I Leap Over the Wall

British author Monica Baldwin joined a contemplative order of Roman Catholic nuns in 1914 and exited the convent in 1941. In this insightful memoir, Baldwin compares her circumscribed life inside the walls with the “secular” life outside of them and repeatedly expresses her surprise at how much the world changed during her decades of seclusion, poverty, chastity, and obedience. She also tries her best to demystify her (unnamed) order’s teachings, practices, and rituals, often quoting saints and mystics in untranslated French.

But perhaps most importantly, Baldwin shows readers the unsettled life of a genteel, middle-aged poor relation. Without solid job prospects, credentials, or a path to marriage, she gets shuffled among show more friends’ and relatives’ houses and from temporary wartime job to temporary wartime job.

Originally published in 1949, this memoir is very much a product of its time, but there is much to learn from Baldwin’s experiences. show less

Like the title implies, Monica Baldwin spent twenty-eight years of her life in a Roman Catholic convent. She had thought she wanted to give her life to God until one day...she didn't. So after twenty-eight years, she left. Just like that. The first order of business "on the outside" was for Baldwin to find suitable clothes for the outside world. The second critical task was to secure suitable employment. The first was easier than the second considering England was in the midst of World War II. Baldwin struggled as a gardener, a matron at a camp for female munitions workers, a canteen cook, and a librarian. At heart she was always a writer. I Leap Over the Wall was meant to be a journalistic memoir, contrasting and comparing the show more structured life of being a nun to the haphazardness of the outside. Readers get a sense of how structured Baldwin's life had been on the inside: the day to day duties of a novice and even the caste-like division of the monastic houses. Despite this structure, something she thought she needed, Baldwin knew from the very beginning that entering the convent was a mistake. It took her twenty-eight years to seek rescript from the Vatican. show less

394. I Leap Over the Wall: Contrasts and Impressions After Twenty-Eight Years in a Convent, by Monica Baldwin (read 19 Nov 1951) I started this book in August, and after completing boot camp in the Navy finished it on 19 Nov 1951. It is a strange and most interesting book. I was most fascinated by the author's references to mystical writers and the means used by contemplatives to advance in holiness. I would like to read St John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, etc. I wonder if I would get anything out of them. All in all this book is more likely to foster vocations than imperil them, I am sure. It is disconnected, discursive as such a book must be if it is to appeal to much of an audience. I would have preferred not such a show more 'written-down' account of her convent life. But of course again she had her potential readers to consider. show less

Interesting

one of the best of the nun stories