Peccavi

by E.W. Hornung, Nicholas Clifford (Narrator)

How does a man who as committed a heavy sin — not a crime, but a sin with terrible consequences — atone for his behaviour? What if the man is a priest of the Church of England? That is the central question of E. W. Hornung’s Peccavi (I have sinned).The Rev. Robert Carlton, rector of the rural parish of Long Stow, now finds not only his parishioners turned against him, but also his patron Wilton Gleed, for under English ecclesiastical law’s allowance of advowson, a patron (usually a notable) could in effect name a particular clergyman to a church living, or benefice,under his control. What the patron could not do, however, was to eject a rector from his church and his rectory; that was a matter for the local bishop, not him. (Nicholas Clifford)

12 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Ernest William Hornung known as Willie, was an English author, most famous for writing the Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late Victorian London.

In addition to his novels and short stories Hornung wrote some war verse, and a play based on the Raffles stories was produced successfully. He was much interested in cricket, and was "a man of large and generous nature, a delightful companion and conversationalist".

Reviews

[Elsbeth Kwant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a long time ago that I lost sleep over a book. This one did it. Peccavi - 'I have sinned' - is a story about a man dealing with his sin and is a beautiful description of the humility and humiliation as well as the pride and glory and perhaps sentimentality associated with that. It set me thinking about the nature of reparable and irreparable damage. Which is as much as you can ask of a book...

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book quite awhile ago, then left off because I stopped reading in general. I picked it up again a few days ago, and started in earnest to finish it before this year was out to have no in progress books for the New Year. I also could not find the edition I read--it being a scanned copy uploaded to the internet--so chose this as being closest in page numbers.

This book, this book!! This poor religious fellow sins grievously--and really, it shows how different times are because while sleeping with a parishioner would be scandalous and invite no end of gossip--it would not also bring such trials and tribulations as Robert Carlton faced.

He went through ostracisation for years, was blamed for the church being burnt down, had to fight for his good name and still people did not believe him and shunned him, rebuilt the church almost solely upon his own, had his dog killed, had his son withheld from him and not know of his father, and kept himself away from the chance of love for the mistake he committed. It shows how penitent and courageous he was, and also it rent my heartstrings so badly I don't know that I can ever read it again.

I cannot understand how Hornung again and again crafts such human, such beautiful stories, with language that entrances and mesmerises, easy to read, easier still to hold to one's heart, but he does. Now I get to ring in the New Year with swollen eyes and sniffing nose! Hooray!!

[Robin Paull · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and well-told story of repentance and forgiveness. It is brutally honest and vivid. I cried and cried...

[Richie Kercenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my luckiest find in 2020. I remember starting it one night during the lockdown and then not being able to put it down for several hours because the story was so great, the characters deep and thoroughly written, the conflict philosophical, and the whole thing just sublime. It is a book you must read as something more than an entertaining work of fiction; a book which can make you grow, think, and mature up.

The story is largely one of sin and redemption. It emphasizes the intolerance of the late Victorian society by drawing from the prejudice and rigidity of Long Stow's inhabitants. The parishioners of the aforementioned village had condemned their parson as worthless upon discovering his affair with a choir girl notwithstanding the fact that he had willingly confessed to his own sin and taken responsibility, setting thus an example of Christian redemption.
In this manner, the response of the Long Stow parishioners towards Robert Carlton's affair mirrors the doctrine of dichotomy which spread in late Victorian England. People then were seen as either bad or good, but never in their true image as the inevitable mixture of both.

Such intolerance and adherence to dichotomy invariably leads to hypocrisy and social decadence. The inhabitants of Long stow, by means of illustration, have denounced and condemned their parson as a remorseless sinner while they, themselves, were fellow sinners who cast away their own deeds into the realm of secrecy, and sought those of other people instead.

As you read on, you gradually understand that Carlton was not only punished for his sin but also for refusing to be a hypocrite like the majority of his community. The parson of Long Stow had placed his integrity high above his persona and reputation. Molly was dead. His secret was accordingly safe with her in the grave, but he was determined to expiate his deed and redeem himself before God and Man alike. It was this determination which had set his hypocrite society against him.

The solitude which Carlton had imposed upon himself for five years is one of the novel's best features. This state of introspection, somewhat exaggerated, is yet awe-inspiring. Picture to yourself a man who had realized in some sort of epiphany that he had failed in his approach and relations with the world. He accordingly isolates himself and takes to thinking and working. These two tasks were the components of his daily routine for five years of utter solitude. He had never complained nor blamed anybody. He simply took responsibility for his mistakes, and dived within himself to find answers, and to find himself. This is beautiful, and so is the book!

[Yngvild · Rating 3 out of 5]

E W Hornung’s Peccavi uses that popular Victorian trope of the “fallen clergyman”. It says a great deal about Hornung’s story-telling ability that he can make a readable novel even out of this unpromising material. Only the last few chapters drip sentimentality.

Hornung gives his sinner the advantages of money, intelligence, strength and boundless self-confidence, so that he has far more options than his poorer, weaker brethren. He chooses to remain in the East Anglian village where nobody will deal with him, but he has the money and property to do so. That provides the material for most of the novel.

The meat of the story has our sinner learning how to deal with all those everyday affairs that gentlemen of the day rarely had to bother with. We might have limited sympathy for a well-bred man who suddenly has to learn how to cook, but then we substitute supermarkets for servants. He has to learn how to butcher sheep.

Most interesting are the passages where the clergyman teaches himself to be his own stonemason.

(The stone) was of a rich reddish yellow, roughly rectangular, but lumpy as ill-made porridge exactly as it had come from the quarry. Carlton tilted it up against a smaller stone, smooth enough in parts, but palpably untrue in its planes and angles. This was the stone that he had been all day spoiling; it had been as big as the new one that morning, when he had begun upon it with a view to the lower eleven-inch courses; and now he had failed to make even a six-inch job of it. –Peccavi, E W Hornung (1900)