The Story of a Soul

The Story of a Soul is the autobiography of Therese of Lisieux. It was first published on September 30 1898, a year to the day after her death from tuberculosis at the age of 24, on September 30 1897. The book was a single volume formed from three distinct manuscripts - manuscripts of different length, written at different times, addressed to different people, and differing from one another in character. The work of unifying these disparate manuscripts was carried out by Pauline, the sister of Therese. Pauline divided Therese's three manuscripts into eleven chapters and added a twelfth in which she summarized the last months of her life. Finally, she supplemented the work with some of Therese 's poetry and with extracts from her correspondence. The twelve chapters of "The Story of a Soul" were printed in small format in 1902:An Unpetalled Rose. By 1906, "The Story of a Soul" was already translated into six languages (English, Polish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish).