The Book of Margery Kempe

‘Written’ by Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe is an autobiographical work that proves to be a challenging read for the modern audience. A medieval text (one that I only read because my uni course requited it), this Norton Critical edition takes a little of the challenge out of the read by modernising the language as much as possible, making it much easier to understand than other Medieval texts like, say, Chaucer’s poems (other texts that my course requires me to read). Nevertheless, I found this book really challenging because it’s one big preach fest, written in a disturbingly disjointed kind of way. Having said that, it’s a good book to read for those who aren’t afraid of a literary challenge! 

Margery Kempe, a married woman from Lynn in England, was not one to shy away from sin. That was, until, the Good Lord Jesus Christ came to her in a vision and converted her. Having seen the light, Margery then devotes her life to God and Jesus Christ, preaching their word, going on holy pilgrimages, and saving many people on the way. But with all good there is evil and Margery is not always seen in the best light, receiving much scorn and despite from many people she encounters, including some of holy status. 

It sounds boring right? And, yeah it truly is. For the modern reader, The Book of Margery Kempe is one big preachy/schizophrenic narcissistic indulgence, ripe for all the attack of scepticism and the like that contemporary readers have in spades! My minute fascination that took a long time to germinate, let me tell you, stems from the fact that there is so much controversy about this book even as a literary work. It’s credited as being one of the first autobiographies, but when we consider the 1400s when it was written, can it really fall under that label when we consider that women were more or less illiterate, forbidden to write, and the whole thing was dictated and taken down by male scribes? Is it really autobiography when the woman herself did not physically write it? The ins and outs of that alone are what intrigues me about this book. 

The book itself is preachy, dry, and written in a discordant manner. Divided into two books, each religious escapade, event, or ‘ghostly’ vision is told as a separate chapter and written in the third person register with Margery herself being referred to as ‘this creature’. A few metafictive jibes make their way into the mix, providing a new voice (that of the scribes, for there were two) that delineates away from the monotonous third person omniscient. There’s no real narrative flow either, the whole thing is very jagged and unnerving, a bit like Steven Tyler’s autobiography but nowhere near as interesting! It jumps back and forth between time frames and is quite indicative of its status as dictation: “one time this happened, and then this, and then another time this happened”, that sort of thing. Not very cool really. 

Filled with drama, religious ‘miracles’, love, devotion, and betrayal, The Book of Margery Kempe is a pretty boring and dense read that poses more than one challenge for the contemporary reader. Whilst I didn’t really enjoy it at all, one thing I will say in its defence is that the feeling of achievement that you get when you actually finish reading the entire thing is pretty grand!