Memoirs of a Medieval Woman
Subtitle: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Harper & Row
Published: January 19, 1983, c1964
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Philadelphia, Pa.; St. Louis, Mo.; San Francisco, Calif.; London, U.K.; Singapore; Sydney, N.S.W.; Tokyo; Toronto, Ont.
Language: eng
Format: paperback ; ill.
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9780060909925
Subjects: Biography: general; Christian Mysticism; Christianity; c 1000 CE to c 1500; Europe - Great Britain - General; History; Religious; Pilgrims and pilgrimages; Medieval; History / Great Britain; Women's Studies - General; Authors, English; Kempe, Margery, b. ca. 1373; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages; Women and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500; Christian literature, English (Middle) -- History and criticism; Authors, English -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- Biography; Mysticism -- England -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Women -- England -- History -- Middle Ages, 500-1500
Genres: Biography
First sentence: Margery Brunham, or Burnham, was born about 1373 in Bishop's Lynn, as King's Lynn was then called, in Norfolk.
Description: From back cover: This unique biography tells the story of an extraordinary fifteenth-century woman who journeyed all over Europe from England to the Holy Land. A vigorous and passionate woman, Margery Kempe was married and had fourteen children when she deserted her family to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to expiate a "secret sin" in her early life. Along the way she meets many famous prelates and dignitaries, gets into all sorts of scrapes, and survives a feverish voyage in the stinking galleys of a Venetian boat.
Drawing on the chronicles of her contemporaries and on her own clear-eyed autobiography -- dictated to a priest near the end of her life and said to be the first written in English -- these memoirs reveal a woman who has strange ideas about such things as sin and sainthood, dress, diet, and sex, and provides a colorful and detailed picture of everyday medieval life in England and around the rim of the Mediterranean. Part-time historian Louise Collis brings a novelist's flair to this fascinating, well-researched story.
Notes: Originally published 1964 in England by Thomas Y. Crowell Company under the title The Apprentice Saint.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: label: I
title: Introduction
pagenum: 9; label: II
title: Marriage and Illumination
pagenum: 13; label: III
title: The Sins of Love
pagenum: 17; label: IV
title: The Anchorite Encourages
pagenum: 21; label: V
title: The Visit to Norwich
pagenum: 27; label: VI
title: The Widows of Lynn
pagenum: 31; label: VII
title: John Kempe's Bargain
pagenum: 35; label: VIII
title: Escape from Burning
pagenum: 40; label: IX
title: Audience with the Bishop of London
pagenum: 44; label: X
title: Interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury
pagenum: 48; label: XI
title: Preparations for the Journey
pagenum: 51; label: XII
title: Misadventures on the Road to Venice
pagenum: 55; label: XIII
title: Venice
pagenum: 63; label: XIV
title: Taking Ship
pagenum: 70; label: XV
title: On Shipboard
pagenum: 76; label: XVI
title: Jaffa to Jerusalem
pagenum: 81; label: XVII
title: The Holy Places
pagenum: 92; label: XVIII
title: The Holy Sepulchre
pagenum: 98; label: XIX
title: Excursions
pagenum: 104; label: XX
title: Return to Italy
pagenum: 114; label: XXI
title: Richard the Irishman
pagenum: 117; label: XXII
title: The Holy Father
pagenum: 124; label: XXIII
title: Arrival in Rome
pagenum: 128; label: XXIV
title: Expelled from the Hostel
pagenum: 132; label: XXV
title: St. Bridget's Example
pagenum: 139; label: XXVI
title: Married to God
pagenum: 144; label: XXVII
title: The Affair of the White Clothes
pagenum: 148; label: XXVIII
title: Beggared in Rome
pagenum: 152; label: XXIX
title: Last Roman Victories
pagenum: 158; label: XXX
title: Return to England
pagenum: 164; label: XXXI
title: Reunion
pagenum: 171; label: XXXII
title: The Year of Agincourt
pagenum: 176; label: XXXIII
title: Before the Bishop of Worcester
pagenum: 181; label: XXXIV
title: Santiago de Compostela
pagenum: 186; label: XXXV
title: The Mayor of Leicester
pagenum: 190; label: XXXVI
title: The Archbishop of York at Cawood
pagenum: 199; label: XXXVII
title: The Archbishop of Beverly
pagenum: 207; label: XXXVIII
title: Retirement to Lynn
pagenum: 215; label: XXXIX
title: The Great Fire of Lynn
pagenum: 222; label: XL
title: The Erring Son
pagenum: 228; label: XLI
title: Adventures in Northern Europe
pagenum: 235; label: XLII
title: The Worshipful Woman of London
pagenum: 242; label: XLIII
title: The Book
pagenum: 249; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 261; title: Index
pagenum: 265