Women in the wall, Julia O'faolain, 1978, Penguin

уменьшенный формат In the novel -- as in history -- Radegunda is the wife of Clotair, King  of Gaul, seized by him as a prize of war. When she suspects Clotair of  murdering her brother, she retreats from the blood-lust of the Dark  Ages. Taking the young, innocent Agnes with her, she establishes a  religious order where pain and denial are deemed the pathways to virtue  and redemption. But the "calm" of self-renunciation cannot last when a  sexual scandal involving Agnes is exposed. To expiate this sin, the  "victim" fanatically decides to wall herself up. This decision sets off  vicious rivalries among the women and draws Radegunda back to the kind  of world she had escaped from. книги на английском English Подробнее