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An Odor of Sanctity
9th century Iberian Peninsula - an age of brutal battles to the death and dungeons equipped with thumbscrews and spiked boots. An age of perfumed harems where acts of love were spiced with the erotic mysteries of the Orient. a time when merchants, princes, thieves and whores, Christians, Islamic Arabs, Berbers, Yemenites, Greeks and Jews were trapped in an inferno of embattled peoples and faiths.
Only such an age could have spawned Spaniard Alaric Teudisson - the mighty Visigoth nobleman whose extraordinary capacity for love was matched only by the violence of his destiny. Young Alaric Teudisson, has a fair, effeminate appearance and even an odor of netity. But beneath this milky exterior beats the heart of a lion. When he sets out to revenge his brother upon some Berbers, Alaric winds up as a page in the Alcazar, which is ruled by Islamites. Eunuchs, slave girls, homosexual princes abound. Named by the Moors Aizun ibn al Qutiyya, is seemingly touched by the hand of God. He was once warrior and scholar, saint and savage.
Only such an age could have spawned Spaniard Alaric Teudisson - the mighty Visigoth nobleman whose extraordinary capacity for love was matched only by the violence of his destiny. Young Alaric Teudisson, has a fair, effeminate appearance and even an odor of netity. But beneath this milky exterior beats the heart of a lion. When he sets out to revenge his brother upon some Berbers, Alaric winds up as a page in the Alcazar, which is ruled by Islamites. Eunuchs, slave girls, homosexual princes abound. Named by the Moors Aizun ibn al Qutiyya, is seemingly touched by the hand of God. He was once warrior and scholar, saint and savage.
471 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
3 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Frank Yerby
130 books118 followersBorn in Augusta, Georgia to Rufus Garvin Yerby, an African American, and Wilhelmina Smythe, who was caucasian. He graduated from Haines Normal Institute in Augusta and graduated from Paine College in 1937. Thereafter, Yerby enrolled in Fisk University where he received his Master's degree in 1938. In 1939, Yerby entered the University of Chicago to work toward his doctorate but later left the university. Yerby taught briefly at Florida A&M University and at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 14, 2016
"Is that lingering smell the odor of sanctity or is it...whore's scent?"
An Odor of Sanctity is what you get when you combine a loquacious author, a manual typewriter, a grand concept, a publishing contract for a sensational book, and no plot.
Frank Yerby wrote some entertaining novels. This isn't one of them.
Here is the grand concept: Alaric Teudisson, a Visigoth prince, comes of age in the ninth century, CE, as the conquering Goths are losing their influence and power over the people of the Iberian peninsula. Moors, Berbers, Jews, and Greeks inhabit the land along with the native Iberians and the Visigoths, and each vie for cultural and political influence. The times certainly are changing. A devout and religious young man, Alaric makes many stupid mistakes and has a habit of getting into sexless marriages. For the fair and pretty Alaric, that means he can be guilt-ridden and weird about the women of various ethnic backgrounds with whom he becomes entangled. For the reader, that means being subjected to multiple gratuitous scenes of explicit sexual violation and violence.
When Yerby's editor read the manuscript, the editor must have rationalized publishing the book by thinking Alaric was a Hamlet/Christ figure. When I read the book, I thought Yerby had no plot, used desperately inconsistent characterization, and wrote ridiculous and juvenile plot twists to rescue his rudderless story when he had written himself into a hole. The editor must have thought the book would sell hundreds of thousands of copies since it included a gruesome castration episode and blue torture scenes. I thought if the novel had been consistently over the top, Alaric's epic tale might have at least provided some amusement. With the unceasing meandering of the almost nonexistent plot and the wadding up and throwing away of the novel's most interesting characters, the protagonist became a dullard and his story, even more so.
Alaric Teudisson should have sued Frank Yerby for wrongful birth.
This book features numerous oddities. Why did these ninth century multi-ethnic Iberians speak a pidgin of combined Elizabethan English and mid-century American English? Why did Alaric and his companions sound like Unitarians sipping tea in John Dewey's living room when they discussed religion and philosophy? Why did Yerby, an African American himself, use gross racial sobriquets and insults when describing characters of color, such as when he described one of Alaric's African lovers as a "black as night she-baboon"? Why are the sensationalized scenes of the book gruesomely graphic, as when Alaric's first wife gangbangs all the men of a Berber band in the middle of their campsite, and sex scenes between lovers are so gauzy and subdued, the readers don't know whether the point of view character has had an orgasm or has sneezed? Why didn't someone take this manuscript out into the backyard, pour gasoline on it, and set afire?
At one point, Alaric gets on his horse to ride to Cordoba to rescue his one-of-many true loves. Along the way, his horse stops, refuses to go forward, and turns to take Alaric off on a side story to fix an unresolved plot problem. When the hero's horse makes the calls on a novel's narrative arc, you know you are in trouble.
An Odor of Sanctity is what you get when you combine a loquacious author, a manual typewriter, a grand concept, a publishing contract for a sensational book, and no plot.
Frank Yerby wrote some entertaining novels. This isn't one of them.
Here is the grand concept: Alaric Teudisson, a Visigoth prince, comes of age in the ninth century, CE, as the conquering Goths are losing their influence and power over the people of the Iberian peninsula. Moors, Berbers, Jews, and Greeks inhabit the land along with the native Iberians and the Visigoths, and each vie for cultural and political influence. The times certainly are changing. A devout and religious young man, Alaric makes many stupid mistakes and has a habit of getting into sexless marriages. For the fair and pretty Alaric, that means he can be guilt-ridden and weird about the women of various ethnic backgrounds with whom he becomes entangled. For the reader, that means being subjected to multiple gratuitous scenes of explicit sexual violation and violence.
When Yerby's editor read the manuscript, the editor must have rationalized publishing the book by thinking Alaric was a Hamlet/Christ figure. When I read the book, I thought Yerby had no plot, used desperately inconsistent characterization, and wrote ridiculous and juvenile plot twists to rescue his rudderless story when he had written himself into a hole. The editor must have thought the book would sell hundreds of thousands of copies since it included a gruesome castration episode and blue torture scenes. I thought if the novel had been consistently over the top, Alaric's epic tale might have at least provided some amusement. With the unceasing meandering of the almost nonexistent plot and the wadding up and throwing away of the novel's most interesting characters, the protagonist became a dullard and his story, even more so.
Alaric Teudisson should have sued Frank Yerby for wrongful birth.
This book features numerous oddities. Why did these ninth century multi-ethnic Iberians speak a pidgin of combined Elizabethan English and mid-century American English? Why did Alaric and his companions sound like Unitarians sipping tea in John Dewey's living room when they discussed religion and philosophy? Why did Yerby, an African American himself, use gross racial sobriquets and insults when describing characters of color, such as when he described one of Alaric's African lovers as a "black as night she-baboon"? Why are the sensationalized scenes of the book gruesomely graphic, as when Alaric's first wife gangbangs all the men of a Berber band in the middle of their campsite, and sex scenes between lovers are so gauzy and subdued, the readers don't know whether the point of view character has had an orgasm or has sneezed? Why didn't someone take this manuscript out into the backyard, pour gasoline on it, and set afire?
At one point, Alaric gets on his horse to ride to Cordoba to rescue his one-of-many true loves. Along the way, his horse stops, refuses to go forward, and turns to take Alaric off on a side story to fix an unresolved plot problem. When the hero's horse makes the calls on a novel's narrative arc, you know you are in trouble.
March 18, 2012
I found this old first edition (1965) hardbound book with jacket on sale for seventy five cents while I was on vacation. It looked like it might be a fun read.
This book was very interesting and fun to read. It is quite the swashbuckler with a philosophical theme about religion, love, romance, tolerance, sainthood and martyrdom. I also had fun after reading the book tracing the actual history of the era and figuring out who the author based the main character on. In doing that I learned about the Martyrs of Cordoba, the culture of the Moors of early al Andalus and the Visigoths who ruled the area until the Moors moved into Spain. I also discovered that the inspiration for the main character is loosely modeled after a Visigoth king that lived a few centuries earlier.
The story is exciting, sexy and intelligently written. I also found the final chapters quite shocking and realized that this part of the story had to be based on historical events. Yes, truth can be stranger than fiction.
This book was very interesting and fun to read. It is quite the swashbuckler with a philosophical theme about religion, love, romance, tolerance, sainthood and martyrdom. I also had fun after reading the book tracing the actual history of the era and figuring out who the author based the main character on. In doing that I learned about the Martyrs of Cordoba, the culture of the Moors of early al Andalus and the Visigoths who ruled the area until the Moors moved into Spain. I also discovered that the inspiration for the main character is loosely modeled after a Visigoth king that lived a few centuries earlier.
The story is exciting, sexy and intelligently written. I also found the final chapters quite shocking and realized that this part of the story had to be based on historical events. Yes, truth can be stranger than fiction.
May 2, 2019
While I wanted to like this book, by a new-to-me author, and while I enjoyed reading about the historic time in the Iberian peninsula, I'm so glad to be done with this book. The over-the-top, voluminous, voluptuous writing was just too much to bear. The ineptitude of characters, the stereotypical antagonists, the hapless protagonist who bore absolutely every single possible bad turn with anguish and acceptance. The focus on the hero's overwhelming good looks as an excuse and cause for everything and the constant sexual situations & comments among the characters gave cause for the low rating. The abundance of the numerous religious factors and different peoples gave satisfaction to my historical interest, and was cause for the rating of a second star. I'll try another Frank Yerby book, one written earlier in his career, before he moved to Spain and wrote this "epoch".
Yerby had a hundred words to describe hair, but only one for a horse: "a barb"
Yerby had a hundred words to describe hair, but only one for a horse: "a barb"
December 21, 2012
spain in the year 820, conflict betwwwn the catholic , muslem and jewish religions. When so many people are critical of the muslems of today, they need to remember the catholics of long ago.
January 14, 2024
Entertaining, but shocking for a young reader. Read the book at 16. Should be rated R.
February 5, 2016
I first read this book as a nine year old catholic school student. It taught me what skepticism was. Although Yerby is certainly a colorful and dramatic fiction writer, the philosophy that he has worked into this "potboiler" changed my way of thinking and my life.
His "satan's catechism", which lists basic, accepted precepts of the catholic religion, which also contradict each other directly, removed forever my tendency to unthinkingly believe what I read. This book made me second guess every assumption I had. Although his fiction is often histrionic and extreme, the underlying thought process is fascinating.
Personally, I really appreciate it when a book does that for me.
As years have gone by, i have read all of Yerby's work, and still believe he is vastly underrated as a master of Victorian-style, omniscient writing. He remains comparitively unknown in relation to his worldwide sales.
Check out "the Dahomean" also. A good glimpse at preslave african society.
I'm trying to give it a four but it won't save it!
His "satan's catechism", which lists basic, accepted precepts of the catholic religion, which also contradict each other directly, removed forever my tendency to unthinkingly believe what I read. This book made me second guess every assumption I had. Although his fiction is often histrionic and extreme, the underlying thought process is fascinating.
Personally, I really appreciate it when a book does that for me.
As years have gone by, i have read all of Yerby's work, and still believe he is vastly underrated as a master of Victorian-style, omniscient writing. He remains comparitively unknown in relation to his worldwide sales.
Check out "the Dahomean" also. A good glimpse at preslave african society.
I'm trying to give it a four but it won't save it!
November 8, 2009
Goodness, how I loved this at thirteen or so! I suspect it was quite lurid and melodramatic, and I have no idea whether Yerby was accurate in his representation of medieval Europe, its social mores and religious conflicts. Of course the hero, whom we follow from adolescence to his noble death, was impossibly handsome and irresistible to women. As I recall, it was titled An Odour of Sanctity, and had more than a whiff of El Cid.
June 5, 2021
Yerby's overly long and moralizing tale of a Christian man in 9th century Spain made An Odor of Sanctity a struggle to finish. I was also disappointed in Yerby's authorial choices. The dialogue read like a Hollywood screenwriter's idea of what medieval sounded like. And if the use of old English wasn't intrusive enough, there was the use of terms, such as "mumbo jumbo" and "turn about is fair play" whose origin are well after the period in which the book is set. I would have thought a writer of historical fiction would have taken a little more care in being accurate.
Yerby wouldn't have been the first writer to bring current (as of 1965) issues into the context of a historical novel. However, the 20th century issues of religion and race seem out of place coming out of the mouth of a ninth century Goth in Al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain.
Yerby wouldn't have been the first writer to bring current (as of 1965) issues into the context of a historical novel. However, the 20th century issues of religion and race seem out of place coming out of the mouth of a ninth century Goth in Al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain.
February 11, 2022
I fell in love with the first Yerby book I read, Judas, My Brother. I then proceeded to buy as many Yerby books as I could. Most of them still have cheesy, dated dust jackets still on them, belying the well-written, thoughtful books they contain.
An Odor of Sanctity is the story of a boy, Alaric, living in the mid-800s, who grew up to be St. Alaric. From what I can tell this is a fictitious character, not the actual Alaric who lived in the 400s.
Yerby went outside his normal “zone” writing this one. Like his other novels, it is well-researched, and it is a sweeping book, spanning many themes and historical events. At times it drags on, and some of the characters were hard to keep apart. It was also sexually and violently graphic, perhaps more than was warranted, but that of course is subjective.
An Odor of Sanctity is the story of a boy, Alaric, living in the mid-800s, who grew up to be St. Alaric. From what I can tell this is a fictitious character, not the actual Alaric who lived in the 400s.
Yerby went outside his normal “zone” writing this one. Like his other novels, it is well-researched, and it is a sweeping book, spanning many themes and historical events. At times it drags on, and some of the characters were hard to keep apart. It was also sexually and violently graphic, perhaps more than was warranted, but that of course is subjective.
September 1, 2019
I read this as a preteen, I think, but I'm guessing on the read date. I still remember a couple of images from this historical novel, particularly how everybody was kind of smelly and covered it up with perfume, and the main character having an image in his mind of St. Agatha holding out her breasts that were cut off as part of her torture at the hands of Roman prefect Quintianus. I didn't realize at the time I read the book that Yerby is African American and a bit of a legend in his time for his success as a writer. I want to read more by him now!
December 29, 2024
As a historical romance novel Frank Yerby’s “An Odor of Sanctity” is a compelling tale of contrast. It covers race, freeborn and slave, fidelity and infidelity, religious fanaticism and religious tolerance, superstition and intellect. The setting is Spain 100 years after the Moors have conquered the peninsula. Good read.
December 1, 2024
The drama!
June 2, 2025
I love this author! He's such a great writer.
This story is about a learned man who is turned into a "Jesus" by the people and whose life then spirals out of his control.
This story is about a learned man who is turned into a "Jesus" by the people and whose life then spirals out of his control.
March 1, 2026
This is an excellent book of historical fiction. Mr. Yerba created a realistic story of a man who was made a saint.
February 22, 2023
Medieval andalusian spain, I said, that sounds great! Pre reconquista! Sounds good again! Swashbuckling and battles, sounds great, maybe some romance.
Yeah. Sounds fun.
I finished this out of sheer stubbornness. The repeated sexual exploitation and casual racism were distasteful and gratuitous. Like, there were some interesting bits about history and I actually liked the philosophical bits, but ugh. Would not recommend.
Yeah. Sounds fun.
I finished this out of sheer stubbornness. The repeated sexual exploitation and casual racism were distasteful and gratuitous. Like, there were some interesting bits about history and I actually liked the philosophical bits, but ugh. Would not recommend.
November 5, 2016
In 1955, author Frank Yerby moved to Spain as a protest against racial discrimination in the U.S. It looks like he spent a decade learning about and researching early Medieval Spain under the Goths and the Emirate of Córdoba under Abd ar-Rahman II.
An Odor of Sanctity (the term is a Catholic belief) and the book is about a non-believer who becomes, well, read the book, in spite of what he thinks. We have the usual Yerbyisms: the able hero who is more protagonist, a romantic triangle (several, in fact), Great & Awful Truths delivered in whispers, while women “wail” about something or other. Best of all, we have more great history about life in Spain under Goths and Moors.
It took me a while to read the book, because it seemed to drag in places and I lost track when and where our protagonist-come-hero made a major transformation. The pace was regained toward the end of the story. No spoilers for you but I sensed author Yerby has great respect for both Christians and Muslims alike while holding fanatics of both sects in cold contempt. Good for him. It would be sorely tested today (he died in 1991).
July 29, 2025
4 stars: Originally rating. 2025: 2 stars.
I originally read this book at about age 15, some 15 years ago. Frank Yerby's novels have stayed with me all these years, read through most of them in my teens, and they are a huge reason why Historical Fiction has been one of my go-tos in reading all these years. I've revisited novels from earlier parts of my life, and those books have largely stood the test of time, but, sadly, not this book. I found it ponderous and overwrought and poorly paced. In addition, the way the characters spoke (and acted) felt inauthentic. Lastly, the story just couldn't hold my interest the way it should have; I had to force myself forward. So, while I'm grateful to Frank Yerby for being one of the sparks behind my lifelong love of historical fiction, and reading in general, I'm sad to say that I've also moved light-years away from his books.
I originally read this book at about age 15, some 15 years ago. Frank Yerby's novels have stayed with me all these years, read through most of them in my teens, and they are a huge reason why Historical Fiction has been one of my go-tos in reading all these years. I've revisited novels from earlier parts of my life, and those books have largely stood the test of time, but, sadly, not this book. I found it ponderous and overwrought and poorly paced. In addition, the way the characters spoke (and acted) felt inauthentic. Lastly, the story just couldn't hold my interest the way it should have; I had to force myself forward. So, while I'm grateful to Frank Yerby for being one of the sparks behind my lifelong love of historical fiction, and reading in general, I'm sad to say that I've also moved light-years away from his books.
March 13, 2019
Whether Frank Yerby's novels were set in the past or the present, his style could be rhetorically long-winded, his characters wildly inconsistent and his overall plots haphazardly developed. Despite all that, in "An Odor of Sanctity" and several other works Yerby had, in large supply, the often under-appreciated ability to tell a story that compels a reader’s attention.
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February 11, 2009An Odor of Sanctity by Frank Yerby (1972)
August 31, 2010
Medieval Spain, historical fiction.
June 2, 2019
Read this back in the 70's along with several other Yerby novels. I always thought this one was one of his best!
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June 15, 2009An Odor of Sanctity by Frank Yerby (1972)
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November 15, 2010An Odor of Sanctity by Frank Yerby (1972)
August 18, 2015
Pretty good escapist reading -- good stuff to read during hot nights at the cottage.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews