Reviews

Julian of Norwich is a mystery woman, little is known about who she was and her life prior to her giving her life to God and writing. Julian is most famous for her 'Divine Revelations', a series of writings inspired by a set of visions Julian had in the mid-1300s. The beauty of her writing has inspired many.

This is a very short book but is very satisfying for that. Ramirez places Julian's life and writings in the context of the Middle Ages and the town of Norwich - a prosperous place but one that suffered greatly through waves of plague. The book is equally passionate about the beauty of Julian's writings and the danger that her potentially heretical thoughts could have placed her in. Even the story about how the Diving Revelations was almost lost to history is fascinating.

nicktomjoe's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed this book. Janina Ramirez was faced with a difficult task here: trying to writ an accessible introduction to a deceptively simple text written in a complex time. On the whole she does it well: her prose does not stumble, her enthusiasm for a great thinker is infectious. At the same time, she does rather gloss over the difficulties of Julian, and how her writing needs to be viewed in context. The result is a largely speculative final chapter which could have done more than it does.
Nevertheless, I wish I had had this book with me on my early readings of the Revelations of Divine Love. It is itself a revelation of the thought and times of a great religious writer.