SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
A fascinating glimpse of the medieval past, this audiobook details the life and spiritual experiences of Margery Kempe, a Christian mystic who lived in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. Lucy Scott’s narration draws listeners into Kempe’s autobiographical details. Her delivery of Kempe’s dialogue with God expresses earnestness and humility. The contrast between Kempe’s voice and the firm yet encouraging voice of God makes the dialogue between the two convincing. One of the most poignant parts of the audiobook recounts Kempe’s trip to Jerusalem, where she feels and sees the suffering of Jesus. As this audiobook uniquely presents Kempe’s experiences, spiritual and otherwise, Scott’s temperance in her narration helps listeners find much to appreciate. D.M.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Library Journal
This classic, one of the first English autobiographies, chronicles the spiritual life of a very unusual, and illiterate, medieval woman. Not an autobiography in the modern sense, the text--dictated between 1432 and 1436--provides sparse personal detail but does give some insight into the beliefs of this holy woman. Kempe (c. 1373-c. 1440) ran a brewery, married, and mothered 14 children before taking a vow of chastity. In her subsequent pilgrimages she learned much through pious conversations with strangers and gained important insights from her communion with God about how her manner of dress and uncontrolled tears at communion would save her from some "secret" sin. Numerous translations of these writings exist, including the Middle English Memoirs of a Medieval Woman (1983), but this text uses modern English and organizes the chapters chronologically, making for a better story. Recommended for popular religious collections.--Leo Kriz, West Des Moines Lib., IA
Fran Shaw
...[A]n oral history of the religious life of an English woman...an account of the awakening of a spiritual love "fixed upon God"....[a book for] the student of history, especially church history, medieval Catholicism, and 14th-century England.
— Parabola
SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
A fascinating glimpse of the medieval past, this audiobook details the life and spiritual experiences of Margery Kempe, a Christian mystic who lived in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. Lucy Scott’s narration draws listeners into Kempe’s autobiographical details. Her delivery of Kempe’s dialogue with God expresses earnestness and humility. The contrast between Kempe’s voice and the firm yet encouraging voice of God makes the dialogue between the two convincing. One of the most poignant parts of the audiobook recounts Kempe’s trip to Jerusalem, where she feels and sees the suffering of Jesus. As this audiobook uniquely presents Kempe’s experiences, spiritual and otherwise, Scott’s temperance in her narration helps listeners find much to appreciate. D.M.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
