The Book of Margery Kempe

The Book of Margery Kempe is a 15th-century autobiography of an English mystic, wife, and mother who devoted much of her life to Christian spirituality. Kempe (b. ca. 1373) was a semi-literate member of the upper-middle class from King’s Lynn, a mercantile town in Norfolk, a county in eastern England. She gave birth over a dozen times before she convinced her husband to embrace a chaste marriage. Kempe claimed to have divine revelations in which God spoke directly to her and visons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints. She made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela as well as visiting sacred English sites. The text claims many loved and trusted her, but she also details numerous detractors who accused her of possession or heresy. The text is the first autobiography in the English language and has become influential in medieval studies, with Kempe remaining a controversial religious figure.

This guide uses the 2019 Penguin Classics edition, translated and edited by B. A. Windeatt.

Content Warning: This source contains references to physical and sexual violence throughout.

Summary

The Book of Margery Kempe combines several medieval and Christian literary genres, including memoir, saint’s life (hagiography), and travel account.