An interesting jumping off point for a deep-dive into the beguines of medieval Paris, but the book as a whole drags on with little actual plot.

Aline Kiner's The Mirror of Simple Souls is the sort of book I go for: historical fiction with a bit of mystery to it and some theological tension at its heart. I wanted to love this book, and I didn't—but I DID like it. So depending on your feeling regarding the genre description I've just offered, your experience may vary.

What I liked about this book:
• The focus on women trying to establish independent lives for themselves at a time (14th C) when that was difficult-bordering-on-impossible
• The acknowledgement of tensions regarding the power of the Church and the State

Why this book was a like-but-didn't-love for me
• I never felt I got to know any of the characters well and the relationships among them seemed foggy
• The pacing is slow, which adds a challenge when one doesn't feel closely connected to the characters

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

I would have loved to love this book: a story set in the early 14th century about a young woman running away from a bad marriage to Paris, where she receives the help of a community of pious women, her story bound at a distance to that of "The Mirror of Simple Souls", a religious book condemned by the church... how gripping! How wonderful, to read an interesting story set during real historical events!

But the style is slow, halting, interspersed with historical detail that seems more appropriate for a history book than a novel. We get glimpses of the mundane, a talk here, a walk through Paris there, but little that reveals the interiority of the characters, or the key turning points.

Well, nevertheless. It's an interesting book, and it's nice to read something that brings out the vast cultural differences between our current world and previous ages, not imposing our values on the heroes of the past, but allowing them to have the qualities we admire, such as a thirst for freedom and knowledge, the willingness and determination to make one's own way, or courage.

***Thank you to Pushkin Press for providing a copy of The Mirror of Simple Souls via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

The Mirror of Simple Souls provided such a fascinating look at individuals who are often ignored in this period of French history. I learned so much from reading this book even though I'm already familiar with the events of the fall of the Capetian dynasty. I liked that the story focused on everyday people and how the tumultuous times impacted their ability to go about their day-to-day lives.

The writing in The Mirror of Simple Souls did a great job of bringing medieval France to life. The descriptions of the beguinage and the streets of Paris made me feel like I was there alongside the characters. I did have some trouble following the writing at first, though. It had a tendency to bounce around from character to character without transitions or noticeable breaks. Although, once I became accustomed to the style, it didn't impact my ability to understand the story.

The characters in The Mirror of Simple Souls were all unique with distinct backgrounds and personalities. I was moved by many of the women's stories and quickly became invested in their lives. However, I never felt much of an emotional connection to the women themselves. The writing style made them feel a bit distant. I wanted to spend more time inside their heads than the narrative provided. Although, I appreciated how the writing gave a good window into what it meant to be a beguine by illustrating many different examples of the lifestyle.

The Mirror of Simple Souls also explored some incredibly timely and relevant themes. Namely, the narrative captured how quickly, and easily, societal progress can be subverted. The women in this story experienced a massive reduction in their freedoms and rights, which felt eerily familiar given the current state of affairs in the U.S. The story highlighted the detrimental impact of the quick resurgence of tradition and repression in response to difficult times. It also showed how suddenly the erosion of government protection for minorities' rights can happen once such a shift occurs. Ultimately, there was much to learn from this book.

Overall, The Mirror of Simple Souls was a fascinating window into the lives of individuals in medieval France. I enjoyed learning about the beguines and getting to see how the volatile politics of the time impacted these women. This story would be a great companion piece to Druon's The Accursed Kings series, which also explored this time period. If you are a fan of medieval historical fiction, I definitely recommend picking this one up. Therefore, I rate The Mirror of Simple Souls 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Loved the concept of this one, but I lost interest ~25% of the way through... was a tad slow. I may pick it up again one day

SLOW PLOT AND STOCK CHARACTERS

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for reading this book... But safe to say, it didn't excite me. I couldn't connect with the plot, which moved way too slow, or the characters, who felt more like stock characters - a modern idea of the type of women, medieval society was comprised of. At times it almost felt like a non-fiction reads, there were so many historical facts thrown in that didn't affect the plot or move it forward in any way. It bogged the story down.

The Mirror of Simple Souls is a really interesting look at a community of women in medieval France. Beguines are pious women, but they are not wives or nuns, so some sections of society are suspicious that they may be dangerous or heretical. The women are in danger of attack from religious leaders if they try to preach, or if they stand up for themselves, for example by protecting other women from violent marriages.

I particularly enjoyed comparing the story to that of the English woman mystic, Julian of Norwich, in For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain which I read last year.

A recommended read for people interested in medieval history.

Thanks to Pushkin Press for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

This story is set in 1300’s France in a small community of women akin to a nunnery but without the vows. The women there are confronted with two dilemmas, a young woman on the run and a banned religious text.

This was definitely a quiet story. I expected a lot more action but instead you live so closely with these women and their thoughts. There are lots of opportunities for philosophical contemplation as well as analysis of religious dogma. The idea that these characters were heretics for simply having read a book is terrifying. But it felt to me like two books smashed into one, there were very long passages of French and Catholic history pressed in between the story. That challenged the readability a bit.

A wonderful historical fiction read set in early 14th century Paris. Focused around the lives of several women affiliated with the Royal Beguinage in Paris, it tells the story of a rare group of women who find freedom for a brief period in history where the only options available were marriage or taking holy orders (if they even got an choice).

The beguines of medieval Europe were lay religious orders of women who lived in community but did not take monastic vows. As the translator, Susan Emanuel, explains in her afterword to Aline Kiner's The Mirror of Simple Souls, becoming a beguine allowed women to follow a different path outside 'the binary choice between marriage and the cloister'. This liminal space attracted fear and suspicion from authorities. In the late thirteenth century, the Parisian satirist Rutebeuf ridiculed these women for what he saw as the inherent contradictions in their lives:

If the Beguine marries,

That is her conversion:

Since her vows, her profession

Are not for life.

Now she weeps and then she prays,

And then she will take a husband:

Now she is Martha, now she is Mary;

Now she is chaste, now she marries.

But do not speak ill of her.

The king will not tolerate it.

As this suggests, the beguines of early fourteenth-century Paris, on which this novel focuses, had enjoyed royal protection for their way of life and their beguinage, the walled haven in which most of the women lived. At the time Rutebeuf was writing, King Louis IX was a staunch supporter of mendicant orders like the Franciscans, who were responsible for the spiritual guidance of the beguines. But when this novel opens, Louis is long dead and there are ongoing tensions between the current king, Philip the Fair, and the pope. Hundreds of warrior monks, the Templars, have been arrested after malicious rumours about their practices and the beguine Marguerite Porete has been accused of heresy for her work of religious mysticism, The Mirror of Simple Souls. This novel starts with Marguerite burning at the stake, the only medieval author to be executed for a book.

The Mirror of Simple Souls was originally published in French as La nuit des béguines [The Night of the Beguines], recognising the doom approaching this Parisian order in a time of turmoil. Although beguines continued to practice in the Low Countries, the Parisian beguinage was closed in 1317, just after this novel finishes, after a set of decrees published by Pope John XXII condemned and banned them. The canon Jean de Saint-Victor wrote at the time, 'The beguines no longer sing, the beguines no longer read'. This sense of menace is visible from early on in The Mirror of Simple Souls, as an older beguine, Ysabel, reflects that something is up with the weather: 'The winters have become steadily harsher. In 1303, a frost scorched the earth... In 1308, on the first Saturday after Ascension, a snowstorm made more destructive by huge hailstones devastated the region around Paris... And on 30th October 1309, a wind blew for an hour that was so strong it made the stone arches of Saint-Denis cathedral tremble'.

Kiner is brilliant at conveying these complex histories throughout her novel. The Mirror of Simple Souls is the opposite of much bad histfic which seizes upon an exciting setting and then just uses it to play out modern cliches. This book is steeped in the story of the Parisian beguines, and it's fascinating. I love novels about nuns but I had no idea that so many medieval European women lived in this different kind of religious space. Kiner also writes well about her two principal settings: the beguinage itself and a silk workshop where some of the beguines work. If there's a medieval setting I truly adore other than a nunnery, it's a craft workshop, so this was right up my street.

Having said that, I didn't love The Mirror of Simple Souls as much as I wanted to, despite its great strengths. The central cast of beguines are serviceable enough characters but never quite sparked into life for me. They fulfil slightly stock roles in this kind of book: the older herbalist, the intelligent woman who dabbles in forbidden texts, the rebellious redhead who wants to flee the institution, the one who has her nose in everybody's business. The plot reminded me of Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts but without the same kind of emotional depth. The Mirror of Simple Souls is absolutely worth reading, but it's inspired me to seek out more non-fiction about the beguines (the go-to seems to be Tanya Stabler Miller's work) rather than to really take this book to my heart. 3.5 stars.

Dnfd pretty early on. Unfortunately I found it quite boring. The characters were interesting and the plot line itself was intriguing but the writting was so very dull. It coudlnt hold my attention, it felt like a school book rather than something I would be excited to pick up for myself. I cannot say that it wasn't well written, just that it wasn't for me.
3 stars because I think it is a book that others will enjoy.

{3.5/5] THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS is a subdued mystery set against the backdrop of increasing religious control in 1310 Paris. The events unfold mainly in a beguinage, or a community where women have not taken vows nor remarried, but instead work together without the influence of men. One day a teenage girl arrives at their door step in need of assistance. Despite the girl's silence and unknown background, the community takes her in without knowing a Franciscan monk seeks to return her home.

The revelation of this mystery girl's background is, sadly, not terribly uncommon for the time. Her recent history shows how little agency men allowed women. But her presence in this story mainly serves as a catalyst for the monk and key beguinage women to decide whether to silently combat the growing religious repression. Without getting into too many spoilers, this peaceful rebellion involves the transcription of an important book of religious ideas written by a woman.

What I found most interesting in THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS was the historical events occuring during this book's setting. For example, this story occurs at a time during which the Knights Templar, a monastic military order, faced trials for alleged heresy. The reader also learns about the postmorten custom Louis IX's body was subjected to after his death during the Eighth Crusade. I certainly found myself doing a little internet research while reading this to learn more. There is also a fair amount of reference to religion, which was a bit lost on me. Those who are more familiar with Christianity might take away more from that aspect. Overall, I think the average reader can pick up the main points of the history and religion topics of the time. But I think those who already have an interest and knowledge of Late Medieval Paris religion and politics would have a richer experience.

While I found this historical drama interesting, the style of storytelling keeps the reader at a distance from the characters. The reader never truly gets to know any one character, whose backgrounds become known in snippets and implications. While I didn't particularly mind this, it does prevent one from becoming more invested in a character. Rather, the focus is on how key moments from each character's life guide them in important moments.

Overall, THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS is an interesting look at early 14th century Paris and the operations of a beguinage. It highlights a population sect of women and a community with which an average reader may not be familiar, providing a unique learning experience through historical fiction.

This book touched my soul. The narrative was simple yet poetic, light yet full of meaning. I felt like I was in old Paris and was part of the beguinage, felt the women's struggles and still am frustrated that our fight is still the same. The characters were lovely and the bitersweet ending is a plus for someone who does not always like happy endings.

I have some mixed feelings about this book, but ultimately I enjoyed it. I struggled with the pacing of the book and how far into it before we understood how each thread of the story came together. I really enjoyed the history and the setting the most, and the novel propelled me into researching further into Marguerite Porete and Beguines. The individual characters were interesting, but none of them really stood out to me at the end of the story. But I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively tidy ending considering some of the other tragic happenings throughout the book.

I was able to get this when it was on “read now” and I wasn’t able to download it immediately, it was archived rather quickly. Like the other person’s review here, I am open to reading and reviewing if the publisher is willing to send me an epub copy of the book. I will edit this once I’m able to get my hands on a copy.

Life for medieval women in Western Europe was supposed to follow a few paths. Women were expected to become wives and mothers, or perhaps take religious vows. Aline Kiner’s The Mirror of Simple Souls shows us one of the few alternate paths for women in the 1300s: beguinage. Neither wives nor nuns, beguines had some freedom to become merchants or scholars or healers. Kiner’s book—elegantly translated from the French by Susan Emanuel—takes us inside the Great Beguinage of Paris in the first decades of the fourteenth century.

Ysabel, an elderly woman who joined the beguines after the death of her second husband, is a kindly, pious healer. She is our touchpoint throughout The Mirror of Simple Souls even as the narrative shifts to include the stories of a young teenage bride fleeing a monstrous husband, a conflicted beguine who doesn’t know where her loyalties lay, and a Franciscan monk who becomes fascinated with the mystical work that gives this novel its name. The beginning of this book is marked by violence. An early scene depicts the execution of a woman we later learn is the author of the historical Mirror of Simple Souls, Marguerite Porete. Characters reference the tortures and executions of members of the Knights Templar, whose order was officially dissolved in 1312. And there is Maheut, the battered girl Ysabel takes in during the first chapters. Maheut bears physical and psychological marks of violence inflicted by the man she was forced to marry. The security of the beguinage is one of the few places of real safety in a tumultuous Paris.

Kiner allows her plots to meander through the years. As characters let their stories unspool, we also see petty politics in the Great Beguinage, theological debates, jealousies, budding romance, and much more. I had to force myself to stop trying to guess where the narrative would take me; this book defies a lot of plot conventions. Once I stopped trying to anticipate where the story would go next, I had time to take a look around me, so to speak. There is so much detail in this book about medieval medicine, the education of women, and even the complicated process of translation in an age when there was no standard French language waiting to be soaked up. Kiner poured so much of what she knew into this book that I feel like I just took a particularly engaging history course.

The Mirror of Simple Souls is a slow read. Readers will need to be patient as characters slowly reveal their backstories and motivations. It also helps if readers are familiar with medieval Western Europe or take a minute to do some reading on Wikipedia; there are a lot of real historical figures, places, groups, and concepts dropped into the text of this book. But, thankfully, there’s no exam at the end of The Mirror of Simple Souls.

This is a beautiful, engaging, and well-crafted look at a fascinating period in history. This is dense historical fiction, but it rewards you in spades for your attention: you can feel the pulse of the city beneath the cobblestone streets and smell the faint, lingering scent of ash on the wind. The translation here is excellent (although, as always, I bemoan my inability to learn every language and read every book in the original text). Dense historical fiction can often feel inaccessible, and that is far from the case here: this is a very lived-in world of real people with real problems and real, tangible emotions. It's once again a testament to both the author and translator: in lesser hands, this topic (the Beguines) could've easily felt confusing and abstract. The opposite is true here. This is time travel. Absolutely beautiful work.

The Mirror of Simple Souls by Aline Kiner is primarily about the Beguinage, a commune of independant women in 14th century Paris, a time when religious persecution was rampant. The community is peaceful, quiet, a simple co-existence, a refuge. The story describes the life of single women, able to follow pursuits that were not afforded to them in French soceity at the time. That is, until a young girl begs for sanctuary and right behind her, a franciscan monk. The problem is, that the flame haired child (Maheut) is a fugitive, her red hair being the focal point of symbolism, of the Templars, of treachery.

This book is fascinating, I learned many things taht I had not previously known of and even if it was just for that, this book was exceptional for me. However, add to that, the strong storyline of Maheut and we have a compelling, dramatic, dark narrative, with the flames of hope, strength and fortitude matching the flames of Maheuts hair. A fantastic read for fans of historical fiction

Thank you to Netgalley, Pushkin Press and Aline Kiner for this stunning ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

A beguinage - a French 13thC sanctuary for all classes of women. Not a convent, but a kind of commune of women living, working and praying together. These were highly educated women, flying under the radar of male oppression and general misogyny - a fragile existence amongst all the cries of heresy.
Will the arrival of a girl seeking refuge unbalance these precarious lives or bind them together in solidarity?
The myriads of complicatedly named characters, the confusing layout of 13thC Paris (without a map), the lengthy theological discussions and my ignorance of early French history made this book very hard work for me. As beautifully as life in a beguinage is described, the plot did not totally float my boat.

Really liked the narrative voice woven through this, and its strength of character within the time frame.