Chaste Passions: Medieval English Virgin Martyr Legends

Although virgin martyrs have often been regarded as prototypical female victims, the feisty heroines who emerge from Karen Winstead's lively translations face their oppressors with spirit, eloquence and even, occasionally, colorful profanity. These delightful legends by diverse writers assembled in Chaste Passions testify to the versatility and popularity of the virgin martyr figure in later medieval culture.

Chaste Passions provides a wonderful introduction to the genre. Although the book is accessible to those new to the field, even specialists in Middle English will use and appreciate Karen Winstead's selection of vernacular legends, her knowledgeable introductions and bibliographies, and her colorful, idiomatic translations of the texts themselves.

Even though medieval martyr legends seem to be bizarre, grotesque even, at time pornographic, sadistic, and also fanatical, modern scholarship has realized the considerable value of this literary genre for the history of mentality, popular religion, woman's history, and the history of popular culture....Winstead's 'Chaste Passions' will be a pleasant addition to many reading lists.

I must again emphasise how impressive, overall, this collection truly is, and how Winstead's translations will open up possible classroom discussions.... This is a fine anthology, and an important, and-it must be said-fun addtion to any bookshelf.

Karen Winstead does a great service in collecting these previously unavailable tales. Her high-quality translations are more than readable-they are lively and entertaining. Chaste Passions allows modern readers to get a sense of why these tales-often racy, even salacious, and sometimes quite comic-were so appealing to medieval audiences.

These saints' stories are anything but saintly. The tales Winstead translates... are instead gory, horrific accounts of hell's fury, religious devotion, and endless purity. Modern readers may expect these old religious stories to seem lame by today's standards. Not so. The stories remain moving, shocking and entertaining even hundreds of years after they were written... Winstead couples informative essays with translations of intriguing stories to give readers keen insight into the virgin martyr legends, a view once reserved only for scholars.