Kendra’s Comments (group member since Aug 26, 2016)

Kendra’s comments from the Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages group.

I read Everyman this evening and, frankly, was a little disappointed.

God sends Death to take Everyman on a "pilgrimage", and after Everyman learns that he will die, he goes through a series of steps. Interestingly, the first thing he tries to do is bribe Death to come back a different day. When Death declines, Everyman goes to his friends, neighbors, and a bunch of allegorical objects/ideas such as Goods, Beauty, Strength, and Good-Deeds. He asks all of these things to accompany his to the grave, but all forsake him except for Good-Deeds, but only once he gives her strength through confession and repentance.

Morality plays are obviously not trying to hide what they are, but this one really just wasn't my cup of tea. I ultimately found it uninteresting and simple. It doesn't seem like something that can be analyzed to find subtle meaning, because it is the opposite of subtle and outright declares the moral of the story. Mildly amusing, but not one of my favorites.

I finished this book tonight and you were right about her being unique... This is kind of a hard book to judge, but there are a few tidbits that stand out to me.

I was raised Christian, so I'm not super familiar with Catholicism (past or modern), and I can't be sure what aspects of Margery's religion were a "that time" thing or are still practiced today. It was interesting how she seems sort of tied to various priests and "confessors", and is almost required to follow their guidance.

I found it striking how little Margery talked about her (14!) children. Even assuming that some of them may have died, she never discusses what happens to them when she goes on her many travels. She only brings up one son who goes "astray" as an adult whom eventually turns back to God.

I also found her relationship with her husband interesting. In many ways it seems like they were quasi-separated, to the point of living in different homes after they make their vow of chastity. I wonder what it would have felt like to have Margery as a wife, and it is quite amazing (particularly for that time) that he lets her just go off on various pilgrimages and have so much freedom.

Oh no, don't get me wrong - as much as this one aspect bothered me, I really enjoyed this book as a whole. It was probably one of my favorites we've read so far. Thanks for sharing your post!

I see where you're coming from and definitely agree to a point. I appreciate that he portrayed a wide variety of people and perspectives. But by the end I just felt like he was beating a dead horse, and would have preferred some commentary on other aspects of life.

I think it was unhealthy based on the sheer number of times it was discussed, and either glorified or cursed. It was just endless commentary that was very demeaning to women... Obviously the prevailing thought at the time, but still horrible.

I had my wisdom teeth removed today and used the recovery time to finish this book.

One of the largest topics addressed across most stories was marriage, and I would dare say Chaucer had an unhealthy obsession with it. And the depiction of it covered the whole spectrum. From the woman married 5 times who claimed that a wife's strongest desire was to rule over her husband; to the story of the king's wife raised out of poverty whose loyalty and love was "tested" by the king pretending he had murdered their children for 12 years.

I know these stories need to be viewed within the context of when they were written, but that doesn't stop me from being disgusted by the view towards marriage, sex, virginity, etc. of the time.

Another small tidbit I'll note: I find it amusing that the people use unflattering stories of a person of some occupation as "revenge" for a previous unflattering story. This is truly a very diverse group of people all traveling together and the way they argue only illuminates that further.

Glad you'll be joining, Cleo! It's a short one, so I think I'll manage to read it in time to discuss (not that it's ever too late, but it's good when I can keep up).

Everyman is the best surviving example of the type of Medieval drama known as the morality play. The moralities employed allegory to dramatize the moral struggle Christianity envisions universal in every individual.

Everyman, a short play of some 900 lines, portrays a complacent Everyman who is informed by Death of his approaching end. The play shows the hero's progression from despair and fear of death to a ‘Christian resignation that is the prelude to redemption.’” Source

I've finally admitted to myself that I won't be able to get through this book this month - I'm still working my way through The Canterbury Tales. But since next month's book is considerably shorter, maybe I'll be able to catch up.

Have you read it yet, Cleo?

Just in case anyone ever thought classic literature was serious and scholarly, please read "The Miller's Tale" and be proved wrong.

"The Book of Margery Kempe is the earliest autobiography in English.

Margery Kempe lived in the East Anglian town of Lynn in the early 15th century, and was at various times the owner of a horse-mill and a brewer, but later in her life she became a visionary and mystic. She was also the mother of 14 children. Her remarkable Book, which only survives in this manuscript, records ‘hyr felyngys and revelacyons and the forme of her levyng’ [her feelings and revelations and the form of her living], allowing us a window onto the life of an ordinary, middle-class person in a prosperous town in late-medieval England.

Everything we know about Margery comes from her own account. She was unable to read or write and so she dictated her Book to an ‘amanuensis’ – a scribe who heard what she said and wrote it down for her. The autobiography is therefore written in the third person. In it, Margery is described as the ‘creatur’ [creature].

Margery married when she about 20 years old, giving birth to her first child soon after. The birth was difficult, and afterwards she ‘went owt of hir mende’ [went out of her mind]. Today we might recognise this episode as a bout of post-natal depression. During this time she had a vision of Jesus, who appeared at the end of her bed and offered her words of comfort. In the years following this, Margery experienced several failures in her life: two businesses which she ran collapsed. She interpreted this as a sign that she was being punished by God and decided thereafter to devote herself to a religious life.

In her new life Margery travelled extensively: she visited the Holy Land, Rome, pilgrimage sites in Germany and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. On her travels Margery often attracted attention to herself by wearing white and loudly weeping when she was moved by devotion to God. In Chapter 60 of her Book, she describes visiting the shrine of St Stephen in Norwich: ‘whan sche cam in the chirch-yerd of Saynt Stefyn, sche cryed, sche roryd, sche wept, sche fel down to the grownd, so fervently the fyer of lofe brent in hir hert’ [When she entered the churchyard of St Stephen, she cried, she roared, she wept, she fell down to the ground, so fervently did the fire of love burn in her heart]. The people around Margery suspected her of weeping because of some kind of personal sin and asked her exasperatedly, ‘what eylith þe woman?’ [what ails you woman?].

Margery faced this kind of scorn and disbelief throughout her life. She was arrested several times, accused of heresy and threatened with being burnt alive in the street. Indeed, she herself had at one point doubted the validity of her visions. Early on in her spiritual quest, in 1413, she visited ‘an ankres [anchoress] … Dame Julian’. This was the famous recluse, Julian of Norwich. Julian and Margery spent ‘many days’ together, during which time Julian encouraged Margery to continue on her spiritual path.

What cannot be doubted, however, is the immediacy of Margery’s account. It is a startling document which often feels open, honest, unvarnished and unashamed. That it is the first autobiography in English makes it important, but the fact that it was composed by an illiterate woman makes it extraordinary." Source

Cleo, I will admit that I haven't gotten very far into it. It was a busy month for me... But I did enjoy what little I've read. The concept of a diverse group of people traveling together and sharing stories is a very interesting concept.

I'm curious if anyone is currently or is planning to read this in the original English. My copy is a translated version, although I might go back and read a few passages in the original wording once I'm done.

"The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and, in 1389, Clerk of the King's work. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

The Canterbury Tales is near-unanimously seen as Chaucer's magnum opus. He uses the tales and descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Chaucer's use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they still offer a variety of insights into customs and practices of the time. Often, such insight leads to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the 14th century. For example, although various social classes are represented in these stories and all of the pilgrims are on a spiritual quest, it is apparent that they are more concerned with worldly things than spiritual. Structurally, the collection resembles Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.

It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of The Canterbury Tales to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin." Source

Cleo, those are some interesting observations! I definitely think that not having explored the historical context, I am missing much of the subtle commentary. I do think a second read would be illuminating.

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Medieval English romance in the Arthurian tradition. The text is thought to have been composed in the mid- to late fourteenth century. The only extant manuscript, MS. Cotton Nero A.X. in the British Library, is itself a copy of an earlier original, and dates from around 1400. The anonymous author is today called alternately 'The Pearl Poet,' after the poem Pearl in the same manuscript, or 'The Gawain Poet.' The same author is also thought to have composed the other two poems in the manuscript, Cleanness and Patience. Nothing conclusive is known of the author's identity or biography.

"Gawain is a verse romance. Romance takes its name from the French Roman, a moniker used originally for any secular work written in one of the Romance languages; i.e., languages related to the Roman tongue of Latin—Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese—the "vulgar tongues" (languages of the people, non-Latin). More particularly, the term Roman came to be associated with tales of chivalry and courtoisie, such as the Arthurian tales. While the epic hero still coexisted for some time with the new romantic hero, the changes in society afforded more popularity for the romance. Epic literature was the national or tribal literature of a given people, the epic hero the defender, the fight being for the survival of the tribe or nation. With the rise of the feudal system and the relative prosperity of the upper classes, there arose a leisure class who did not have to go out to fight monsters to the death to save their villages—this audience was a courtly one, with time for niceties, and it wanted heroes who faced fantastical challenges out of choice, not out of a survival instinct. The romantic, or chivalric, hero often is out to find adventure, he is fighting for an idea, and his demise or potential failure will not result in the demise of a whole nation. So Gawain sets out to find the Green Knight, and undergoes many trials to his ideals and virtue, as compared with Beowulf who has to fight Grendel and his dam to save his people." Source

I just finished Inferno this morning and I was left a little disappointed. I don't feel like we got any context for Dante's journey into Hell - why was it "willed from above" like Virgil frequently said? Maybe some of these questions would be answered if I read the rest of the series, but I don't have much of an inclination to do that.

Also, maybe this is just a cultural gap for me, but I didn't understand the obsession with people telling Dante their names so he could ensure they would be remembered up on earth. If these people are in hell, why should we bother to remember them? As a cautionary tale, maybe?

I will say the imagery at points was compelling and vivid. I read others compare Inferno to a modern-day self-help book, but I'm not really seeing the comparison. I just see it as an attempt to scare the reader into behaving and adhering to Christian morals.

"Inferno (Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen". As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin." Source


Happy April, everyone! The birds are chirping, spring is in the air, it's time to go lay out a blanket on the grass and read!... About hell.

"Beowulf, heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with events of the early 6th century and is believed to have been composed between 700 and 750. Although originally untitled, it was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, whose exploits and character provide its connecting theme. There is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, but some characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified. The poem did not appear in print until 1815. It is preserved in a single manuscript that dates to circa 1000 and is known as the Beowulf manuscript.

Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to a heroic tradition grounded in Germanic religion and mythology. It is also part of the broader tradition of heroic poetry. Many incidents, such as Beowulf’s tearing off the monster’s arm and his descent into the mere, are familiar motifs from folklore. The ethical values are manifestly the Germanic code of loyalty to chief and tribe and vengeance to enemies. Yet the poem is so infused with a Christian spirit that it lacks the grim fatality of many of the Eddaic lays or the sagas of Icelandic literature. Beowulf himself seems more altruistic than other Germanic heroes or the ancient Greek heroes of the Iliad. It is significant that his three battles are not against men, which would entail the retaliation of the blood feud, but against evil monsters, enemies of the whole community and of civilization itself. Many critics have seen the poem as a Christian allegory, with Beowulf the champion of goodness and light against the forces of evil and darkness." Source