Heloise & Abelard - by James Burge (Paperback)

About the Book

In this compelling biography, newly discovered letters from Heloise to Abelard shed fresh light onto one of the most famous romances in history.

From the Back Cover

New Revelations about One of the Greatest Romances in History

Peter Abelard was arguably the greatest poet, philosopher, and religious teacher in all of twelfth-century Europe. In an age when women were rarely educated, Heloise was his most gifted young student. Their private tutoring sessions inevitably turned to passion, and their moments apart were spent writing love letters. Astoundingly, a few years ago a young scholar identified 113 new love letters between the pair which, combined with the latest scholarship, present us with the richest telling yet of the couple's clandestine passion -- a story that is erotic, poignant, and at times even funny.

Review Quotes

"The most striking part of the book is its modernity...Burge achieves something truly difficult: he reminds us that, for Abelard and Heloise, their world was as new, risky, and unpredictable as ours...many...can now enjoy this story all over again." - London Times
"This is a great tale, which Burge tells vividly and economically." - Atlantic Monthly
"[Heloise and Abelard] is a good place to make a fresh start on the old story ... Burge weaves the politics and theology of an age lumbering toward the modern world." - Nashville Tennessean
"In addition to the charm of such a devoted love affair, the book offers a detailed look at ecclesiastical infighting in the Middle Ages." - Dallas Morning News
"In a style both elegant and enthusiastic, Burge uses both sets of letters, as well as historical accounts of the period, to recount the tale . . . If this biography is a fine retelling of a famous love story, it is also a revealing story of medieval life, the political wranglings between a powerful church and a newly emerging secular state, the changes in culture and consciousness beginning to result from new attitudes toward learning and inquiry, the power of religious life and its connection to human love . . . [Heloise and Abelard's] quest, and their refusal to accept and not to question received truths, is perhaps the real story of these lovers, and, as this compelling biography demonstrates, has the power to move us even today." - Greensboro News & Record
"[A]n engaging, meticulously researched and deftly written work." - Edmonton Journal
"It's a must-read for romantics and scholars alike." - Vancouver Province
"Vividly evokes the world of 12th-century France and the place of Heloise and, particularly, Abelard within it." - Vancouver Sun
"[A] fascinating, funny and thoroughly engaging study . . . a witty and finely written page-turner." - National Catholic Reporter
"If all this [Valentine's Day roses and chocolate] sounds too sweet, direct your attention to a new biography of Heloise & Abelard by James Burge. Their star-crossed romance is hot enough to singe Cupid's wings . . . an illuminating study of the tensions between romantic love and religious devotion. Even 900 years later, it's hard to tell what's more searing: their passion or their insight." - Christian Science Monitor
"The passion, spirit and devotion of this star-crossed couple come through on every page. Highly recommended." - Historical Novels Review
"Their story needs retelling for each generation, and James Burge does this very well in HELOISE & ABELARD: A New Biography. More than that, he has many fresh insights . . . vivid, compelling and close to the source. This book deserves to re-establish the fame of Heloise and Abelard in the English-speaking world. There is as much here for feminists as for romantics." - Wall Street Journal
"[I]f you've got the right story, even nine intervening centuries aren't enough to render it obsolete. Proof of this is evident in the publication of James Burge's Heloise and Abelard: A New Biography, whose title lovers first met in the year 1115 . . . It took quite a twelfth-century woman to tell her lover that, if it would help his career, she would rather be his whore than his wife. That's a woman I want to read more about . . . Burge has written a compelling and still admirably scholarly book, and has done his part to tell a love story that beats Brad and Jennifer's, hands down. May it live for another nine hundred years." - Bookslut.com
"Burge's account is indeed loving: it is hard to read the letters and not come to love the couple--or at least Heloise . . . Her rise in power is testament to her brains, which she seemed to have always been able to apply to the problem at hand. But her heart--her heart was always elsewhere, in the hands of Abelard, who comes across as something of a schnook. A brilliant schnook, but nonetheless a schnook. Heloise's searing testaments of her human, mundane love, which makes her "marriage" to Christ a sham, and her desire to be consoled by communication with Abelard will move even the most stolid reader, and is a swooning song of delight for the bookish romantic." - Curled Up with a Good Book
"[Burge] tells the story of the love affair with the flair of a novelist. His account is detailed and exciting but never tawdry, and he sprinkles the book with lots of luminous quotations from the letter-writers themselves." - Books & Culture
"One of the greatest love stories of all time . . . Readers will be drawn to this vivid account." - Publishers Weekly
"If ever scholarship could be called delectable, it is here in James Burge's sympathetic and thorough account." - Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue
"A meticulous but always engaging explication of each lover's innermost desires . . . an impressively researched account." - BookPage
"Burge brings these famous lovers to us in all their robustness and life. An impressive feat." - Margaret George, author of Mary, Called Magdalene