For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

Product Information

Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty--three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so. Via a series of letters she sends to her counsellor, a Benedictine monk from Norwich Cathedral, Julian enters into a dialogue with the reader. The words Gilbert gives her segue effortlessly with the words we already know as hers, thanks to Eliot: “I wait patiently, with no urgency. I have been granted all the time there is. I do not try to make anything of what I see. I hold no expectation or assumption that I know anything at all.” The Book of Margery Kempe, an account dictated to a scribe of her visions of Christ, her often tear-stained travels on a pilgrimage around Europe and beyond, and the charges of heresy she faced, is arguably the first autobiography written in ­English by man or woman. Lost for many centuries, the tale of its rediscovery – in 1934, in a cupboard in a country house by a guest ­looking for a ping-pong ball – has only added to its reputation. Her voice swanned and preened and boasted,” the anchoress will observe of her visitor. “Yet there was another note to her song. Margery Kempe was the loneliest woman I had ever met.” The first title in the deal, Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain, is a literary novel based on the lives of two medieval mystics, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Set in 1413, it explores medieval women’s lives, the effects of grief and trauma, and the genesis of women’s writing.

Partiamo con il presupposto che nonostante non mi piacciano i Pov in questo caso li ho apprezzati. Mettere in parallelo le vicende e i pensieri di Margery e di Julian è stata un’ottima mossa, è stato come rivivere in contemporanea due vite diverse, ma molto simili nelle vicende. A caveat: engaging as both books are, I found the ease with which both recount the fact of the Shewings to be underwhelming. Where is the terror, the sense of awe, the sheer trepidation with which Julian was catapulted into the extraordinary realm of mysticism which she came to inhabit? TWO books that constellate around the life and writings of Julian of Norwich. Both are written in the first person and offer an autobiographical account. Both have captured the voice of Julian in such an authentic way that their text could easily be transferred directly to the stage. Both demand performance. Magnificent, bold and compelling' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Leviathan 'A startling read ... Magic' JO BROWNING WROE, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling A Terrible Kindness

This is the best first novel I've read in years. It is short, yet so full and so vivid; it is amazing. -- RODDY DOYLE, author of LOVE Incredibile come da Gennaio a oggi io sia riuscita a incappare in tutte letture noiose o poco interessanti. Questo libro non è stato differente dagli altri, eppure ci avevo creduto. Ho letto le prime 50 pagine tutte d’un fiato, mi sono detta:”oh, finalmente sono incappata in un buon romanzo” e niente, non è stato così.” Margery has left her fourteen children and husband behind to make her journey. Her visions of Christ - which have long alienated her from her family and neighbours, and incurred her husband's abuse - have placed her in danger with the men of the Church, who have begun to hound her as a heretic. Intimately observed, lyrically written and meticulously researched. I loved this' KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Things We Say in the Dark

Though her actual horizon is as small as can be, she comes to see all of life afresh with a potent clarity. There are, of course, moments of despair – she is certainly no plaster saint – but through a series of visions she glimpses an answer to the questions that torment her, and with it an acceptance.Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty-­three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so. Set in 1413, this novel sees a pivotal meeting of two female mystics from the Middle Ages. Margery Kempe has left her fourteen children and abusive husband behind to make her journey to meet Julian of Norwich, an anchoress withdrawn from the secular world. Margery has visions of Christ that not only get her into trouble with her husband, but also the men of the church, who denounce her visions as heresy. An astounding debut, both epic and intimate, about grief, trauma, revelation, and the hidden lives of women - by a major new talent Have a listen to Victoria's conversation with Shahidha Bari on BBC Radio 4's Front Row (recording begins at 15:13)