Helen Waddell

Following in the footsteps of H. G. Wells, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Arnold Bennett, Ada Leverson, May Sinclair and others, in 1915 the young Helen Waddell and Maude Clarke (later well-known medievalists) collaborated on a marriage-problem novel, Discipline, published here for the first time. Modeled on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the action centres on Elizabeth St. John's grievances against her husband, in her eyes justifying a series of rebellions which, however, rebound upon herself. Equally important is her friendship with Anne Delahide, sparkling with the fun of being intellectual. Like other marriage-problem novels, 'Discipline' sows seeds of feminist doubt even as the romantic comedy returns the heroine to the marital embrace. However, the friendship between Elizabeth and Anne allows the authors to hint at a homosocial alternative. The Introduction by Jennifer FitzGerald teases out the subtext, the struggles of a young university-educated and independent-minded wife to forge the stable self-defined identity her husband can take for granted. It examines the parallels and contrasts with Waddell's 1916 biographical essay, also published here, on the 18th-century Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, which also follows the trajectory of romantic comedy but ends in the humdrum, unrelenting heartbreak of an irreconcilable marriage. Both texts are comprehensively annotated.

By the fourth century A. D., devout Christians--men and women alike--had begun to retreat from cities and villages to the deserts of North Africa and Asia Minor, where they sought liberation from their corrupt society and the confining shell of the social self. The Desert Fathers is the perfect introduction to the stories and sayings of these heroic pioneers of the contemplative tradition. Selected and translated by Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers opens a window onto early Christianity while presenting us with touchingly human models of faith, humility, and compassion. With a new Preface by the Cistercian monk, writer, and revered teacher of contemplative prayer M. Basil Pennington, author of O Holy Mountain and Challenges in Prayer. "God is our home but many of us have strayed from our native land. The venerable authors of these Spiritual Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions home."--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“There is no beginning,” writes Helen Waddell in her introduction to this classic, “to a history of medieval Latin. Its roots take hold too firmly on the kingdoms of the dead. The scholar’s lyric of the twelfth century seems as new a miracle as the first crocus; but its earth is the leafdrift of centuries of forgotten scholarship.” This book is the record of the Wandering Scholars, makers, and singers of medieval Latin, and their vanished Order.

The words of the 4th-century monastics who founded the Desert Rule