Compiled by a radical journalist and poet in the early days of the French Revolution, these subversively satirical lives of women saints sought to win both women and men away from religion. Though based on authentic hagiography, Maréchal's "new" legendary introduces a skeptical, rationalist perspective that anticipates modern critical approaches. Along with Delany's thorough introduction and notes, Anti-Saints offers a new perspective on the cultural climate of the French Revolution and a strikingly modern contribution to our own public conversation on religion. A must for scholars and non-specialists alike, and lovers of audacious wit.
Sheila Delany is Professor Emerita at Simon Fraser University. A medievalist and lifelong political activist, she has already brought one forgotten author, Osbern Bokenham, into the scholarly mainstream. Delany lives in Vancouver.
'Lives of the Saints,' or hagiography, was once a robust literary genre unto itself, and a highly respectable one at that. Today it is the opposite of intellectually respectable. The cultural distance reflected in the opposing valuations of hagiography makes it difficult for modern readers to fully appreciate Sylvain Maréchals parodic treatment of the genre in Nouvelle légende dorée, the work that Sheila Delany has wonderfully brought back to life in English under the title Anti-Saints.... Delanys resurrection of the Nouvelle légende dorée is to be welcomed especially because it puts the spotlight on an author whose literary contributions to the French Revolution have heretofore been undervalued..." Clifford D. Conner, Science & Society, April 2014
"This book offers a fascinating cultural find: a strong and significant text from the first phases of the French Revolution which is virtually unknown even among specialists of the period and never reprinted in modern times.... Delanys unearthing and decoding of Maréchals satirical lives of women saints is first of all a truly original intellectual achievement, thanks to an uncommon combination of scholarly competences in both medieval and French revolutionary history and literature.... Delanys excellent translation, as sparkling and spirited and ironic as the original French, but also as stark and uncompromising, renders the way the author plays with words...." Erica J. Mannucci, CRCL/RCLC, December 2016
