Book #38

Heloise and Abelard: A New Biography
by James Burge

I was feeling, oh, a bit more scholarly, I suppose, so I read Heloise and Abelard. It was surprisingly good: very well-written, better than most scholarly historical books. It reminded me of How The Irish Saved Civilization, which was also a very well-written and interesting book. Like that one, this one benefits greatly from the fact that the subject matter is fascinating: this is an incredible story.

I love the idea of these two remarkable people finding each other and finding love together. I love that the both of them, despite their Medieval morals, were willing to break the rules to be together, to revel in their unique connection. It was fascinating to read parts of their letters to each other, the endearments they wrote, the things they said about their love; totally changed my opinion of the Middle Ages.

That was another thing I liked about the book: the view it gave of the Middle Ages, which I don't know much about at all. This gave me a lot more respect for the monastic system as well as for the people, the scholars and philosophers of the time. I was utterly inspired by the idea that Abelard, a successful and famous philosopher, was able to forsake the role of dominant male and listen to his wife, and that from her inspiration, he became one of the foremost feminists of the era, right before the zealots turned all of Europe into a misogynistic theocracy that invented chastity belts and the Malleus Maleficarum.

Overall, it's a wonderful story, wonderfully told. Because this was true love, and it's obvious in everything they did and everything they said. I love hearing about lovers that lived a thousand years ago, in a time that seemed so much against true love, when people thought more of alliance and reproduction when they married, and sex was such a meaningless pastime in between (Think "The Tudors"). And how can I not love a couple that is made up of a poet and a songwriting logician? Even if they did end badly -- though I have to say, the best part of reading this book was the suggestion by the author that the last few years of Abelard's life, before he was accused of heresy and his health failed, were spent in a peaceful friendship, living at the monastery he founded and which was run by Heloise, that they had at least a few years when they weren't torn up by passion as well as by danger, when they could walk together and talk together and just live in harmony. That was magic. I hope it's true.