This book presents the first-ever English translation of the Prison Narratives written by the seventeenth-century French mystic and Quietist, Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717). Guyon’s narrative describes her confinement between 1695 and 1703 in various prisons, including the dreaded Bastille. It also maps, in moving and unforgettable detail, the political and religious hegemony that sought to destroy her reputation and erase her from history. Guyon kept the text private. It therefore remained undiscovered for almost three centuries until an archival version was found and published in 1992 under the ti ... More

This book presents the first-ever English translation of the Prison Narratives written by the seventeenth-century French mystic and Quietist, Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717). Guyon’s narrative describes her confinement between 1695 and 1703 in various prisons, including the dreaded Bastille. It also maps, in moving and unforgettable detail, the political and religious hegemony that sought to destroy her reputation and erase her from history. Guyon kept the text private. It therefore remained undiscovered for almost three centuries until an archival version was found and published in 1992 under the title Récits de Captivité (Prison Narratives). In order to make the text accessible to contemporary readers, the translation includes annotations identifying unfamiliar people, places, events and technical terms. The introduction provides a brief biography of Guyon and an analysis of the Quietist Affair, the religious and political conflict responsible for her persecution. Since this text constitutes the final, private, part of Guyon’s autobiography (the public portion of which was published in 1720 and remains in print today), the introduction discusses the composition of her autobiography as a whole and situates it in her larger body of work. It also includes an analysis of various historical, literary, and theological aspects of Guyon’s prison writings.