Saint Therese of Lisieux, Kathryn Harrison
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Kathryn Harrison
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Saint Therese of Lisieux

Author: Kathryn Harrison

Narrator: Kate Reading

Unabridged: 5 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/04/2003

Synopsis

St. Therese of Lisieux, largely unknown when she died in a Carmelite convent at the age of twenty-four, became - through her posthumously published autobiography - one of the world's most influential religious figures. No less a luminary than Andre Gide modeled one of his characters after her in his novel STRAIT IS THE GATE. Originally the pampered daughter of successful and highly religious tradespeople, Therese appealed personally to the Pope to let her enter the convent at the age of fifteen. There, Therese embraced sacrifice and self-renunciation in a single-minded pursuit of the "nothingness" she felt would bring her closer to God. Her ascetic practices enabled her to undergo even the scourge of tuberculosis, which only deepened her spiritual intensity even as it would take her life.

About The Author

Kathryn Harrison has written the novels Thicker Than Water, Exposure, Poison, The Binding Chair, The Seal Wife, Envy, and Enchantments. Her autobiographical work includes The Kiss, Seeking Rapture, The Road to Santiago, The Mother Knot, and True Crimes. She has written two biographies, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and Joan of Arc, and a book of true crime, While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison.Kate Reading is the recipient of three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has narrated everything from Patricia Cornwell to George Eliot. Her favorite BOT recordings include Like Water for Chocolate, Middlemarch, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Times series, which she narrated with her husband, Michael Kramer.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Edward on January 11, 2023

Before reading this book, I knew vaguely of Therese, a popular 20th century saint called the “Little Flower,” but that was about all. What unique qualities of holiness did a 24 year old nun who died of tuberculosis possess? This biography was written by a non-believer, so I assumed it would be reaso......more

Goodreads review by Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) on January 05, 2019

English language biographers have a problem when it comes to writing about St Therese. Well, two, if their French isn't very good. The biggest problem is that while there is a lot of documentation of her life and thought, many of the English translations were made with a definite agenda in mind, whi......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on February 24, 2008

An interesting biography of the life of a young middle-class French woman who died of tuberculosis in 1897 at age 24 and became a Saint of the Catholic Church less than three decades later (that's pretty fast for the Catholics). It's an interesting book because the author, Kathryn Harrison, does a go......more

Goodreads review by Kasey on June 11, 2012

I haven't cared for the Kathryn Harrison novels I've tried to read, but I was happily surprised and intrigued by this book--intelligently and thoughtfully written and researched, provocative, sad, and moving. I also didn't know much of anything about Therese before I started, and so I feel like I le......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on June 09, 2013

Harrison's point-of-view was unique as she paints a picture of a mentally unhealthy saint from an emotionally dysfunctional family. I don't know that I'd make that assessment if I lived in the late 19th century but it is easy to read her that way from the historical present. Overall it is an engagin......more

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