Women's engagement with the powerful medieval ideal of virginity is reflected in the saints' lives written by and for women in twelfth and thirteenth-century England. This book explores the usefulness of the virgin ideal for widows, wives, and women in religion and is the first book-length study of women writers in England at this period.

Writing by and for women in the twelfth and thirteenth century in England is less well known than that of the later medieval period of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. This is the first book-length exploration of this rich literary culture embracing several vernaculars as well as Latin.

Readers of this book will no longer be able unthinkingly to respond to its subject matter as morbid fantasy sponsored by dirigiste clerics ... impressive textual scholarship drives the book ... an invaluable resource.