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The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin Classics)

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Margery Kempe lived from about 1373~1440s, and she really LIVED. In this book, accorded by many to be the first autobiography in English, a scribe records the tale of her life, but most specifically the aspects of it that relate to her spirituality. She was outspoken, controversial, courageous, annoying, devout, and eccentric and all of these aspects shine through into the book, even through the cloudy filter of a male religious scribe who may have 'polished' her words to make her sound more orthodox.

Margery began life as the daughter of the mayor of Lynn in England, and made a well-suited marriage. After the birth of her first child, she went mad due to some pent-up guilt and an unsympathetic confessor, and during this madness was spoken to by Jesus. This moment changed her life, and snapped her out of the madness. She continued with her worldly ways with failed attempts at entrepenurism and her delight in the physical side of marital relations... but after aobut 20 years she felt the pull of God and decided she needed to devote herself entirely to him.

Margery went about a long process of procuring chastity from her husband and set off on pilgrimages world wide. She was known for her loud, uncontrollable weeping fits that occured at random and caused many to claim she was a heretic. However, she stood trial before the Archbishops of England, on multiple occasions, and was never once convicted of heresy, and in fact often impressed the higher church officials with her knowledge of doctrine and the Bible. She went through many struggles in her life, but her deity was always there communicating with her or helping her through the cruelty of others, assuring her that all her pain on earth would only increase her joy in heaven.

Some reader bewares: Margery was hated for a *reason*, you can see this in so many of the encounters that she has, it is so easy to imagine how nagging and annoying having a prim, preaching, all-knowing person along with you on a long voyage all day long would be; or how alarming it would be to have some woman in hysterical fits day after day in the middle of your church when you were trying to pray. Margery comes across as arrogant in some ways - but if you had the unshakable knowledge that your deity loved you and you were going straight to heaven, wouldn't you be a tad uppity too? She was humble though, for example she spent weeks living in a hovel serving a beggar woman while in Rome, and she returned home to nurse her dying husband when he had a fall.

If you are interested in medieval studies, in women's history or feminism, in mysticism or religious history, this is a must-read for both its historical significance and its entertainment value. Its being taught at college campuses across the country now, so its gaining in recognition. Don't skip the introduction because its extremly informative, but the chapters can be read out of order because they are only loosely chronological and very short. In her time people either loved or hated Margery Kempe, and the same holds true today, so pick up the book and see which side you're on!

My Medieval class is keeping me very busy reading about women in the 14th century. First, I read about Julian of Norwich and her book, "Revelations of Divine Love", which I found to be very wordy and dense. "The Book of Margery Kempe" was easier, in that the theological development is embryonic, and therefore easier to understand, and the reader gets more information about Margery and her personal life.

Margery Kempe lived in England in the 14th century. The daughter of a well-to-do who served as mayor of his town, Margery seems to have had high expectations for her life that weren't realized. She married a man who had money problems, had fourteen children, and ran a brewery business that failed. After the birth of one of her children, Margery had a vision of Christ, and her life was forever changed. The bulk of the book details her various pilgrimages and adventures, as well as detailed accounts of her discussions with Christ.

While this is quite a colorful book, in an emotional sense, Margery doesn't come across as a very sincere person, which is what one would expect from a bride of Christ. One small incident that comes to mind is when Margery is praying for one of her religious instructors to get well. She doesn't pray that he will get healthy for his own sake, but so that she will be able to talk to him again. This theme of self-centered behavior runs throughout the book. Problems are seen not as tests of her faith or spirit, but as personal attacks on Margery, and they are something to be confronted instead of endured, although Margery pays lip service to the concepts of patience and humility.

What got Margery into so much trouble in the first place was the expressions of her intimate dialogues with Christ. Margery would weep, cry, roar and scream whenever God willed her to do this. Of course, this often happened in church and at meals. This often infuriated people, who were convinced that Margery was faking her behavior. Some of the fits do seem to be descriptions of temper tantrums more befitting a child. Margery also had some fits in which she turned blue and twisted from side to side. The classic child tantrum! Another annoying habit was her constant talking about God, Christ and all the spiritual things that those two figures entail. It's not hard to imagine that this would have gotten old fast.

The book reads quick and the endnotes are very helpful in providing dates and places, as well as biographical information on some of the important people that Margery encounters in her travels. The timeline at the front of the book helps keep events in order, as Margery dictated her story to a priest, and her memory doesn't always place events in the right chronological order.

I read the Penguin edition and found it to be most enjoyable. Anyone interested in Medieval history or Christian mysticism should certainly give this one a spin.

As the earliest piece of English writing (in the sense of first-hand account of life rather than fiction) this book is irreplaceable.
I was quite surprised at the readable quality of the book, compared to other medieval writings. True, the book was dictated to an amanuensis by Margery, but that makes it all the more surprising - dictation generally does not have the flow that one's own writing has.
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There are some drawbacks ... the book is written with hindsight, and the facts are necessarily clouded by time and memory, but what does come across is that Margery was a sick woman, mentally, physically and spiritually.
She makes it very clear that she abhors the carnal side of marriage, yet dwells upon it at great length, as if 'the lady doth protest too much'.
Her frequents outbursts of wailing and self-abasement come across as an extreme form of PMS or hysteria brought on by self-denial.
Her excessive praying strikes one as an excuse for anything that she doesn't want to deal with normally.

As others have pointed out, she was well-to-do, had a thriving business, was not molested by her husband (apart from his alleged sexual demands, which do not seem excessive) yet spends an inordinate amount of time bemoaning her fate and her husband's demands on her.

Putting that to one side, there is a lot in this book to make one re-think our views of medieval life and the specifically the role of women.
For a woman to have a good business-head; have her own means of support; dictate conditions of marriage to her husband; travel as and when the mood took her; this doesn't sound like your archetypal medieval goode-wyfe...

Maybe this book should be more widely read ???

Although I lived in Europe for several years, I had not read this book; now I wish I had known about Margery Kempe, and done some research. Dictated by a woman who could not read or write, she was very detailed about her experiences, and I learned quite a bit about the thinking processes, beliefs, and lifestyle of the period. Thoroughly enjoyable, I find it remarkable that it is not on more required reading lists in America. It offers a view not shared by many religious individuals: her crying, wailing, and writhing on the floors of cathedrals and holy places would make her appear unstable, as believed by her peers. However, her conversations with Holy Beings caused beliefs in some. How true to fact is her story? Only the believer, or wannabe believer, can answer that, but the truth is she was a remarkable woman for her time, achieved her goals - if she is believed.

I do agree with the previous reviewers; Margery knew something about God that we have forgotten. Learn from her about Christian life -- yes. But one cannot trust her absolutely. By the way, I liked reading Julian of Norwich's book, and, if you haven't, I would suggest you read that along with this. Her love for Christ is so much purer than this woman's--
Neither follow the modern ideas about Christianity, the watered-down, witless version that treats Christ as our personal servant, believes that a vague belief in God and going to church once a week and buying products with Bible verses on us somehow keeps us protected from the grime and cruelty of the world. I can't really go very far along that theme without quoting whole passages from these books...
I read the book thinking her a hypocrite, and I still think that she is to some degree untrustworthy -- has an inflated idea of her own holiness--
Still she is a teacher for anyone who really wants a relationship with Christ.Revelations of Divine Love (Penguin Classics)

I ordered this book at May 10 and it arrived at May 11! The two-day free ship is really quick here! The book looks like new. This book is a translation version of 'the Book of Margery Kempe', so if you do not read middle English but want to read the book, this one is just perfect for you! It is all written in modern English!

On the one hand, she did some mind-blowing things, considering the context. Yes, first autobiography in English, yes, by a lady, yes, fascinating treasure trove of information and historical environment.

On the other hand, reading this book was an miserable experience. At one point, God tells Margery, "Daughter, it is more pleasing to me that you suffer scorn and humilation, shame and rebukes, wrongs and distress, than if your head were struck off three times a day every day for seven years." WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. What an incredibly merciful god! What a great guy! Ugh. UGH. And the entire book is pretty much like this, except it gets old, and most parts aren't nearly that interesting.

Historically, interesting. Casually, wretched. This was the first book we read in a feminist literature class, and while the class is one of the best I've ever had, my love for it was definitely despite this book. Professors, I really think this is a poor choice to start your class on, and on an undergraduate level, I wouldn't require more than a chapter or two. You may inspire strong emotions, yes, but quite a few of them will be towards you, and many of them will drive people to ditch the book entirely.

The reason why this book is so inspirational is because Margery is very honest throughout about how difficult she finds her spiritual path and her commitment to God, combining this with marriage, children and the persecution and ridicule she faces on her pilgrimages. It is a very rewarding read because of this and one of my favourite books.

I read this for my Later Middle Ages history course, and I must admit that I didn't care for it. The book as other reviewers have said, is written over 20 years in hindsight, and Margery herself must have been an insufferable person whether her experience was true or not. It seemed to me that she brought most of her suffering upon herself and later justified it with her visions...but whether I agree with her experience is really not the point.

As the first known English autobiography, and as an insight to one of the forms that faith took in the Middle Ages (not to mention being from the female perspective) this book is invaluable. But had it not been for class I wouldn't have suffered through the 50 pages of weeping and rambling that I did (we didn't even have to read the whole thing!). Though she was a pilgrim to many holy sites, she notates almost nothing of her external experiences in Jeruselam and Rome - so I don't think that it would be particularly useful to those interested in general history.

Margery Kempe, along with Richard Rolle, were somewhat heretical, and this is helpful to point out what mistakes they made that we Christians (and non-Christians) continue to make. Richard Rolle is also interesting because he, not Chaucer, was the first great writer in English (rather than Latin). I would recommend his Fire of Love as helpful for the things not to do. Dr. Henry P. Roberson, Enid, Oklahoma