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Mariette in Ecstasy

Ron Hansen

3.73 · Rating details · 2,495 ratings · 297 reviews

The highly acclaimed and provocatively rendered story of a young postulant's claim to divine possession and religious ecstasy.

In 1906, a beautiful seventeen year old postulant enters the convent of the Sisters of the Crucifixion in upstate New York. When she begins to bleed from her hands, feet, and side, the entire community is thrown into turmoil. Is Mariette a cunning s ...more

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Paperback, 180 pages

Published January 1st 1991 by Harper Perennial

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Apr 27, 2017 Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: religion-and-sprituality, religion

Mariette is a strange, beautiful young (20) woman who has just entered a convent, the second daughter of a wealthy doctor to enter that order, to dad's chagrin. There is the cut and paste of varying timelines, as we jump back and forth between a later interview with and about her, juxtaposed with earlier events as they unfold. The writing is lush, incorporating rich color set against a plain background, scents permeate the senses. A splash of red on the young woman's bathrobe offers the merest h ...more

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May 29, 2020 mark monday rated it really liked it

Shelves: mnemonic-devices, these-fragile-lives, legendarium

She sings a song to God, who listens. God in return gives her pain, sadness, loneliness, and above all else, love. God cherishes the martyrs and Mariette walks the martyr way, a thorny path and a bloody one. She sings a song about her love for God, and some of her sisters listen while others turn away, or seek to silence her song. She will sing on, relentless, to believers and disbelievers, true and false friends alike. She cannot help herself: she embraces her ecstasy, her martyrdom. Perhaps sh ...more

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Dec 18, 2007 Rob rated it did not like it

What a disappointment. I slogged through the present-tense narration (a huge pet peeve of mine), the incomplete sentences, the lifeless dialogue, and the thin plot, waiting for revelation or insight or... heck, anything to surface. Nothing did. No character development, no plot development, no meat. If only the author had chosen to develop his story instead of just the “voice” of the piece, he might have created something magical, because there’s a potentially great and moving novel buried at th ...more

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Sep 17, 2009 booklady rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2009, literature, mystery, historical-fiction, theology, fiction, psychology, worth-reading-over-and-over, religion, spiritual

Incredible story. I'm still not sure if I can write a review of it as I just finished it less than an hour ago. It's the kind of book I would have LOVED to have read in a devout Catholic book group, but only a prayerful group of practicing Catholics who actually live what they believe.

But then on further reflection, I try to imagine really discussing the book in a group setting and I think it would ruin it. It's such a deeply personal book, as is Mariette's experience in the story and yours whe ...more

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Jun 20, 2011 JFN rated it did not like it

A few weeks ago I was walking on my street and came upon a book sale on a neighbor's stoop. It was surprising what they were unloading -- not the usual unpopular, unloved cast offs but stuff you'd actually heard of and would want to own -- and all at a gleeful, hands-rubbing-together 25 cents a pop. Crazy.

Impressed with the collection, I got to talking about books with the neighbors, a couple who were moving to the west coast where they are both planning to pursue PhDs in lit. A few minutes into ...more

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Dec 21, 2013 Suzanne Fox rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-novels

It's my belief that very varied reviews, by readers and professional critics, are sometimes signs that something really interesting is going on--that an author has taken a real risk, made a really strong commitment to a particular style, story, strategy. Such is the case here. Folks will, and do, have strong reactions in both directions to the sparseness of the prose, the emphasis on imagery, and of course the author's refusal to answer the novel's most obvious question, the legitimacy (if one c ...more

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Sep 09, 2019 Manny rated it it was amazing

The complexity of this novel belies its simplicity. We are inside a Benedictine class of monastery, and a new novice, Mariette, has been taken in, a young woman of seventeen, passionately devout but filled with all the other fervors a young woman would have. In the course of a few months, Mariette starts having extreme religious experiences (or perhaps the continuation of such experiences from before she entered the priory), climaxing with physically formed stigmata followed by a coma-like ecsta The complexity of this novel belies its simplicity. We are inside a Benedictine class of monastery, and a new novice, Mariette, has been taken in, a young woman of seventeen, passionately devout but filled with all the other fervors a young woman would have. In the course of a few months, Mariette starts having extreme religious experiences (or perhaps the continuation of such experiences from before she entered the priory), climaxing with physically formed stigmata followed by a coma-like ecstasy. Is this real, faked, or a psychosomatic induced phenomena?

For much of the novel the reader is in a state of ambiguity and suspense. To understand the novel, the key I think is to understand why the novel is set in 1906 going into 1907. By 1906 medicine has developed to an understanding of germs, vaccines, and x-rays. By 1906, psychology was the rage; Freud published Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905. By 1906 religious experiences were being located inside the mind; William James published The Varieties of Religious Experiences in 1902. And perhaps more importantly, in 1907 Pope Pius X published, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, the encyclical refuting modernism. You the reader are placed inside the world of the novel to discern a supernatural phenomenon with a modernist worldview. But mind you, if you believe the author leaves it at the end for the reader to decide the nature of the phenomena as some reviewers have stated, you have misread the novel. Hansen is quite clear.

There are several major themes that stem out of the novel: the ambiguity of religious experience, the shift to a worldview based on empiricism, the unwillingness of people to change their habitual lives even if Christ has entered it. But for me I think the most profound theme in the novel is the theme of achieving holiness through humiliation. For Mariette, the stigmata and ecstasy are not the culmination of holiness but steps on the way to reaching a fuller holiness. We see at the end her pride extinguished, and the death of the old self into a new creation.

This is a novel of high craft, fine prose, even poetic prose, complex characters, especially Mariette the central character, profound ideas, and the beautiful creation of an original world. In short Mariette in Ecstasy is a work of art and Ron Hansen's masterpiece.
...more

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Oct 18, 2020 Sonia Gomes rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Sonia by: Marc Monday and I thank him!

Shelves: convents-and-abbeys, full-of-hope, courage, very-good, religious-bent

This book overwhelms me... It guides me towards pity and compassion for after all what are religions?
Nothing but compassion and love for another Human Being...

I thank Marc Monday for suggesting this immensely beautiful book. His amazing review is what led me to Mariette. Thank you Marc.

‘We are like the tides here. We come and go. We don’t hurry; we don’t worry; we try not to wrestle too much with our inner torments and petty irritations’

‘Ever since I have grown older, I have forgotten all my h ...more

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Aug 21, 2019 Celia rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, ten-year-challenge, 2019-read, book-shelf, group-bom, catholic

Mariette Baptiste is a 17 year old girl, in very deep love with God, who becomes a postulant in the Order of The Sisters of Crucifixion. The day she enters is August 15, 1906. The convent is situated in New York and has French culture in its history and background.

It seems that immediately upon Mariette's entering the convent, there is a faction who is enthralled with her and a faction that is jealous of her. After a period of time, Mariette experiences the stigmata (the wounds of Christ showing ...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Nancy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

As another reviewer put it, "spare, lyrical and devotional." The story of Mariette, postulant in a convent in upstate New York at the turn of the century, progresses through the liturgical year. The stark, descriptive prose gave me an almost visceral feel for the rural locale. Mariette brings an innocent ferver to her prayer life and that of the order, until she begins having trances or ecstasies followed by stigmata that heal almost as spontaneously as they appear. This eventually causes divisi ...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Pamela (Here to Read Books and Chew Gum) rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction

A beautifully written book that explores the deep connection between a young postulant and her faith. It is written in a rather minimalist style evoking through its use of language, a true sense of convent life. A deep and touching exploration of religious fervour and the social issues that come with being cloistered.

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Feb 01, 2020 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-for-blog, theology-religions, historical-fiction, mental-health, medical

(3.5) Set in an upstate New York convent mostly in 1906–7, this is a story of religious fervor, doubt and jealousy. Mariette Baptiste is a 17-year-old postulant; her (literal) sister, 20 years older, is the prioress here. Mariette is given to mystical swoons and, just after the Christmas mass, also develops the stigmata. Her fellow nuns are divided: some think that Mariette is a saint who is bringing honor to their organization, but others believe she has fabricated her calling and is vain enoug ...more

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May 23, 2008 Padraic rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-and-loved

Jinkies! Nun so black!

Well, if you can write as well about nuns and Jesse James, you're already one hell of an author. I would probably read Hansen's shopping lists. ...more

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Aug 12, 2013 Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) rated it did not like it

Shelves: run-save-yourselves, life-s-too-short

One and a half stars for this book which does an incredible job of hiding bricks under hats. The choppy, telegraphic writing "style" (inverted commas intended) makes it seem more like an aborted screenplay; in fact I first thought that was what it was. The book resonates heavily with other, earlier works by other authors: think The Nun's Story (from which two scenes are lifted, practically entire), think Agnes of God, think Extramuros, and certainly many phrases, events and even names taken from One and a half stars for this book which does an incredible job of hiding bricks under hats. The choppy, telegraphic writing "style" (inverted commas intended) makes it seem more like an aborted screenplay; in fact I first thought that was what it was. The book resonates heavily with other, earlier works by other authors: think The Nun's Story (from which two scenes are lifted, practically entire), think Agnes of God, think Extramuros, and certainly many phrases, events and even names taken from the memoirs and conversations of Thérèse de Lisieux.

Much is implied, little shown or told. Does the author wish the reader to believe that Mariette was sexually abused by her father, for example? Why do all these American women in a Benedictine order monastery in upstate New York have French names--and the protagonist and her sister had them, and a grasp of French, before joining the order? And why would they listen to the rule of the Augustinian order during meals? Surely the reader would concentrate on the rule of St Benedict. In 1907, would a small monastery in the open countryside have electricity--and why in the working areas, but not in the church? Why would anyone be mending a winepress in midwinter, in the middle of a snowstorm? It won't be wanted again until the autumn, surely it could be mended in better weather. So many of the details of conventual life were wrong for the period: not least speaking of the prioress' golden hair "gushing" or "streaming over" the pillow; even I know that prior to the changes brought about by Vatican II, nuns wore their hair cut very short after profession. And all of these carpets and soft chairs and sofas we're told about; has the author ever been inside a contemplative monastery? The ones I've seen (which are many) are stark in their simplicity and creature comforts nearly unknown.

And then there's the prose. Oh dear. Hanson describes a crucified Christ as "softly breasted and feminine and redly willowed in blood." Willowed? What does that mean? His trees "shift their feet like hired hands" (really? trees have feet?). At one point "Mariette whose penance it is to lie down on the floor like the shoe-black door to a dank, dark cellar where fruit blooms in the jars" (p. 117). Shoe-black, meaning as black as a shoe? Or as black as shoe polish? Or what? I think the author's attempt at poetic language got away from him there. Not to mention that flowers bloom, fruit does not. "She simply waits, like an intricate memory." Well which is it, Hanson--simple, or intricate? Do make up your mind. What exactly is that "winter shag" that blows over the Morgan horse near the end of the book? Not even Mr Google seems to know.
(And what's with the lipstick-wearing nun on the cover?)
Oh dear.

Not content with that, nothing is developed: not the characters, and certainly not the plot. When he's done playing with it (and with the reader) he simply tacks on an ending that skips merrily through time in about 2 pages, explaining nothing, resolving nothing.

This is certainly one of MacBeth's tales full of sound and fury--signifying very little. ...more

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Nov 23, 2018 Amalie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: spirituality, christianity

As it is evident here among the Good Readers, some may not like this novel. Non Catholics may not understand some ideas in this book. If you are hoping for a gripping and compelling plot, you'd probably get disappointed because in my opinion, this is a novel which explores the diverse nature of religious faith: how people always long for mystical spiritual experiences, yet when they are faced with it, they lack belief.

Perhaps the best part of this book is its ambiguous ending that leaves enough ...more

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Aug 08, 2019 Irene rated it liked it

This short novel rests on the reader’s attitude toward and perception of mystical religious experiences. In 1906, in an inconsequential cloistered community of nuns, a young postulant arrives claiming ecstatic trances and religious locutions. In the months that follow, these become more dramatic, including the stigmata. But are these genuine mystical phenomenon? Or are they self-induced injuries, are they psychosomatic manifestations of some form of hysteria? The question is left to each reader ...more

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Sep 05, 2020 Stephen rated it really liked it

Mariette, a 17 year old postulant in an upstate New York nunnery at the turn of the last century develops stigmata upon arriving. The meat of the book is devoted to how this divides the nunnery’s residents into two camps, one blind with adoration, the other bristling with spiteful envy.

This is a very odd book. I enjoyed reading it, largely for the author’s extraordinary skill as a stylist. In a novel in which not very much happens -- well, except stigmata-- and in a setting to which this secular Mariette, a 17 year old postulant in an upstate New York nunnery at the turn of the last century develops stigmata upon arriving. The meat of the book is devoted to how this divides the nunnery’s residents into two camps, one blind with adoration, the other bristling with spiteful envy.

This is a very odd book. I enjoyed reading it, largely for the author’s extraordinary skill as a stylist. In a novel in which not very much happens -- well, except stigmata-- and in a setting to which this secular reader is indifferent, the musicality of the Hansen’s language carries you, and it is very pleasing. It is obvious on every page that Hansen has labored with great skill over every sentence. Here’s an example, a very trivial one.

“Everything slants up into hillsides of green fir and cedar and the gray-blue haze that slurs the horizon.”

The word “slurs” there is both pleasing and poetically exact. Hansen does that continually and is such a master of the image that in the whole of the novel, he dropped only one metaphor that seemed labored (I forgot to highlight it). One reviewer on Amazon said the book had about it the feel of an ambitious MFA effort, but that’s unjust; an MFA student that could write this well would not need an MFA program.

Yet, I still do not know what to make of this book. It would be worth reading with a group just to clarify and test my own perceptions. Among the things that baffle: the narrative is divided into short sections where each section is named after a Catholic feast. Why? Is there something about a specific feast that makes it especially appropriate to the section it heads? No idea. Is it intended, like Saturday cartoons in the 1970s, to function on two levels? If so, it’s hard to see how it succeeds, since, to operate on two levels, the audience who can appreciate it on one of those levels should be blissfully unaware of the other..

I also invite further consideration of the author’s skill at character creation. I finished the book two weeks ago, and the only character that really stands out to me is Dr. Baptiste, Mariette’s father. Of the thirty nuns in the nunnery, only a dozen or so of them play into the story, and I don’t remember the traits of more than two of them. They don’t seem to matter, but I am not convinced that’s how the author meant things to be. It seems more likely the case that where Hansen excels most at conjuring nature and scenery, he’s just less sure-footed when conjuring people.

Still, a largely worthwhile read.
...more

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Jul 12, 2018 Tom Kopff rated it it was amazing

This book is a treasure. It is the story of Mariette, a young postulant in the convent of the Sisters of the Crucifixion. Set n 1906, this story has a bit of the feel of visiting a lost world, but on the whole I think it transcends the dated setting. Mariette is a source of controversy as soon as she enters the convent. Is she as saintly as she seems, is she delusional, or is she putting on an act. The sisters are divided, and there is no easy way to determine the truth.

Mr. Hansen is clearly we ...more

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Oct 15, 2019 Simon rated it liked it

The writing is gorgeous and effortless. In a kind of literary pointilism, Hansen builds a convincing portrait of a 1906 monastery of Benedictine women. The house has French/Belgian origins and a strict enclosure. Mariette Baptiste is received by the community as a 17 year-old postulant. She is also the actual sister of the Mother Superior, and Hansen occasionally offers a delicate hint that Mariette's vocation may be, in fact, following her sister's example.

He has a jeweler's eye for community l ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Barbara Ellison added it

I'm reading the six "reviews" below and shaking my head in absolute disbelief--"intriguing" and "well-written" are not terms that you can apply to this thin slice of prose disguised as a novel. There is very little narrative flow to this book as it is written as a sequence of short bursts of unrelated information almost like a draft outline a writer would use to help guide him to write a work of more complexity. But if you wanted to allow for this format being the "novel" idea, then what is writ ...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Alika Tanaka Yarnell rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: People who claim they have the marks of stigmata

Shelves: fiction, faves

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I felt like throughout the book, there were several lines that were so brilliant and sparse and beautiful. Usually this occurred during the beginning of sections when describing nature or simple movements. He used words to describe in unique ways that were right on point, not confusing or obscure, just crisp and sharp and clear. [“turns over a great slab of dough that rolls as slowly as a white pig” 4, “A nickel light is just above the horizon” 5, “holding grapes like a half-pound of pearls” 38, I felt like throughout the book, there were several lines that were so brilliant and sparse and beautiful. Usually this occurred during the beginning of sections when describing nature or simple movements. He used words to describe in unique ways that were right on point, not confusing or obscure, just crisp and sharp and clear. [“turns over a great slab of dough that rolls as slowly as a white pig” 4, “A nickel light is just above the horizon” 5, “holding grapes like a half-pound of pearls” 38, “The moonsweep is sliced with ripples” 47, “Fruit trees shift their feet like hired hands” 64, “A yellow thumb of flame” 93, “Chill winds flute through the chimney flues” 111, “pale blossom of steam” 112, “skin like the moon” 120, “flesh-pale skies and pinkish trees without hunters in them” 128, “milky chute of sunlight” 135, “Haystacks have softened into breasts” 145, “gray braid of smoke” 170, etc] I felt like during the whole book I could really see the characters and setting like a film. Feel the coldness, the hardness. The book told you how to read it, I got used to the religious terms after awhile, even if I didn’t know what certain parts of the church were, or what mass was what, I got the gist.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I thought it was interesting that we didn’t see Mariette with the stigmata until halfway into the book, yet after reading it, I felt like it had been going on for quite some time. I appreciated that the truth was left ambiguous. There was definite evidence for both sides of the case. It seemed hard to believe that she could fake it so many times and in the way that she did it, but the note about the priests not trusting her character, her knowledge of science, the bloody vile, her disappearing wounds, they all made the case that it could’ve been a hoax. I feel like it depends on each reader’s personal beliefs on what he/she thinks really happened. In real life, it would be the same, there would never be any complete proof one way or the other. And yet, aside from trying to crack the mystery of whether she was telling the truth or not, I feel the ending paragraph is key to the whole book: “And Christ still sends me roses. We try to be formed and held and kept by him, but instead he offers us freedom. And now when I try to know his will, his kindness floods me, his great love overwhelms me, and I hear him whisper, Surprise me.” 179 Those ending words, “surprise me,” were actually surprising to read, seemed to deviate from the tone of the rest of the book in a playful, exciting, secular kind of way. The notion of freedom wasn’t discussed before, it was always about sinning and doing everything for Jesus and offering up pain for those in purgatory, etc. There was so much suffering and sacrifice. So this shift at the end comes as a surprise in a way, although we see the years fly by rapidly in those final pages and Mariette is now an older woman looking back. This is what she’s learned over the years. ...more

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Jul 11, 2017 Graychin rated it liked it

There’s an old friction in Christianity between the longing for mystical experience and the keep-your-head-down plodding work of the humble, devotional life. Hansen’s book succeeds best when he keeps to this theme, exploring the jealousies and factionalism that erupt at an upstate New York convent when a teenage postulant suffers a series of increasingly intense mystical experiences.

Unfortunately, Mariette in Ecstasy also suffers from a bad case of what I like to call “Writer’s-Workshopitis.” I ...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Adam rated it really liked it

Shelves: elegance, minimalism

I’m tempted to call this story a spiritual mystery novel, but Hansen allows the central question of Mariette Baptiste’s stigmatic experiences to remain an enigma, without explanation or explicit verification. And this is how it should be. Hansen’s prose here is simply a delight: spare, lyrical, and devotional. With the novel’s subject matter and quiet, measured pacing, it’s certainly a book that requires the reader to be in the “right mood” to appreciate it, but, that said, it is truly a fine pi ...more

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Aug 03, 2020 Mike rated it it was amazing

Spare, haunting book about the mysterious events at a convent in 1906. Really liked this one.

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Aug 19, 2017 Willynillyster rated it it was amazing

A full five stars. This book is probably not for everyone, but I found it haunting, fascinating, compelling. The writing is spare, the descriptions lyrical. It is a rich, complex book exploring the tension between faith and skepticism, truth and deception. The story itself is a mystery, the prose is so tight that it's like unpacking poetry. A bit of work, for those who are willing to do it, but definitely worth the effort. ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Fitz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: faves

I can't say I've liked Mr. Hansen's other work so much, but this book rings with a lyricism that is rare, so perhaps one novel of this caliber in a person's lifetime is enough. Some passages read like poetry, and there is an intimacy in the tone that draws the reader in. Please don't think you wouldn't want to read a book about nuns! Give it a chance and you'll likely be happy you did. ...more

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May 15, 2018 Johannes rated it it was amazing

Good Catholics novels are always corporal: messy, strange, steeped in sin, because sin, no matter how disfiguring, has a central role in the drama of redemption (cf. Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, etc). But, this novel deals perhaps less with sin and more with the uncertainty of faith...or the uncertain leap of faith. I truly loved this one! ...more

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Jan 29, 2008 Rebecca Grace rated it did not like it

Recommended to Rebecca Grace by: Stephen O'Neil

Shelves: fiction

I'm sorry, but this book was just stupid. It turned out the person who recommended it to me hadn't even read it himself. What a tragic waste of time when there are so many worthwhile books out there waiting to be read and so few opportunities to read them! ...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Charles Lewis rated it it was amazing

A brilliant account of the mystery of faith confronting the ordinary. Hansen is probably one of the best American writers living today. He's incredibly versatile: not one of his books is like any other. ...more

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Nov 13, 2007 eb rated it really liked it

Hanson writes like an angel. I'm not sure why, but this felt like it should be a 400-page epic with multiple plot strands, rather than a slim novella. ...more

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About Ron Hansen

Ron Hansen

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Ron Hansen is the author of two story collections, two volumes of essays, and nine novels, including most recently The Kid, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. His novel Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award. He teaches at Santa Clara University.

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“We try to be formed and held and kept by him, but instead he offers us freedom. And now when I try to know his will, his kindness floods me, his great love overwhelms me, and I hear him whisper, Surprise me.” — 9 likes

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