Illuminations

Illuminations

By Mary Sharratt
Unabridged
$11.70 $17.99
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“Tavia Gilbert delicately voices von Bingen, maturing the character appropriately as the listener follows her from childhood into old age. Jutta von Sponheim…is graced with hushed, ethereal tones, while Volmar, the young monk hopelessly in love with Jutta, has warm, deep inflections that reflect the good soul he truly is. Seamless shifts in tone along with exhaustive research into the correct pronunciation of obscure German names and places elevate the literary experience as only great audio can. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award

Skillfully interweaving historical fact with psychological insight and vivid imagination, Sharratt's redemptive novel, Illuminations, brings to life one of the most extraordinary women of the Middle Ages: Hildegard von Bingen, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath.

Offered to the Church at the age of eight, Hildegard was entombed in a small room where she was expected to live out her days in silent submission as the handmaiden of a renowned but disturbed young nun, Jutta von Sponheim. Instead, Hildegard rejected Jutta's masochistic piety and found comfort and grace in studying books, growing herbs, and rejoicing in her own secret visions of the divine. When Jutta died some thirty years later, Hildegard broke out of her prison with the heavenly calling to speak and write about her visions and to liberate her sisters and herself from the soul-destroying anchorage. Riveting and utterly unforgettable, Illuminations is a deeply moving portrayal of a woman willing to risk everything for what she believed.