A C Grayling
Missives from the Monastry
Heloise and Abelard: A Twelfth-Century Love Story
By James Burge
Profile Books 301pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
ONE OF THE most famous couples in the annals of passion, Abelard and Heloise are invariably referred to in that order: as 'Abelard and Heloise'. James Burge chooses to entitle his book 'Heloise and Abelard', and by this rearrangement succeeds in making a large and appropriate statement: for it is Heloise who is first in this story, being the one with the truly eloquent heart, to her very core the image and paradigm of a woman whose love is so profound that it rejects and defies the whole world and the wrath of God - everything, indeed, other than the beloved himself.
The story is familiar in outline because it is iconic. Abelard, the brilliant young philosopher, had an air with Heloise, the gifted and intelligent niece of a canon of Notre Dame in Paris, in whose house both she and Abelard lodged. Abelard began as her tutor, but they quickly became
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'A publicist interviewed by Fairrie praises Collins and her heroines ... because these were "women who behaved like men". Is that supposed to be good, given how men behaved towards Collins?'
Peter Conrad reviews a new documentary about Jackie Collins.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/easy-writer
'Walk down your supermarket pet food aisle and you’ll be hard pressed to find a single brand that claims to be made with high-welfare meat. More expensive pet food should not be about spoiling our cats but about sparing the farmed beasts we feed them.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/meattoo
'Two things prevent [this book] from collapsing under the weight of its own wayward ambition. Colin Jones, one of the finest living scholars of early modern France, is no ordinary historian. And the day in question, 27 July 1794, was no ordinary day'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/night-of-the-guillotine