A kind of fifteenth-century Eat, Pray, Love, Revelations illuminates the intersecting lives of two female mystics who changed history–Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. Bishop’s Lynn, England, 1413. At the age of forty, Margery Kempe has nearly died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Fearing that another pregnancy might kill her, she makes a vow of celibacy, but she can’t trust her … she can’t trust her husband to keep his end of the bargain. Desperate for counsel, she visits the famous anchoress Dame Julian of Norwich.
Pouring out her heart, Margery confesses that she has been haunted by visceral religious visions. Julian then offers up a confession of her own: she has written a secret, radical book about her own visions, Revelations of Divine Love. Nearing the end of her life and fearing Church authorities, Julian entrusts her precious book to Margery, who sets off the adventure of a lifetime to secretly spread Julian’s words.
Mary Sharratt vividly brings the medieval past to life as Margery blazes her trail across Europe and the Near East, finding her unique spiritual path and vocation. It’s not in a cloistered cell like Julian, but in the full bustle of worldly existence with all its wonders and perils.
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A gem of a book.
Revelations by Mary Sharratt is an excellent historical fiction that is based on the true life and experiences of the once-forgotten Margery Kempe. This is a wonderful glimpse into the 1400s England. Everything about this book, this journey, resonates with me.
First off, I had to do research after reading this book, as I have never heard of Margery Kempe before and found it fascinating that the pages from the author of the first female “autobiography” was unearthed less then 100 years ago. This is fascinating. To get this kind of a window into history is astounding.
The author clearly did her research, and there were times when I literally felt as if I was traveling along with Margery. The dirt, the smells, the landscapes, it was all there. Not only did I get a glimpse into this time period, but I also got a closer look at this interesting woman. By her descriptions, her trials, her fears, hopes and sacrifices, I was able to piece together the societal rules and restrictions that tethered women. It was hard to see how difficult life truly was, how unfair, and I found myself rooting for Margery and her quests and travels, hoping that she would fulfill her purpose and find what she was ultimately looking for.
Just stunning. A must read for anyone that enjoys strong female characters and medieval English history.
5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Miffilin Harcourt for this wonderful ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/27/21.
How I loved this book! How refreshing to read about a Saint who was a continual source of irritation to everyone around her! From her sharp tongue to her noisy weeping (which had the effect of instantly emptying churches), People couldn’t flee from her swiftly enough.
Margery Kempe seems to have been one of those unfortunate people who bring bad luck on themselves. This volume reads as a catalogue of disaster, from the unrelenting contempt & ridicule heaped upon her by the people of Bishop’s Lynn in Norfolk (Margery’s home town, now called King’s Lynn), to the way successive landlords evicted her from their properties because her personality had the effect of riling everyone up, to the coldness with which her children greeted her when she returned from Jerusalem, to their glee & relief when she decided to leave on another pilgrimage (to Santiage de Compostela.)
Poor Margery rarely caught a break. The only people who ever supported her were fellow Saint & Mystic Julian of Norwich, and the various strangers she met on her travels. (She made friends easily due to her kind heart.)
Of course, it didn’t help that she was a woman who lived between circa 1373 and 1440. In those days, men treated any woman with the utmost contempt, so a noisily weeping middle-aged woman was not going to play on their sympathies. Things got dangerous for Margery towards the end of this volume when, in 1417, she was accused of Lollardy (an early form of Protestantism.)
Mary Sharratt does wonders with this material, making vivid the dangers a woman faced under Male Rule, when Men could literally do as they liked, including rape their wives. Five stars.
Revelations is sure to be one of the best books of 2021. Put it on your TBR pile now!!
Mary Sharratt transports the reader to medieval times (1400s) with her story of the once forgotten Margery Kempe, housewife and mother to fourteen children, who believed she had a revelation to leave her family to travel the world on pilgrimages to honor her Lord. Margery visited Dame Julian of Norwich, a holy and highly learned anchoress, to share her calling and to seek her counsel before leaving on her pilgimages. Dame Julian, advised Margery to trust in God and all would be well.
Margery begins her pilgramages and Sharratt’s research, and skillful writing takes the reader along through every bit of them; the hardships, the mortal danger, the contempt of many, the hunger of others for her words and presence, her revelations, her joy, her convictions, her doubt, and her trial as a heretic.
Dame Julian of Norwich had sixteen revelations of Christ as she lay on her deathbed during an illness from which she recovered. Her manuscipt of those revelations became “Revelations of Divine Love”, the first book written in English by a woman. Kempe wrote her own story “The Book of Margery Kempe” which became the first autobiography in the English language.
The lives and times of these two remarkable women are fascinating. Thank-you, Mary Sharratt for writing such a marvelous book!! I highly recommend it to all.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for letting me read a review copy of this book. All opinions (and any errors) expressed in this review are my own.
Love how Mary Sharratt brings women front and center into history!