Women in the Wall

Julia O'Faolain

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2011
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571281541
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

'I am hungry for your presence. I hanker for the great blaze of your glance which when you turn it on me, will burn out the husk of my body and draw my soul to you.'

Julia O'Faolian's second novel, first published in 1973, offers a rich, vivid portrait of the political and religious turmoil of sixth-century Gaul, wherein we find Radegunda, wife of King Clotair having been seized by him as a prize of war. Radegunda builds a convent, a refuge for the Brides of Christ, and there becomes renowned for her austerity and mysticism. Her religion, however, is fanatical, and her quest for sainthood will serve to undermine the seeming calm of the retreat she has made.

'Vibrant and strange... [a] journey into a darker, wilder moment of history.' Sarah Dunant, Guardian

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Genealogy of Frankish Kings ruling in Gaul during Period covered by Novel
• Map: Partition of Gaul after the death of Charibert
• Map: Sixth-century Gaul
• Introductory Note
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Chapter Eleven
• Chapter Twelve
• Chapter Thirteen
• Chapter Fourteen
• Chapter Fifteen
• Chapter Sixteen
• Chapter Seventeen
• Chapter Eighteen
• Chapter Nineteen
• Chapter Twenty
• Copyright