Translation of Christine's autobiographical Vision, both dealing with
her own life and career, and offering a possible solution to the
troubled state of France at the time.
Christine de Pizan's The Vision is both a powerful contemporary response
to the chaos that would eventually precipitate Henry V's invasion of
France, and a fascinating view of the author's own progress as a woman
reader, writer, and public commentator in the late Middle Ages. As a
long-time intimate of the French court, Christine here analyses the
origins of the civil strife in which France found itself in 1405, and
offers a possible future, callingfor its resolution in the voice of a
prophet. Alongside her documentation of the difficulties faced by a
medieval woman left widowed early in life, she also explores issues of
gender and authorship, interpretation and misinterpretation in her
remarkable career as a writer and advisor of princes.
Glenda McLeod is Professor Emerita, Gainesville State College; Charity
Cannon Willard was Professor Emerita, Ladycliff College.