The work itself is highly subjective, focusing exclusively on Margery's own perceptions, thoughts, feelings and opinions. Written in the third person, Margery often refers to herself as "this creature," which can be seen as simple humility. .
Her recollections detail her spiritual journey through a life that was anything but ordinary, fraught with business failures, the difficult pregnancy and birth of her first child, bearing thirteen subsequent children while desiring chaste living; enduring temptation, struggling with lustful urges, and a difficult marriage to a demanding husband. Through her seeking of divine guidance she was able to tour Europe and take pilgrimages to far away countries, such as Rome, Jerusalem, and Germany; another remarkable feat for a woman in medieval society (2001).
One of the few comic moments of "The Book of Margery Kempe," occurs when John Kempe, exhausted by his wife's insistence that they should be celibate, asks if she would rather see him decapitated by a murderer than have sex with him. Margery answers by confirming that question, and John, thoroughly and understandably discouraged replies, "You are no good, wife" (2012). The rest of the text has Kempe recalling events and telling them in a fashion of bragging. She brags about how God has singled her out, while she also emphasizes her weakness and dependence on God. Kempe remains conscious of other's opinions and guards her reputation, yet shows herself repeatedly humiliated and scorned. Irony marks many of Margery's experiences. She has given up sex with her husband but has sexually charged visions of Jesus.
The author, a well-off middle class townswoman, lives in a medieval English town of King's Lynn. Born in 1373, she marries John Kempe, a cloth maker and has fourteen children with him. After the birth of her first child, a nervous breakdown incurs, causing her to see hideous devils around her.
