The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse

Ah, Peter Abelard. The only person in history to have become more of a dick because he lost his dick. (Though something tells me he was a pretty narcissistic jackass even before then.) As aware as I am that these letters are a wonderful historical source, rereading them only fills me with the urge to go back in time and punch Abelard in the neck. And then to take Heloise to one side, explain the concept of 'internalised misogyny' to her, fix her a strong drink and then talk her through why emoti [...]

Now here's a story it was difficult for me to see how I should categorise it, but then I decided that despite the last three letters, this was more about these two people than just religious advice, anyway. Anyway, these two a teacher and his student, both smart (but Heloise with less troubles in life). A story from 12th Century. There is the letters, first Abelard's tale of victories and woe - some of them his own fault - then starts the exchange of letters between him and his former pupil and [...]

A revelation. Amazed that I haven't read these years ago. But perhaps you haven't heard the story of Abelard the brilliant young scholar, his student the clever Heloise, and how their proximity and appreciation of each other led to the conception and birth of their son Astrolabe? This story has a savage turn as a group of monks assuming that Abelard had taken holy orders were enraged that he had violated the vow of celibacy which he hadn't taken and castrated him - this was the time when the Chu [...]

Despite my interest in the middle ages, I avoided H&A for a long time. I was under the impression that it was all moaning about love and so on; but no! These letters are actually fascinating. Two incredibly intelligent people, neither of whom I'd want to spend too much time with, write to each other about their amazing lives (famous philosopher gets castrated, hounded by church, hated by monks; famous poet/composer/humanist falls dementedly in love, has a child with her lover, becomes powerf [...]

Residents of the 21st century might best know Abelard & Heloise from sultry references in The Sopranos. Don't let the power of Edie Falco's acting fool you - there is little pleasure or wisdom in this book, which should mainly be considered for its historical significance. Today, the letters of Abelard and Heloise would better be fodder for an episode of To Catch a Predator.Peter Abelard was a terrible narcissist and an abusive boyfriend, one whose actions and writings are best understood in [...]

I hate Abelard, all his self-congratualtory narcissistic bemoaning of his persecution, his admission that he beat and raped Heloise, his vastly younger pupil, until she slept with him willingly, his intellectual arrogance, his cruelty and refusal to take responsibility for his own words or actions.Also the fact that he himself published Heloise's letters makes the version we have highly suspect. Butill, what those letters reveal is a style of writing in Latin superior to Abelard's own, and a min [...]

What is it about human love that makes it despicable in the sights of religion.?! I started reading this book thinking I'll see love in its pure form in these letters. But all I saw was hypocrisy and selfishness. Heloise expressed her feelings truly in the first letter. But in the next one,she seems much irked by Abelard's letter and her decision to wholeheartedly give herself to God doesn't seem a honest one. I felt it as a lover's attempt to get some sort of communication from her beloved. She [...]

It was desire not affection which bound you to me, the flame of lust rather than love. So when the end came to what you desired, any show of feeling you used to make went with it. This is not merely my own opinion, beloved, it is everyone's.(Heloise to Abelard, Letter 1)I'm not sure what criteria we should be using to 'rate' documents like these letters - readability? historical interest? I've gone for a neutral 3-stars because I'm not sure that a general reader looking for the (in)famous tale o [...]

L'amour comme un devoir ou comme une tache a deux. L'amour comme une union des ames compatibles. Des amants. des amis et comme individu d'une communaute. L'amour parfait epanoui, accompli. Un des premiers amours en Occident, qui le marqueLa theologie dont l'oeuvre est impregnee est la valeur de cette societe ou appartiennent les deux amants et amis comme poetes inspires

It's hard for me to say "loved it" about these letters, because it's hard to peel the love story away from knowledge of Abélard's "misfortunes" (told with great pious self-pity in his "Historia calamitatum") and his subsequent spiritual domination, and then abandonment, of Héloïse. Also, I happen to like Héloïse a whole lot better, and so the preference makes for a lopsided reading. Still, the progression of affection between the two writers/lovers - from eros to caritas, to borrow papal te [...]

These letters, both dour and deeply sexual, austerely theological and yet deeply spiritual, are like nothing I've ever read and I doubt I'll ever encounter anything quite like them again. These letters are in a sense the "morning after" correspondence, the morning after an intense romantic partnership was separated by the medieval Catholic Church. I never thought I would read anything quite this sensual from a nun! The relationship between the Abelard, who after all was a great philosopher and B [...]

I am almost finished with this one, and I have loved it. What a fascinating look into the middle ages and into one of the most interesting couples in history. I am biased toward Heloise and champion her ability to speak her mind to the man she loved, married, and became an abbess to please.

This is a great edition. Michael Clanchy's introduction is excellent, with good background of Heloise and Abelard's extraordinary story and their letters, in addition to scrupulous angles on various theories about authorship, exposition of some interesting feminism, notes on translations, and so forth. As for the letters themselves, they were significantly more religious than I thought they would be, and there remained much to offend my feminism, but it is an interesting slice of a different tim [...]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

Abelard is a dick and you cannot convince me otherwise.

The only reason I made it through this book was because it was required reading for my middle ages history course. The lecturer gave the impression that it was going to be a juicy medieval version of Romeo and Juliet, so needless to say I was kind of excited. By ten pages in I could already tell it was going to be a massive let down. The book is comprised of a number of original letters written by Peter Abelard, a 12th Century theologian/monk/total jerk, and Heloise, his long-suffering pupil/lov [...]

In fact, I had read years ago somewhere on this unimaginable couple whose eternal love amazed me and thus I longed to read their letters. Fortunately, I found this second-hand paperback one Wednesday morning in the UQ compound next to the Central Library some 7+ years ago.If you don't know them, it's cool to know that Abelard used to teach Heloise in probably a tutorial class and, romantically dictated by Fate, they fell in love and they're so serious that they managed to meet each other. As for [...]

J'ai beaucoup aimé. L'histoire d'amour est édifiante et les considérations théologiques sont instructives.

Abélard was a 12th century logician, philosopher turned theologian who is typically only remembered either for his moral-influence theory of the atonement, or his tragic love affair with Heloïse. This book recounts the latter including his autobiographical "History of my Misfortunes" along with letters of correspondence between the two after they had both joined monasteries.It's all pretty tragic: erudite philosopher out philosophizing Christian realists with his conceptualism thereby incuring [...]

I can read these letters over and over and always find something new. To really appreciate them, it's best if you spend some time learning the history of the period as well as the relationship between Heloise and Peter Abelard. The letters can and do stand alone as provocative and emotional epistolary exchanges, but understanding the sexual restrictions of 12th century upper-class women lend more to the understanding and appreciation of the thwarted passions expressed in each letter.It's also im [...]

I read this for school, and really enjoyed getting to know the story (WHY is this not more well-known?) The glimpse it gives into the foundations of the European University system are fascinating, and it showcases how the twelfth century was the precursor to the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. So from a scholarly standpoint, this is really interesting.Except, the real draw to this is the love story and the characters of Abelard and Heloise themselves. I HATE ABELARD. With a [...]

This is a series of letters between two lovers of the early twelfth century. There are several aspects of these letter which are remarkable. First is that they exist at all - most written material of this period is long-since lost. The second thing is that Heloise was a woman who was well-educated enough to write, and indeed to engage in rather heavy intellectual discourse at this time. The third is that the tale of their star-crossed love ended in the emasculation of Abelard by Heloise's family [...]

I loved this book when I read it the first time back in the 90s, still do today.What baffles me are all the incompetent and unsympathetic reviews that love to bash Abelard. Apparently the don't get what goes on with the male mind after the male in question has been castrated against his will. That's bound to leave physical and emotional scarring!

I read the book and got bored, it was a bit complicated. I'll read it when I'm older. Really liked the summary of the letters before (only read the summaries because text was medieval and complicated).

Interesting for the historical side, but aggravated me from a modern feminist perspective. But, if you want to read a book partially about a man getting his balls chopped off, this is your book!

I stumbled across a copy of The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse stuffed on a bookshelf in a closet in the house where I had been living over a decade. I did not buy it. It was not mine. I had known of Pierre Abélard for several years. Abélard: medieval monk, philosopher, theologian, aristocrat. Joseph Campbell cited Abélard’s perspective on atonement in the Bill Moyers collaboration, The Power of Myth. Through Campbell’s quick sketch I learned of Abélard’s love affair with Héloïse [...]

I must say that these letters were not quite what I had expected. That was because Abelard and Heloise didn't exactly live up to their reputation. I'm not sure how they ever ended up on the most-romantic-tragic-love-story-list. Don't get me wrong, I found the letters profoundly interesting on many different levels. A treasure for historians. Interesting character studies. But romantic? Not so much.Abelard strikes me as too much of a narcissist to raise much sympathy for his misfortunes – espec [...]

A fascinating insight into Medieval life, "The Letters" are the real-life correspondences between Peter Abelard, an arrogant (and apparently handsome) monk and writer, and the beautiful young lady, Heloise, whom he seduced. Her subsequent pregnancy caused a scandal for them both, leading to her becoming the Abbess of a convent. In truth, the story of these people is more interesting than the letters. Heloise is the more fascinating, as she clearly still has feelings, yet has begun to question th [...]

I discovered that the audio version at Audible of The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse is only 33 minutes long! So you get only the letters and no additional commentary explaining them. These letters are described in this way at Audible: "The deepest currents of passion seldom break the surface of literature. Romantic classics abound; but however skilled a writer may be in verbalising an emotional experience, he cannot publicly evoke the heat of blood, the yearning of soul, bared in perfect int [...]

Both Abelard and Heloise are good at expressing themselves (and the translation I am reading seems to be a good one -- it has many interesting explanatory footnotes).I know I should not be so surprised, but I am finding Abelard to be nothing more than a total self-centered jerk and I find myself getting cross at Heloise for taking it from him. Admittedly I have only read his narration of his "troubles", which tells of their meeting, their romance, their secret marriage, his sudden castration by [...]