Early modern men and women represented their lives very differently from twentieth-century autobiographers, sharing none of the current preoccupation with individuality and the unique self. The writers represented in this two-volume collection sought connections between particular events in their lives and the larger pattern of Christian salvation. The texts reproduced here are united in the way they interconnect personal experiences and feelings with scriptural passages in an attempt to understand daily life in spiritual terms. Almost all the women whose works appear in these volumes would...

Early modern men and women represented their lives very differently from twentieth-century autobiographers, sharing none of the current preoccupation with individuality and the unique self. The writers represented in this two-volume collection sought connections between particular events in their lives and the larger pattern of Christian salvation. The texts reproduced here are united in the way they interconnect personal experiences and feelings with scriptural passages in an attempt to understand daily life in spiritual terms. Almost all the women whose works appear in these volumes would...