Book

Warner, Marina, 1946- author.

Alone of all her sex : the myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary / Marina Warner.

First Vintage books edition

New York : Vintage Books, 1983.

©1976.

xxv, 400, xix pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 21 cm

Devoting different sections of the book to each of the various roles Mary has assumed - Virgin, Queen, Bride, Mother, Intercessor - and drawing on official dogma, folk legend, art, history, literature and psychology, the author of Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism shows how the figure of Mary has shaped and been shaped by changing social and historical circumstances from the first century to the present day, and why, for all their beauty and power (and indeed because of them), the legends of Virgin Mary have condemned real women to perpetual inferiority. -- from back cover.

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint.

Myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary

Includes bibliographical references (pages 395-400) and index.

Part 1. Virgin -- 1. Mary in the Gospels -- 2. Mary in the Apocrypha -- 3. Virgin birth -- 4. Second Eve -- 5. Virgins and martyrs -- Part 2. Queen -- 6. The Assumption -- 7. Maria Regina -- Part 3. Bride -- 8. The Song of Songs -- 9. Troubadours -- 10. Madonna -- 11. Dante, Beatrice, and the Virgin Mary -- Part 4. Mother -- 12. Let it be -- 13. The milk of paradise -- 14. Mater Dolorosa -- 15. The penitent whore -- 16. The Immaculate Conception -- 17. The moon and the stars -- Part 5. Intercessor -- 18. Growth in everything -- 19. Icons and relics -- 20. Visions, the rosary, and war -- 21. The hour of our death.

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

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9780394711553

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0394499131

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232.91 Warner