern sensibilities, however, there is something unsettling in the intensity of the relationship between the protagonist and her adult son - perhaps not fully apparent until the ending of the story - which somewhat clouds the apparent moral victory. From where does the impulse which compels Dick to resist temptation derive: from his own moral compass, or merely from his inability to throw off the force of his mother's convictions? Has Dick's moral uprightness (if we agree that he exhibits same) been developed at the expense of other important character traits, such emotional maturity and independence?

Escribe tan bien...

”Denis Peyton was used to being met with a smile. He might have been pardoned for thinking smiles the habitual wear of the human countenance, and his estimate of life and of himself was necessarily tinged by the cordial terms on which they had always met each other.” (p.6)

I love Wharton’s writing! I’m currently working my way through her shorter stories, and loving every second of it.

Kate Orme is a certified Boy Mom

A woman marries a man she doesn’t love in order to protect a child, not yet conceived, from some future moral lapse. Her reasoning is that if she dumps her fiancé due to his unethical behavior he’d just marry someone else and have a child who he would raise badly. This motivation was too far fetched to convince me.

2.5 ⭐️