Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) has long been recognized as France's first professional woman of letters, and interest in her voluminous and wide-ranging corpus has been steadily rising for decades. During the tumultuous later years of the Hundred Years' War, Christine's lone but strong feminine voice could be heard defending women, expounding the highest ideals for good governance, and lamenting France's troubled times alongside her own personal trials. In The Mutability of Fortune, Christine fuses world history with autobiography to demonstrate mankind's subjugation to the ceaselessly changing, and often cruel, whims of Fortune. Now, for the first time, this poem is accessible to an English-speaking audience, further expanding our appreciation of this ground-breaking woman author and her extraordinary body of work.
Originally published in 1993, this book offers a translation of Christine de Pizan's Christine's Vision, as translated by Glenda K. McLeod. One of France's first professionl writers, Christine de Pizan wrote a large and remarkable body of work, distinguished not only for its variety and quality but also for its unusual blend of introspective and public commentary. As Christine's Vision makes clear, Christine sensed the similarities between her fate and France's and felt a close bond with her adopted land.
Originally published in 1993, this book offers a translation of Christine de Pizan's Christine's Vision, as translated by Glenda K. McLeod. One of France's first professionl writers, Christine de Pizan wrote a large and remarkable body of work, distinguished not only for its variety and quality but also for its unusual blend of introspective and public commentary. As Christine's Vision makes clear, Christine sensed the similarities between her fate and France's and felt a close bond with her adopted land.