Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life [Hardcover]

Mirabai Starr (Translator), Tessa Bielecki (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2007

She was the last person anyone would have expected to become a nun, yet she became one of the most famous nuns of all time. She was a brilliant administrator in a world where such vocations were all but closed to women. And above all she combined an astonishing proclivity for ecstatic union with God with down-to-earth practicality and good humor. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) is one of the most beloved of the Catholic saints. Her texts of spiritual instruction, such as The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection, speak so plainly and eloquently about the interior life that they have become undisputed classics, studied by people of many faiths. In 1562, at the request of the Spanish Inquisition, Teresa sat down to write an account of the mystical experiences for which she had become famous. The result was this book, one of the great classics of spiritual autobiography.

With this fresh translation of The Book of My Life, Mirabai Starr brings the inimitable Spanish mystic to life for a new generation—with contemporary English that mirrors Teresa’s own earthy, vernacular Spanish, and that presents us with—four centuries after Teresa’s death—someone we feel we know: a woman intoxicated with God yet filled with an overflowing love for the world.  

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starr, an adjunct professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of New Mexico, is already known to fans of Saint Teresa of Ávila as the translator of the 16th-century nun's work The Interior Castle. Now Starr tackles Teresa's better-known autobiography, which has not seen a new English translation in four decades. Starr is the first woman, and one of the only non-Catholics, to translate the memoir. These vantage points give her a fresh perspective on the mystic, whose writings can be verbose and shrouded in overspiritualized language. (Thankfully, Starr has also cut almost all of the saint's self-annihilating statements about being a "wretched worm.") Crisp, contemporary language puts Teresa's famous passion for God in stark relief. Carmelite hermit and author Tessa Bielecki provides a brief but engaging foreword, while Starr pens a helpful introduction, highlighting Teresa's life and placing her work in historical context. (Feb.)
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Review

“A cause for celebration: who could have imagined that a Doctor of the Church would have been such good company, in her remaining writings, to so many? Starr’s translation is the first new translation into English for forty years and the first by a woman, and its easy fluency captures Teresa’s conversational enthusiasm most effectively.”—Library Journal (starred review)

"A fresh perspective on the mystic. . . . Crisp, contemporary language puts Teresa’s famous passion for God in stark relief."—Publishers Weekly

“Mirabai Starr’s translation is a work for our time. She has given Teresa a presence and a voice in a modern era.  Saint Teresa no doubt chose Mirabai, for her talent with language and Spanish translation is pure genius."—Caroline Myss, author of Entering the Castle and Anatomy of the Spirit

“Mirabai Starr’s translation makes totally accessible this most famous (and attractive) saint. The writing has such a delightful sparkle you can't help falling in love with Teresa.”—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War

“Saint Teresa of Ávila has long deserved a far wider readership than existing translations have secured for her. She wrote, as she undoubtedly spoke, in an unapologetically vernacular Spanish—idiomatic, vivid, and informal—and Mirabai Starr’s rendering is all of that. The clarity and vitality of this new Autobiography will bring a whole new generation of seekers into the blessed presence of ‘La Madre.’”—Carol Lee Flinders, author of Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics and Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action

“Saints’ lives are not always page-turners. But Mirabai Starr´s wonderfully fresh translation of the Vida of Teresa of Ávila captures the passionate spirituality, the talent for intimacy, the frankly fallible humanity that attracted her contemporaries to the woman Starr describes, in her introduction, as ‘not an obvious saint.’ Tessa Bielecki´s deeply-felt foreword is one inducement among many to take this welcome new translation to heart."—Cathleen Medwick, author of Teresa of Ávila : The Progress of a Soul

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: New Seeds; 1ST edition (February 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590303652
• ISBN-13: 978-1590303658
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #851,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Value, July 29, 2007

By 

Netanel Miles-Yepez (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life (Hardcover)

In another review, this book has been accused of being "false and misleading." Thinking about this accusation, I am reminded of a passage in Teresa's autobiography where certain confessors attempt to convince Teresa that her mystical raptures and visions are of an unholy origin. After some judicious consideration, Teresa decided that this couldn't be so---they were most certainly from God. After all, she reasoned, would the Devil really give such gifts as these which have only served to intoxicate her more and more with her Beloved Sovereign and which seem to have had such a salutary effect upon her character? And following this line of thought, I would suggest, as someone who has read and thoroughly enjoyed this translation, that a translation can never be anything but an interpretation, but the true mark of its success is in its transformative effect upon the reader. And though I am no stranger to spiritual literature, I often found myself awed by Teresa's spiritual mastery, her holy audacity and deep humility while reading this work. So I feel as if I must conclude that whatever material differences may exist between the original Spanish and this English translation, the sense and spirit have been translated in such a way as to have affected this reader quite profoundly. To my mind, Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life by Mirabai Starr is a book of beauty and profound spiritual value, a true spiritual classic. I highly recommend this translation to anyone, Christian or otherwise, who seeks to deepen in spiritual practice, especially the practice of contemplative prayer, or to any who are simply looking for good models of holiness in the past still relevant for us today.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exquisite Translation, July 12, 2007

By 

Brian Emo (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life (Hardcover)

Mirabai Starr's inspired translation invokes a living voice for Teresa that vividly expresses her profound wisdom, incomparable wit, commonsense worldview, and uncompromising honesty. I felt as though Teresa was speaking directly to me in present time ... as if we were sharing an intimate conversation.

What emerges is a multidimensional portrayal of Teresa as a woman, nun, intrepid reformer, teacher, mystic, and saint.

This is the fascinating story of a soul whose trajectory to sainthood was often impeded by struggle, self-recrimination, doubt, and frustration -- which gives us all hope for our own progress. Teresa was a force-of-nature, deeply pious and humble, and yet fiercely determined to deliver her message.

Ms. Starr's translation is a true work of scholarship that animates Teresa's life with remarkable realism and humanity. Teresa's powerful teachings are deftly translated in all their authentic splendor, rendering them accessible and eternally relevant.

This is not a wooden translation that obscures the humanity of its subject. It is an engaging read about one of the most charismatic mystics of all time.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Depends on what you are looking for..., August 5, 2009

By 

sobepeace - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life (Paperback)

This is a lively, fluid, immensely readable version of the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, a magnificent spiritual classic. Whether you will thrill to it as much as some reviewers here, or disdain the translator's choices, as have others, will have much to do with what you seek.

Any translation project is bedeviled by the twin aims of faithfulness and accessibility tangling with one another (not to mention the translator). The degree of priority given to one objective over the other will have varying impacts on different readers. One translation may touch you far more tenderly than another, yet leave your neighbor cold. Or it may affect the same person in different ways at different times. Indeed, reading more than one translation of spiritual texts is often beneficial, as each may tap distinct strengths of the original, leading to a richer composite.

I enjoyed the liveliness of this translation, and found it absorbing on a level that more exact renderings struggle to attain. I admit, though, that some of the translation choices "missed the mark" for me, at times making Teresa feel stifled--like having a phone conversation dotted with bursts of static. It also made me itch to uncover what lay hidden behind the at times hyper-contemporary idiom. In the end, upon finishing this version, I found myself aching to engage the saint without interference, and reaching for another version of the work in order to do so. Still, I don't regret the time I spent reading this translation.

So, if you seek to encounter the vibrancy and style of this grand, wild, fabulous saint in a compelling and readable translation of her autobiography, the eloquence and immediacy of this edition will be most welcome. If you prefer to meet Teresa on her own terms, in her original context and expression, without learning Spanish (with a sixteenth century twist, at that), then you will likely find greater profit in the more precise translations (by Peers or Kavanaugh, for example). But, if you choose according to your disposition, the vigor of St. Teresa will penetrate idiosyncrasies and come alive for you. The woman faced down the Spanish Inquisition--she can stand up to a gaggle of translators!