Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women

Hetta Howes (Author) , Amy Noble (Narrator)

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women

Hetta Howes (Author) , Amy Noble (Narrator)

Hardback ~~£22.00~~ £19.80 Ebook (Epub & Mobi) ~~£15.40~~ £12.32 Ebook (PDF) ~~£15.40~~ £12.32 Audiobook ~~£16.00~~ £14.40

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Description

Bloomsbury presents Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women by Hetta Howes, read by Amy Noble

'A welcome addition to medieval history, giving us a window into the lives of women that many people only know by name, if at all.' PHILIPPA GREGORY, author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women

A spectacular, vivid, groundbreaking work of history which takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women.

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear the stories of women from this period?

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Those women were: Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a "no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each of them broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics.

Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical biography of their lives that challenges what we hold to be common knowledge about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today.

This mesmerising book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women writers, some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.

Introduction
1. Knocked Up
2. Tied Down
3. Bit on the Side
4. Wanderlust
5. Hustling
6. Making Friends …
7. … and Influencing People
8. Having It All?
9. Death
Conclusion: Afterlife
Selected Further Reading
Picture Credits
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index

Product details

Published	24 Oct 2024
Format	Audiobook
Duration	10 hours and 25 minutes
ISBN	9781399408721
Imprint	Bloomsbury Continuum
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Hetta Howes

Dr Hetta Howes is a Lecturer in Medieval and Early…

Narrator

Amy Noble

A fascinating book about four women - each a heroine in her own way - it tells us so much about their world, and about our own… What jumps off the page is the liveliness of the women, their passion, their courage and their own way of being a woman.

Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women
Beautifully written and brilliantly observed, Hetta Howes unlocks the secrets of women's lives, so often silent and inconspicuous in our histories, and shows us the medieval world as we've never seen it before. Full of surprises and packed with thrilling details, this is an important, eye-opening book.

Alice Loxton, author of Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives and Uproar!
A celebration of female ambition and endeavour... enormous fun.

The Sunday Times
Brilliantly revealing.

Observer
Lively and enjoyable… The result is illuminating… evokes the spirit of the period so well.

History Today
Howes's book is highly readable and informative.

The Spectator