The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting reflections on the happening, feeling, and response to events in life
foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
I don't know how to rate this book. How can you describe a 15th century text? I really enjoyed it as a historical account, and I found Kempe's descriptions of travel, lust, madness, her own visions, and the cruelty she experienced, to be fascinating. But as a work of literature it didn't grip me at all: but then, that's not what it's trying to do. A woman was compelled, at great personal risk, to recount her visions and experiences of god, although she was illiterate. That alone, and the fact that it survived, is fascinating, as is its insight into a Medieval mind.
urlphantomhive's review against another edition
2.0
Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com
How To Be a Medieval Woman was like the polar opposite to last week's Little Black Classic: The Suffragettes, and it was a terrible read.
Maybe if the main character was not called 'said creature' the entire time, THIS creature would have somewhat enjoyed reading it. This was what put me off right from the start but it was also heavily repetitive and Margery main skill seems to be weeping, which she does a lot and at everything.
I still gave it two stars. Not because I enjoyed reading it, I did not. However, this is still the biography of a woman who managed to convince men to write it for her (as she was illiterate) in a society which would just as easily (more easily perhaps) have burned her at the stake for not submitting to their rules.
~Little Black Classics #95~
How To Be a Medieval Woman was like the polar opposite to last week's Little Black Classic: The Suffragettes, and it was a terrible read.
Maybe if the main character was not called 'said creature' the entire time, THIS creature would have somewhat enjoyed reading it. This was what put me off right from the start but it was also heavily repetitive and Margery main skill seems to be weeping, which she does a lot and at everything.
I still gave it two stars. Not because I enjoyed reading it, I did not. However, this is still the biography of a woman who managed to convince men to write it for her (as she was illiterate) in a society which would just as easily (more easily perhaps) have burned her at the stake for not submitting to their rules.
~Little Black Classics #95~
alex_beasley's review against another edition
5.0
An interesting story of a woman finding independence and soul searching in a time when I assumed that would not be possible, and for that matter never hear real stories from.
karen_krieger's review against another edition
3.0
A cool book about medieval society and that time's social dinamics
wetbread's review against another edition
1.0
finished 05/01/2022
a medieval pilgrim an american
🤝
being incredibly weird and pushy about god
a medieval pilgrim an american
🤝
being incredibly weird and pushy about god
lisa_setepenre's review against another edition
3.0
How To Be A Medieval Woman contains excerpts from Margery Kempe’s autobiography, which is considered significant because it is the first (known) English autobiography in history. This ‘little black book’ is perhaps mistitled. This is not a collection of advice on how one should be behave, and there is little in the contents about daily life for medieval woman. In fact, one gets the view that Kempe liked to see herself as utterly unique and far more special than anyone else.
Setting that to the side, however, this is an intriguing little book. At first, I felt sad for Kempe (who refers to herself throughout as ‘that creature’) – the limitations she was faced with, the very religious, very patriarchal society she was living in. Then I started wondering if she was the full quid as she began having visions and conversations with Jesus Christ. Then I started sympathising with most of the people who would get angry and upset with her – she didn’t seem easy to be around!
Setting that to the side, however, this is an intriguing little book. At first, I felt sad for Kempe (who refers to herself throughout as ‘that creature’) – the limitations she was faced with, the very religious, very patriarchal society she was living in. Then I started wondering if she was the full quid as she began having visions and conversations with Jesus Christ. Then I started sympathising with most of the people who would get angry and upset with her – she didn’t seem easy to be around!
eleanorryd's review against another edition
2.0
All she does is cry about religious stuff. But it's cool to have read the first autobiography of like ever, and that it was written by a woman.
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