THERESE OF LISIEUX (Virago/Pantheon Pioneers Series)

Rating:
Summary: a worthwhile re-examination...
Review: I am a big fan of Therese Martin, and I've read a number of her biographies, as well as her autobiography, though I don't know if I've read the original. Why? Because her writings were heavily edited by her sisters, as her photographs were retouched. Ms. Furlong's biography avoids many of these pitfalls. I found her approach refreshing. She describes the pietism of Therese's family, the unhealthy conditions in her convent,the personalities of her sisters and fellow nuns, the abusive observance of the Carmelite rule, her irrational mother superior, and the opportunistic way her biological sisters helped engineer her early recognition as a saint. All of this does not detract from Therese's psychological maturity and contributions to modern Catholic thought. So much about her life is known through letters and memoirs, as well as the testimonies at her canonization. It would be a good thing if a modern first-class biographer were to get access to all of these materials in order to write a modern biography of Therese, her life and times. Penguin is publishing a new biography of Therese this year, which may be just the thing.

Rating:
Summary: A refreshing re-evaluation...
Review: I am a big fan of Therese Martin. I also liked this book. It is a refreshing change from the usual hagiographical accounts of Therese's life. So much is known about her life, that I wish it could be re-examined by modern non-Carmelite authors, with the same rigor, objectivitivy and thoroughness, as bifits a major historical figure of the twentieth century. (close enough-she died in 1897). Monica Furlong has attempted some of this in her book. She discusses her family's late 19th century French pietism, her relatives, the personalities of her biological sisters and fellow nuns, her unhealthy cloister, the abusive aspects of the Carmelite rule, her unbalanced and irrational mother superior, her incompetent medical care, and the mechanism that went into place as soon her biological sisters realized that she was dying to ensure her early recognition as a saint. None of this detracts from Therese's psychological maturity and contributions to modern Catholic thought.

Rating:
Summary: Appalling
Review: I found this author's twisted "re-evaluation" absolutely sickening. Monica Furlong apparently believes Therese became a nun to avoid "uncontrolled childbearing", though she offers nothing to back up this assumption. Though she originally admits Therese's tuberculosis was incurable, she still manages to blame the convent for her death. She has absolutely no appreciation of Catholic spirituality, and lacking this cannot begin to comprehend the life of a great saint. She apparently feels Therese of Lisieux would have been better off living like a character in "Sex and the City". An excellent example of how spiritually impoverished modern feminism really is.

Rating:
Summary: Au contraire mes amies!
Review: The author explains how she was attracted to this life because she too was the youngest daughter in her family and identified with Therese Martin. She describes in a somewhat dispassionate way the unusual (even among contemporaries) home life of Therese's family, and is at pains to separate the facts from the interpretation which Therese's own book _Story of a Soul_ would sometimes put on it. The author is clearly very sympathetic with the situation in life that Therese was in, but stays clear of hero worship when detailing the very remarkable facts of life and subsequent canonization. The portion of the book describing Therese's final agonizing illness are truly harrowing, with a measure of outrage at how she was allowed to suffer to a degree which was quite unneccessary. As she quotes only very sparingly from _Story of a Soul_ it should not be considered to be a replacement for that work.