Helen Wilcox

I've been quite unable to get much recreational reading in in the last month. There are so many things going on in life that are, in a way, a less-than-enjoyable necessity, that I don't often have the time to concentrate on these things that aren't essential for getting through the day. It took me a month to get through the 200-odd pages of this book, not because it is uninteresting, but because it is easy late at night to complete the several pages that might make up a section of it, and put it down so I can go to sleep.
I have a deep fascination for the ways of people in the past. My attachment to the Big Statement 'I must know', is a little like Roy's in Close Encounters - if I was given the chance to go back in time, even at the shortest of notices, I would probably take it. That is why I read this book and its ilk. And it does give an insight into some lives, and ways that women viewed the world, and expressed themselves. But expression was often clouded by the euphemistic nature of language of that period, and it is hard to get to the truth - whatever that is.
What is most evident from these writings, and most hard to comprehend, is the total permeation of religion into the lives of people in that time. I already knew that this was the case, but in contrast to my life which is devoid of religious superstition, this is alien territory. It is the glimpses of personality and human relations, social customs, laws, gender roles, recreation, and popular culture that I pick up on. In a small way this book does provide that, aided by editor's footnotes and my own conjecture.
So even though I tired a bit of the heavy religious narratives, there were glimpses of the lives of these women - persecuted by the Inquisition, rejecting a husband and following religion, pretending to be a foreign princess to gain a marriage, and suffering at the hands of a husband. There is a strong sense of loneliness in these narratives, in a time when women often left the childhood family to go live with a husband who was often as familiar as a stranger. This might explain why women turned to religion, but I don't know enough about it all to offer much of an opinion. The book was a bit of a disappointment because of the religious focus. It makes me ask: "what was I expecting?". I guess I was hoping more for the insight into all the aspects of life that I mentioned above that I received so readily in Pepy's diaries. And yet, each revelation of a life is a piece in some infinite puzzle that allows us a better understanding of what we're all about. It does this for me anyway. And it is a beautiful enough undertaking that I will never grow tired of it.… (más)