Pudentiana Deacon

The "Early Modern Englishwoman" series makes available a comprehensive and focused collection of writings in English from 1500 to 1750. Each book in the series is by women and for and about them.

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Delicious entertainments of the soule is a translation of a collection of conferences which Francis de Sales held for the Order of the Sisters of the Visitation. This order took the form of an institute for young girls and widows who wanted to enter a convent but lacked the strength or the inclination for the physical austerities of the great orders. It was for these sisters that Francis held conferences or 'familiar conversations' on religious topics at regular intervals. These conversations were not written out by Francis himself but were noted down and collected by the sisters. Pudentiana Deacon's translation of these transcripts gives the reader an idea of the personality of the speaker. De Sale comes across as a humane, commonsensical, practical man with an occasional sense of humour and a shrewd idea of the specific worries and temptations of his audience.