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Rating: 
Summary: Interesting medieval spirituality book; bad edition
Review: Margery Kempe was an extraordinary and driven woman who lived in a time (1373~1440s) when that was nearly unheard of, and certainly not recorded for the present generation. Her book is generally accorded to be the first autobiography written in English, an amazing feat considering she was a woman, and that she could neither read nor write. In her narration to a scribe, she described her spiritual journey through life and her love of God, and in the process gives us a glimpse of the historical world that she lived in. It is translated from old english and is broken into many small, loosely-chronological chapters, each describing an aspect of some incident or journey. If you are interested in medieval history, Christianity, mysticism or feminism, this is a great book to try. Its format might be a little hard to get into at first, because it is written in the third person and jumps about from topic to topic, but the introduction should fill you in on most aspects - the only problem is that this introduction is more geared towards sensationalizing Margery's experience, rather than celebrating it. Some readers do feel that Margery was mentally ill because of her wild devotional behaviors and her abnormal lifestyle, but it is equally regarded that her panache, courage and true love of her deity that made her so different. Margery Kempe was an eccentric wandering pilgrim for most of the time covered in the book, and she shares her exploits such as being tried for heresy before powerful men like the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, fighting and winning the right to a chaste marriage from her husband, going on Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome with a group that despised her, getting chased out of towns and made fun of by monks. It also includes the spiritual side, which include Margery's direct conversations with God, her explanations of her loud, uncontrollable crying fits, her passionate love of Jesus and her knowledge of Catholic and Biblical doctrine. The Book of Margery Kempe has been translated and introduced by many different authors, and it would be my suggestion to find one other than this if you're interested in Margery - such as the one by Penguin Classics translated by B.A. Windeatt - ones that use research and scholarship rather than sensationalism to bolster the amazing story of this historical figure.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting medieval spirituality book; bad edition
Review: Margery Kempe was an extraordinary and driven woman who lived in a time (1373~1440s) when that was nearly unheard of, and certainly not recorded for the present generation. Her book is generally accorded to be the first autobiography written in English, an amazing feat considering she was a woman, and that she could neither read nor write. In her narration to a scribe, she described her spiritual journey through life and her love of God, and in the process gives us a glimpse of the historical world that she lived in. It is translated from old english and is broken into many small, loosely-chronological chapters, each describing an aspect of some incident or journey. If you are interested in medieval history, Christianity, mysticism or feminism, this is a great book to try. Its format might be a little hard to get into at first, because it is written in the third person and jumps about from topic to topic, but the introduction should fill you in on most aspects - the only problem is that this introduction is more geared towards sensationalizing Margery's experience, rather than celebrating it. Some readers do feel that Margery was mentally ill because of her wild devotional behaviors and her abnormal lifestyle, but it is equally regarded that her panache, courage and true love of her deity that made her so different. Margery Kempe was an eccentric wandering pilgrim for most of the time covered in the book, and she shares her exploits such as being tried for heresy before powerful men like the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, fighting and winning the right to a chaste marriage from her husband, going on Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome with a group that despised her, getting chased out of towns and made fun of by monks. It also includes the spiritual side, which include Margery's direct conversations with God, her explanations of her loud, uncontrollable crying fits, her passionate love of Jesus and her knowledge of Catholic and Biblical doctrine. The Book of Margery Kempe has been translated and introduced by many different authors, and it would be my suggestion to find one other than this if you're interested in Margery - such as the one by Penguin Classics translated by B.A. Windeatt - ones that use research and scholarship rather than sensationalism to bolster the amazing story of this historical figure.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a look for any medievalist
Review: This book manages to be of interest to anyone who wishes a travelogue of medieval pilgrimages, a humble recognition that even the oddest among us can have their minds very occupied with the divine, a look at the first autobiography of an English woman, or a case study in obsessive compulsive behaviour. Margery's disjointed recollections, coupled with her constant references to her revelations and retroactive "virginity," admittedly are not a fun pursuit, but her extreme case does seem to place much of the deficiencies inherited from the worst in medieval spirituality (a legacy of the Plague ... even if the best of the era was the finest in history) into perspective. I guarantee that, while one may find Margery as troublesome as did those of her time and place, one will never find her recollections dull.
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