Mary Sharratt

Before I started reading the book, I had two questions:
1) How would Mary Sharatt make the medieval protagonist Margery Kempe (a raving madwoman, some would say, who was widely disliked by her community) sympathetic to the reader?
2) How would Sharatt make Margery’s world and religious concerns interesting and intelligible to a modern audience?
The answer to both was: brilliantly. Gender issues (something most readers can be invested in) drive the narrative. The reader has massive sympathy show more for poor Margery, miserably fertile and stuck in a horrible marriage many centuries before reliable birth control or spousal rape laws. There’s a section that details the fourteen babies Margery gives birth to, and it is excruciating. As the author notes in an interview in the back of my edition, that’s enough to make anyone cry, rant, and rave!

The religious elements, too, are driven by the gender-based realities of Margery’s position as a married woman in the fifteenth century. Choosing a celibate life of religious contemplation becomes more interesting when you realize that the alternative is continuing to bear child after child against your will until it literally kills you. By the time Margery meets Julian of Norwich, I was feeling, along with her, so grateful and deeply moved to meet such an expansive and forgiving character that I actually shed tears.

I have read bits and pieces of The Booke of Margery Kempe, but as good fiction does, this novel has expanded my appreciation – for Margery’s book, which was the first autobiography published in English; for her utter refusal to be dominated; and also for Mother Julian, whose writings I will certainly delve into, even though I am not religious. show less

The fascinating story of Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel. Awarded four stars on Goodreads.

I first learned about Alma as a child when I heard Tom Lehrer’s satirical ditty, Alma. I learned that this captivating Viennese woman was famous for marrying three brilliant and artistic giants of the 20th century [composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969), author Franz Werfel (1890-1945)]. What I did NOT learn until reading THIS book, was that Alma was the daughter show more of artist Emil Jakob Schindler (1842-1892), grew up amid artitist of the Viennese Secession movement, and was also a talented composer in her own right. At least she was until she was forced to set aside her own aspirations at the insistence of husband Gustav Mahler, an already established composer 20 years her senior. It seems Mahler (and his monumental ego) insisted Alma be 100% dedicated to looking after him, with no other distractions!

Getting to know Alma by reading ECSTASY was a revelation. As author Mary Sharratt acknowledges in her Historical Afterword, Alma is no easy subject for historical fiction. As a woman possessed with talent, ambition, confidence, and beauty — she was simply born at the wrong time. Mahler’s expectation that, as his wife, Alma would subsume her own desires to promote his was the norm for this era. Which means her contemporaries often write about her as some kind of seductress, harlot or unnatural man-eater.

But even under these limitations inherent in primary research materials, Sharratt succeeds in revealing Alma’s psyche, believably portraying her as a smart and gifted musician whose talent was squelched for many years by a sexist society. Sharratt’s Alma is a woman who could not be completely fulfilled through the traditional roles of wife and mother and instead yearned for her own artistic expression, professional success, and love with someone who considered her an equal, rather than subservient. A woman who is continually questioning herself.

ECSTASY covers Alma’s life from childhood until her second marriage. It’s a wonderful book to read from a 21st century feminist perspective. And I hope that one day Mary Sharratt decides to continue Alma’s story in a sequel. show less

Reading this book felt like a time travel back to 12th century Germany when knights headed off for years at a time, to fight in The Crusades and women were forced to either marry young or take the veil. ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN tells the story of one of the most famous women of the Middle Ages. Described as a Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, philosopher, composer, and author with expertise in herbology, medieval literature, cosmology, medicine, biology, theology, show more and natural history -- hers is a fascinating story.

Author Mary Sharratt takes the known facts regarding Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179), including the nun's own three volumes of visionary theology and skillfully fleshes out a three-dimensional portrait of a woman with a exceptional mind. Though Hildegard is given (against her will) to the church at a very young age she nevertheless ends up leading a full and rich life. Along the way she suffers loss, grief, betrayal and jealousy. But also makes opportunities for learning, healing, love, and eventually renown.

The lack of autonomy women had during this time astounds me. Parents often arranged marriages for their daughters at very young ages, leaving them to face the ravages and risks of decades of repeat pregnancies. Alternately some daughters were arbitrarily sent to convents, regardless of their having a vocation. In either case, they were largely powerless. Their dowries were handed over to their husbands or church men in power and the women themselves might wind up living in desperate circumstances. In Hildegard’s case, she was literally bricked in for decades, required to attend a religious zealot. And of course, religious leaders of this time also believed women were inherently evil, thanks to the Bible’s story of Eve.

Fortunately, humans are nothing if not resilient and Hildegard lives to become a role model for others and an inspiration within her faith. Lovers of historical fiction and those interested in the lives of women during the Middle Ages shouldn’t miss this one. show less

I remember reading about Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwick in my college classes on medieval Europe and I can't quite believe it's taken this long for me to encounter a novel centered around these two remarkable women. Margery Kempe was a rare woman in her time - she left her husband and children to go on religious pilgrimage and live a life guided by visions of Christ. Many in her hometown considered her to be an obnoxious whore; many that she encountered on pilgrimage thought her to be a show more living saint (Is it really surprising why she vastly preferred pilgrimage to being home?). I read a lot of historical fiction and what I liked about this one was the centering of people's religious beliefs during the later Middle Ages (which would have been a huge part of daily life), rather than the political schemes of the rich and powerful (although I like those novels, too!). show less