A Companion to 'The Book of Margery Kempe'.

A Companion to 'The Book of Margery Kempe', ed. John H. Arnold and Katherine J. Lewis (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer; Rochester, NY: Boydell and Brewer, 2004), xxiv + 246 pp. ISBN 1-84384-030-8. 50.00 [pounds sterling]/$85.00. This Companion makes a valuable contribution to the flourishing body of scholarship and criticism on The Book of Margery Kempe, and will be of much use to students and researchers alike. The particular aim of the editors is 'to complement the existing, almost exclusively literary, scholarship on the Book with work that draws on historical analysis', and thus to offer 'a greater consideration of the text as a source for and of its period' (p. xviii). Barry Windeatt introduces the volume with an essay on reading and rereading the Book, analysing earlier twentieth-century responses and later trends. The next group of essays explores cultural and social contexts: Kim M. Phillips on the female life cycle in the medieval period and its shaping of Margery's identity and her book; Isabel Davis on medieval constructions of patriarchy; Kate Parker on the locus of King's Lynn; John H. Arnold on Margery's trials and the question of heresy and dissent; Allyson Foster on the early print contexts of the Book. A further three essays consider the influence of textual models and discourses on the Book: Jacqueline Jenkins on devotional reading and literature practices; Claire Sponsler on the relation of Margery's piety to drama and dramatic texts; Diane Watt on Margery's presentation of herself as prophet, following the exemplar of Bridget of Sweden. Sarah Salih and P. H. Cullum explore religious practices further: Salih treats the development of Margery's affective piety across her life; Cullum looks at her appropriation of the model of lay charity. Finally, Katherine J. Lewis considers the question of saint-making in relation to Margery Kempe.