The Book of the Mutability of Fortune (Volume 52)

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series #52

by Christine de Pizan, Geri L. Smith (Editor)

Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364–ca. 1431) has long been recognized as France’s first professional woman of letters, and interest in her voluminous and wide-ranging corpus has been steadily rising for decades. During the tumultuous later years of the Hundred Years’ War, Christine’s lone but strong feminine voice could be heard defending women, expounding the highest ideals for good governance, and lamenting France’s troubled times alongside her own personal trials. In The Mutability of Fortune , Christine fuses world history with autobiography to demonstrate mankind’s subjugation to the ceaselessly changing, and often cruel, whims of Fortune. Now, for the first time, this poem is accessible to an English-speaking audience, further expanding our appreciation of this ground-breaking woman author and her extraordinary body of work.

Genres: History, Medieval

294 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2017

About the author

Christine de Pizan (also seen as de Pisan) (1363–c.1434) was a writer and analyst of the medieval era who strongly challenged misogyny and stereotypes that were prevalent in the male-dominated realm of the arts. De Pizan completed forty-one pieces during her thirty-year career (1399–1429). She earned her accolade as Europe’s first professional woman writer (Redfern 74). Her success stems from a wide range of innovative writing and rhetorical techniques that critically challenged renowned male writers such as Jean de Meun who, to Pizan’s dismay, incorporated misogynist beliefs within their literary works.

In recent decades, de Pizan's work has been returned to prominence by the efforts of scholars such as Charity Cannon Willard and Earl Jeffrey Richards. Certain scholars have argued that she should be seen as an early feminist who efficiently used language to convey that women could play an important role within society, although this characterisation has been challenged by other critics who claim either that it is an anachronistic use of the word, or that her beliefs were not progressive enough to merit such a designation

Reviews

[Kappie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smith's translation is clear and accurate, offering a very good rendition of Christine's meaning and style while making it easier on the modern reader by rendering it all into prose. I also appreciate the inclusions of line numbers, especially for the summarized passages, as they make it easier to consult Solente's edition in parallel. If you need to work with the Middle French but are pressed for time, definitely start here.

[Stav]

christine de pizan the woman you are