Written in 1565 at the request of her confessor, St. Teresa's autobiography is at once an extraordinary chronicle of a life governed by the desire to draw closer to God and a literary masterpiece that brings to life a woman of candor, humor, and great spiritual strength. Teresa writes of her early life, the conflicts and crises she faced, and her decision to enter a life of prayer. Her lyrical, almost erotic descriptions of ecstatic experiences call to mind the senuous language of the Song of Songs.

ST. TERESA was born at Avila on Wednesday, March 28, 1515, and baptized on April 4, in the parish church of San Juan, the very day on which the first Mass was celebrated in the new church of the convent of the Incarnation. Her god-father was Vela Nuñez, and the god-mother Doña Maria del Aguila. The name she received in baptism, Teresa, of frequent occurrence in Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was common to the families of both her father and mother; for her great-grandmother on the father’s side was Teresa Sanchez, and her grandmother on her mother’s side was Teresa de las Cuevas.

In this classic of Christian mysticism, a Carmelite nun describes her struggles and ultimate union with God. St. Teresa recounts her childhood, spiritual crises, and embrace of the contemplative life.

Born in the Castilian town of Avila in 1515, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation when she was twenty-one. Tormented by illness, doubts and self-recrimination, she gradually came to recognize the power of prayer and contemplation—her spiritual enlightenment was intensified by many visions and mystical experiences, including the piercing of her heart by a spear of divine love. She went on to found seventeen Carmelite monasteries throughout Spain. Teresa always denied her own saintliness, however, saying in a letter: "There is no suggestion of that nonsense about my supposed sanctity." This frank account is one of the great stories of a religious life and a literary masterpiece—after Don Quixote, it is Spain's most widely read prose classic. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

El Libro de la Vida, escrito por Santa Teresa de Jesús, es una obra importante de la literatura mística española del Siglo de Oro. En este libro, Santa Teresa narra su propia vida de forma autobiográfica, describiendo sus experiencias místicas y su profunda conexión con Dios. Su estilo literario es fluido y rico en metáforas, lo que refleja su profunda devoción y sabiduría espiritual. El Libro de la Vida no solo es una obra autobiográfica, sino también un tratado espiritual que ofrece enseñanzas sobre la oración, la contemplación y la unión con lo divino. La obra se enmarca en el contexto de la Contrarreforma católica, donde la mística española cobró especial relevancia. Santa Teresa de Jesús, como monja carmelita descalza, escribió El Libro de la Vida con la intención de compartir sus experiencias espirituales y guiar a otros en su búsqueda de la unión con Dios. Recomiendo este libro a aquellos interesados en la mística, la espiritualidad y la literatura española del Siglo de Oro, ya que ofrece una visión única sobre la relación entre el ser humano y lo divino.

The saint's own account of her life as mystic, reformer and writer