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Margery Kempe

Författare till The Book of Margery Kempe

13+ verk 1,838 medlemmar 19 recensioner 4 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

The daughter of a respected merchant and public official, Margery Kempe was born in about 1373 in Norfolk, England. When Kempe was in her 20s, she began having visions in which she talked to Jesus, Mary, and some saints. In 1414, Kempe and her husband, a local official named John Kempe whom she visa mer married in 1393, embarked on a series of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and throughout Europe. At about the age of 60, Kempe dictated her spiritual autobiography to two scribes. The earliest autobiography written in English, The Book of Margery Kempe discusses every aspect of Kempe's life, including her marriage, religious conversion, and many pilgrimages. Margery Kempe is believed to have died sometime around 1440. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre

Verk av Margery Kempe

Associerade verk

Masters of British Literature, Volume A (2007) — Bidragsgivare — 20 exemplar
Women on Nature (2021) — Bidragsgivare — 20 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Andra namn
Brunham, Margery
Födelsedag
1373 c.
Avled
1440 c.
Kön
female
Nationalitet
UK
Födelseort
King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
Kort biografi
Kempe is honoured in the Church of England on 9 November and in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America together with Richard Rolle and Walter Hilton on 28 September.

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Have you ever read a memoir by a woman written in the Middle Ages (or one a man or child wrote in the Middle Ages)? That is what this is, and it is amazing. Late in her life, Margery Kempe, who was English, "wrote" by dictating this book to a priest because she was illiterate. Life in the Middle Ages in Britain, the Middle East & Europe in the 15th Century is expressed throughout.

Her particular story is that she believed herself to be, and was believed by many to be, in direct contact with God, for many years. Many people, including many priests and 2 bishops, sought her out for her goodness & insight/guidance She was abused, threatened, beaten, abandoned, ridiculed and despised by a great many other people, who believed that the Devil or a demon had taken over her body. She expressed the closeness she felt to God by constantly talking about what God & Jesus told her & others to do, and she exploded in wild outcries and weeping that often went on for hours.

So, this is, in effect, an artifact of part of Christian Europe/Britain/Middle East. She once spent months in Germany and had one months-long pilgrimage to Jerusalem with many stops along the way, given the transportation choices available at that time. She had occasion to visit churches in France, Italy, Turkey, Syria and Palestine, among other countries. She talked with citizens of many places and had to wait for weeks, or change her routes, occasionally because of various war as well as one Crusade.

This book opened up a whole new world for me.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
RickGeissal | 4 andra recensioner | Aug 16, 2023 |
Was this book particularly readable? No. Does Margery Kempe seem like an annoying person? God yes. Is she also admirable, sorta, in “never wanna meet her” kinda way? I guess? She certainly is a personality and if you muddle through the weeping and the whole Jesus is talking to me thing, you’ll find a dynamic, thirsty af, willful woman.

Just skim when she starts talking about weeping.
 
Flaggad
astronomist | 4 andra recensioner | Oct 3, 2021 |
I felt obliged to try reading this first autobiographical work in the English language, and fortunately it was not as bad as I'd feared. Margery reveals almost nothing about her times (14th century England) but there's entertainment to be had in others' reactions to her incessant weeping, which I can well understand, and yet - since I didn't have to listen to her? - I found her sympathetic. She takes too many daring chances, subjects herself to too much humiliation for me to suspect her of being insincere in her faith.

If her story struck me as funny in places (especially when I forgot how roughshod a society she lived in that could easily make good on its death threats), it isn't out of disrespect for her devotion. I'm made skeptical by the voice of God that sounds almost nothing like him in the Bible, something she doesn't try to do in the brief second part written years later. Her insisting that she bore every trial like a meek saint is a stark contrast with the book itself, which amounts to a written defense and is sometimes even threatening to her persecutors.

Perhaps Margery suffered under a mental illness and this rationalized it for her, maybe it was at least partly an act, or perhaps she really was more blessed than most. It's an intriguing artifact, whichever your view.
… (mer)
1 rösta
Flaggad
Cecrow | 10 andra recensioner | Oct 27, 2020 |
LE LIVRE : UNE MYSTIQUE ANGLAISE AU TEMPS
DE L'HÉRÉSIE LOLLARDE, 1436
 
Flaggad
FundacionRosacruz | 1 annan recension | Jul 17, 2019 |

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Statistik

Verk
13
Även av
3
Medlemmar
1,838
Popularitet
#14,003
Betyg
½ 3.5
Recensioner
19
ISBN
27
Språk
3
Favoritmärkt
4

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