- Paperback: 212 pages
- Publisher: Constable; New edition edition (19 Oct 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0094680000
- ISBN-13: 978-0094680005
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 87,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Peter Abelard
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Product Description
Product Description
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book as a child and it has remained one of my favourites. For all diehard romantics and scholars the story of Abelard and Heloise has to be one of the greatest tales ever. Helen Waddell's scholarship brings the world of the 12th century alive: her characters are believable and tragic and the story builds up to the terrible climax of Abelard's castration. Parts of this book - the Latin fragments of poetry, Abelard's great speeches, the comments on love and loss - will always haunt me. A classic.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As is my suspicious way i read this expecting a limp narrative hung on Waddell's formidable erudition. As is so often the case i was proved wrong and a fool. This slim novel needs make no apology for itself - if i hadn't known, i'd have thought it the work of an accomplished novelist, rather than the fictive excursion of a Medieval scholar.
The tale of Heloise and Abelard - familiar to any scholar, or erudite lover or adulterer - is of a girl loving Europe's most famous theologian and thinker, and their inevitable overthrow. It is still in its way scandalous, inasmuch as many would still disapprove of an age gap of two decades between lovers, and in modern universities tutors are forbidden to so love their students - or vica versa - on penalty of dismissal, and Abelard's stature as a Christian thinker can only add emphasis. Waddell handles the story with great subtlety and control - often omitting or working round the crucial plot knots which only heightens the sense of a fated doom, inevitability.
Waddell also treats of Abelard's atonement theology, but fear not, all is integrated into the story and the indifferent thinker may easily ignore the theological depths. Waddell uses love - sacred and profane - as the linchpin of existence as (to my recollection) does Abelard in his atonement theology, in contradistinction to the classic Medieval line on the Crucifixion. Unexpectedly, it is this theological echo which makes this novel so powerfully human.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Really stunning on so many levels
4 Aug 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a PhD student in theology with a background in medieval French history and literature, I've long been a fan of both Abelard and Heloise. Waddell's treatment of their tragic lives is nearly as timeless as they are. I like the fact that Waddell knows what she's talking about--her grasp of Abelard's revolutionary theological ideas (especially at the very moving close of the book, when he's working out his theory of atonement) is the furthest thing from superficial. It's precisely because of her scholar's knowledge that she's able to create a richly-woven setting for her two protagonists. This is something I've not found in any other treatment (especially *Stealing Heaven*, which is ghastly). She doesn't attempt to sensationalize the love story, and there's nothing in the way she presents things that's either anachronistic on the one hand or stilted (in that self-conscious, I'm-writing-medieval-dialogue way) on the other.
I didn't find her Heloise at all bloodless; in fact, quite the opposite. I was pleased that Waddell lets us see Heloise's brilliant intelligence and intellectual fervor. (Abelard fell in love with her mind as much as anything). It's a shame this book is out of print here in the States. For anyone with an interest in the story of Abelard and Heloise (or even for anyone who simply likes good prose and well-done fictionalized history), this is a book that sould not be missed. It's a lovely, sometimes stunning read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Enthralling, haunting story
3 Mar 2005
Format:Hardcover
This book was recommended to me by an utterly fascinating, extremely well read man I met in India. Just the fact that it is his favorite book convinced me to read it. The beauty of the prose is breathtaking, haunting. Even as someone who is decidedly not a Catholic, or even religious (making it an opportunity to learn about medieval Catholicism), I found Abelard's spiritual journey profoundly moving, particularly in the end when his faith is restored. It is one of those books, like most of Nabokov's and many of Turgenev's, that is so beautiful it cannot be absorbed in one reading. A note on the story: as the title implies, this book is first and foremost about Abelard. His famous love affair with Heloise is treated as but one aspect of his remarkable life. Even so, it is well worth it, even for those with little interest in the man himself.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Really romantic
27 Dec 2004
Format:Paperback
A well-written tale of two historical characters. Lovers of romance fiction and of great fiction in general should not miss reading this book of the tragic and enduring love between abelard and heloise. Sublime.
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