"Staley has used and made advances on the best recent writing on Margery Kempe, and her book is a consolidation of the new position that has been won for the Book in English literary culture and history. Her distinction of "Kempe" and "Margery" will become the standard mode of reference, I think, and her argument concerning the narrative purposes and "fictional" status of the story, and its implication in questions of authority, in the broadest sense, will be generally accepted as definitive."-Derek Pearsall, Harvard University "In this extremely original study, Lynn Staley argues that the Book of Margery Kempe is an exploratory and subtle work, exploring the communities, practices, and values of her fellow Christians. It turns out that this exploration is far more searching and critical than any studies of Kempe"s work have appreciated. In elaborating the relevant arguments, Staley offers a range of fascinating readings of Kempe"s relations to Lollardy, to the vernacular, to...