The Burdens of Sister Margaret; Inside a Seventeenth-Century Convent; Abridged Edition

Based on a treasure trove of letters, this fascinating book tells the history of a seventeenth-century nun in a convent in Leuven and how her complaints -- of sexual harassment, fears of demonic possession, alliances among the other sisters against her -- led to her banishment from the convent on two occasions. Highly acclaimed when it was first published as a revealing look at female religious life in early modern Europe, the book is now available in an abridged paperbound version with a new preface by the author.