The Booke of Marjery Kempe.
This is probably the only autobiography of a middle class woman's life in medieval Britain.
Marjery was born in Kings Lynn in 1373 and went mad after she had her first child at the age of 20.
She had powerful visions of Christ and the panoplies and plains of heaven and felt a calling to the spiritual life and a life of chastity, she renounced earthly goods and luxuries and became a pilgrim
She embarked on a life of pilgrimage and consulted many great and humble religious mystics and became a very controversial figure. She would scream and weep copiously and scream out holy scripture, these actions divided priests, pilgrims and congregations a great deal, even to the point of much violence.
She was in great danger of being burnt at the stake for heresy more than a few times.
She dictated her life down to a priestly scribe as she lay dying, her book was rediscovered in 1934 by an academic researcher.
It is a difficult read but is worth it imo.
If this book interests you: ISBN 0-14-043251-5
