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Elisabeth Leseur: Selected Writings. Edited, translated, and introduced by Janet K. Ruffing, RSM. [The Classics of Western Spirituality.] (New York and Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 319. $27.95 paperback.)
This volume introduces Anglophone readers to the life and writings of Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), an upper-class, well educated French woman whose diary was warmly received in Catholic circles when it was first published in French in 1917, three years after her death from breast cancer. It was translated into English in 1919, and later into several other languages. The translation presented here, however, is a new one by Janet Ruffing, who uses more modern language. It is accompanied by material previously unavailable in English, primarily Elisabeth's correspondence during her last years of suffering with her friend and spiritual advisor, Sister Marie Goby. The texts translated are preceded by an extensive and very useful introduction by Ruffing.
One reason for the initial success of Leseur's diary was...