The Interior Castle
by Teresa of Ávila · El Castillo Interior
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1577
- Era
- Renaissance
- Form
- Theology
- Language
- Spanish
- Length
- Medium · 200 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Interior Castle, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio RodriguezICS Publications, 2010The Carmelite scholarly translation, in a study edition with introductions to each set of dwelling places.
These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.
Written in a few months in 1577 at the request of Teresa's confessor, for the nuns of her reformed Carmelite convents. She pictures the soul as a castle of crystal with seven suites of rooms, or mansions, and God at the centre. The first three describe the ordinary Christian life of prayer and its temptations; the fourth the beginning of supernatural prayer; the fifth, sixth and seventh the soul's betrothal and marriage to God, including her own raptures, visions and sufferings, described with unusual candour.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Interior Castle are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
