The Nun: Her Character and Work

Etienne Lelong's The Nun, Her Character and Work is a hugely significant book for our understanding of the nun. Though it was published in 1866, Gertrude Morel, the translator of this edition, notes that it "is still among the most instructive works on the subject." This new translation provides an opportunity to see what the nun's life used to look like - before convents were closed down, before convent reformers argued for changes in lifestyle and dress - with all its rigors and challenges intact. This is a biography and monograph of the French sculptor Etienne Lelong, based on correspondence between Lelong and his friends and colleagues. It includes texts by Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Maxime Alexandre, Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso.