The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life

by Heidi White

One part memoir, one part literary excursion, one part ode to the value and beauty of stories,The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life contemplates this intersection of human psychology, literary education, and Christian spirituality, revealing how the conflict between what we want to do and what we ought to do is the dividing line of every enduring story—including our own—and what we can do about it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Spirituality

236 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2025

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had the great privilege of listening to Heidi for years on the Close Reads podcast. She has often talked about the struggle between duty and desire in the human heart and how it plays out in the books we read. This has been such a helpful concept for me both as I read and as I observe my own life. I was so thrilled when I heard she was writing a book about duty and desire and here is the long-awaited result!

Heidi has so much wisdom and she uses such excellent books to get to the root of why our souls are divided, what brings healing to our divided souls, and how reading great literature helps in the healing. We get to explore duty and desire with Heidi in books like Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, the epics of Homer, Sense and Sensibility, and many more. This also delves into theology as well since our divided souls began with the original sin of Adam and Eve and the only healing then is within our relationship to Christ, who unites duty and desire in its originally intended wholeness.

This is a book I’ll be returning to often because there was so much here to ponder. An overwhelming richness! Once you see this concept, you can’t un-see it.

[Matthew Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning and beautiful exploration of that which makes us human. I finished this book recognizing my own longings for God more clearly, and for that, I am blessed.

Turns out Bono was right: we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, poignant exploration of what it means to be human and of the beauty and power of stories. Heidi White escorts readers through “a great cathedral” of the literary tradition, from the epics, to Tolstoy, to Lewis, to Austen, to the Arthurian legends, to Shakespeare, and many more, to show that humanity is telling the same story over and over of the division of every soul between duty and desire, and of the ultimate healing of this disharmony.

I walked away from this grand cathedral tour feeling joyfully full and alive, because, for one, Heidi is a kindred spirit who points out many new treasures from books I've long loved. She's also an incisive observer of spiritual and communal life, and with this book, has reawakened me to my own longings for God and the roles of both my duties and my desires until the Kingdom of God comes. I'm so thankful for the opportunities I've had to hear Heidi discuss this book's ideas in many episodes of the Close Reads Podcast, in public lectures, and over shared meals among friends. It's such a gift to see them in book form and to be able to savor and ponder them on the page, which I have and will continue to do, hopefully to the further healing of my own divided soul.

“Anne of Green Gables did not erase my confusion and sadness, but it built a scaffolding of holy desire in me. It gave me eyes to see. Anne awakened the deadened longings of my bereft childhood.
“Such is the power of a story. Furthermore, such is the power of one story meeting and changing another.”

“Joy is the telos of the harmonized soul where duty and desire unite as friends. Duty transforms desire from a tyrant to a guide, leading us to deny mud pies because we want a holiday at sea.”

“. . . literature is both a window and a mirror—a window into a world beyond ourselves and a mirror into the world of ourselves. It seems to me that this is the essential restorative capacity of fiction.”

“Some of these stories are fiction, some fact, but all are meaning-making stories, illuminated by the True Myth, that can revive the waste-land around and within us.”

[Glenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this and learning more about duty and desire. The examples from literature were helpful and gave me things to ponder, which I have been doing ever since finishing.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good mix of personal, spiritual, and intellectual, pitched perfectly for the amateur in the truest sense. Its thesis unfolds through varied literary and biographical allusions, which allows for an apparently simple idea to take on depth and nuance. The reader benefits from familiarity with the texts cited, but can appreciate the point even without prior knowledge.

I’ll be honest — I usually don’t love this genre of books. The authors usually come across as demagogues, oversimplifying complex truths and overstating simple ones. White does neither of these things. While I’m not sure that her framing of Duty and Desire is as complete as she occasionally suggests, she is humble and charitable in her presentation, while her literary examples are lovingly presented in a way that allows the reader to sense the poetry of her argument where the prose is lacking.

I would heartily recommend this book to students and friends who possess a spark of wonder and just an inkling of confusion.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been listening to Heidi on the Close Reads podcast for years now, and her description of the soul divided between duty and desire both in literature and in life is something I find very compelling. This book was a wonderful deep dive into this idea from the podcast, covering how this division plays out in so many areas of life and in so many of the best stories ever told. I especially loved the discussion on femininity and masculinity; it’s rare for me to read something on this topic so clear and honest and fair and thought-provoking. I’ll definitely be rereading this in the future!

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this book would make for an excellent book club pick where we read each of the books Heidi discusses and talk more about duty and desire in the context of each.
I have heard Heidi discuss duty and desire numerous times during Close Reads podcast episodes. This book felt just like an expansion of those discussions. So much food for thought and now a desire (😉) to read these books again from this perspective.
Thank you Heidi for your insights, and I hope you keep writing.

[Russel Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite “books about books” I’ve read in recent years. It’s a wide-ranging survey of literature from Homer to Flannery O’Connor, and much in between, eyeing these texts through the dichotomy of duty and desire. She explains that desire is itself often a good, while duty is not an unalloyed positive, and that a rightly ordered life must balance the two. It is a deeply personal memoir as well, describing the challenges of her own life as they relate to this dichotomy. A lovely, thought-provoking book.

[Jennifer Doherty Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delights me on so many levels—literary and spiritual. Everyone should read it!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and thoughtful contemplations on becoming truly human. The division in every human heart between what we ought to do and what we want to do was originally integrated and whole, making duty and desire companions rather than enemies. All good literature explores this and Heidi White has woven together literary examples, psychology, and Christian principles to illumine the path to a healed and undivided soul.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a valuable study of the human condition! I loved all the references to great works of literature, especially as a long-time listener of the Close Reads podcast where I've gotten to hear Heidi's insights on these books and many others over the years. She writes with humility and grace and great love for the Lord, and she portrays with gentleness and wisdom the truths needed to propel our souls closer to wholeness. Beautifully done.

[Phoebe Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

The challenging aspect of this book is how rich every chapter is, and I often felt slightly overwhelmed with how much there is to think about and piece together. This is a truly great book. I know I’ll be rereading—both in entirety and referencing individual chapters. I feel White has articulated and answered inarticulable questions that were bouncing around my brain, especially in recent months. I am grateful.

“Christians ought to be the most exuberantly curious and intellectually hospitable people on the face of the earth, enriching our lives with the works of Homer, Shakespeare, the Brothers Grimm, Austen, Brontë, Dostoevsky, MacDonald, Tolkien, and more. The rich tradition of historic art and culture will most certainly not save us (only Christ can do that), but we can save it, preserving literature as a vital connection to the life of the world. By God’s mercy, this does much to restore the harmony between human perception and divine reality, which enables us to see ourselves and God more clearly for the healing of our divided souls.” Uh, yeah. What she said.

[Christina Keddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely, lovely book about books and the power of story. Heidi White’s thesis is that the tearing apart of the two poles of duty and desire at the Fall is the story that is told over and over again throughout the world’s greatest stories. She takes us through different shades of this universal theme throughout literature, using works that she so clearly loves, and sharing insights that are both academically sound and deeply personal.

She had my heart from her opening anecdote about encountering the story that was transformative in my own life: “As I read and reread Anne of Green Gables, something eternal began to grow in me. … I no longer envisioned God as a withholding taskmaster, but as the loving and generous Creator of the beauty and richness I now loved. Anne of Green Gables did not erase my confusion and sadness, but it built a scaffolding of holy desire in me. It gave me eyes to see. Anne awakened the deadened longings of my bereft childhood. Such is the power of a story.”

And one more favorite quote (of many!): “The rich tradition of historic art and culture will most certainly not save us (only Christ can do that), but we can save it, preserving literature as a vital connection to the life of the world. By God’s mercy, this does much to restore the harmony between human perception and divine reality, which enables us to see ourselves and God more clearly for the healing of our divided souls.”

[Leah CE · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a poignant inquiry on what it means to be human and of the power and beauty of stories. It includes an impressive and wide-ranging survey on literature and what we can take from it. One of the best books on books I’ve ever read. I found something to mark and underline on almost every page. Books like this make me feel understood, seen, alive, and wakened to the power of what I love and what compels me.

[Connor Leoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conversations with a couple mentors prior to picking this book up, helped me identify my difficulty pinning duty and desire against one another.

That’s why it was really cool to see one of my favorite YouTubers have the author on to talk about this.

In a lot of ways, this feels like an introduction to a classics reading plan through the lens of duty & desire. References to: Dostoevsky, Homer, Austen, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Tolkien, Virgil and plenty more!

[capturedbyannamarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Heidi’s stories about herself. The connection she makes about duty and desire is interesting. I really enjoyed her pointing to Christ, her writing, and her scriptural quotes. I would have rated this a star higher, except I had to skip multiple sections due to that fact that she spoils a lot of plots to classic books. So if you are someone who doesn't like to have books spoiled, you might want to read all of the books she references prior to reading this.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written exploration of the human heart. The Divided Soul skilfully weaves memoir, literary insight, and spiritual reflection to show how the tension between what we want and what we ought to do shapes both great stories and our own lives. This a book I’ll return to again and again. Rich, honest, and deeply inspiring.

[Brian Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and enlivening. We live in a world that constantly tells us to define ourselves by our desires, and where the only alternative often seems to be a kind of dry devotion to good behavior that doesn't feel like it does justice to the complexities of life. In the face of that, Heidi White draws from her own story, the great stories, and the Great Story to show a better way.

[Megan Willome · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life Heidi White

As a devoted listener to the Close Reads podcast, I've been looking forward to this book for a long time. Heidi White, who is one of the hosts, frequently shares her thoughts on books through the twin lenses of duty and desire. In this book she goes into great detail with the aid of great texts (some of which I have read and some I haven't). White offers an orthodox, theological view of story, both the ones I read and the one I am living.

This book did not help me understand literature better — it helped me understand love better. Especially my own feminine love, which is why my favorite chapter is "Agents and Objects," to which I would give a 10 on a scale of 1-5. It's Pygmalion and Galatea and Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins and Kristin Lavransdatter and Erlend Nikulausson and Lavrans Bjorgulfsson and Eve and Adam.

Here's a taste:

"I think feminine desire baffles everyone. I am often as confused by my own desiring soul as anybody. What do I want? I want to eat ice cream and I want to be thin. I want to work and I want to rest. I want to make love and I want to be left alone. I want help and I want independence. I want attention and I want solitude. I want to be desirable and I want to be chaste. I am a mystery to myself and to others. More than the men I know, I seem to always want contradictory things. A book about my divided soul would be as vast and varied as 'Kristin Lavransdatter.'"

I want to thank White for complicating story. For making me want to read more, to love more. Forgive me for adapting a quote from Prince Hal in "Henry IV, Part 1," by Shakespeare: “I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious [Heidi White], be more myself.”

My poem uses the image of an apple, in all the duty and desire it represents.

How Do You Like Them Apples?
with Robert Frost

Once the cart turned over there were apples everywhere,
load on load of apples – down the aisles, the hallways,
their scent stuck under the piano, stems and blossoms
out the back door, the side doors, the front door,
the hidden russet door. Such Granny green!
Such delicious golden sweetness!

A husband picks an apple for his pocket.
A child grabs and eats before any parent can stop her.
A man pretends not to notice the ten thousand thousand fruit.
A woman presses the apple to her instep, then climbs.
A priest bends down to bless one magnificent apple, alone.

Be still and know that you are apple.
Ever-apple spills out your bra, escapes your throat,
crowds your toes in your turquoise cowgirl boots.

Girl! You are too sweet for this sour world.
Go forth and apple. Until
after apple-picking,

when, sure to the cider heap,
the glorious pome harvest finally

ferments.

–Megan Willome

[Abbi Varnado · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a long-time listener of Close Reads (and just as long lover of Heidi White’s input on any novel) I was so excited to pick up this book! As the extensive title (The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life) suggests, the author bit off three big mouthfuls with this one: the soul (1), literature (2), and life (3). I enjoyed it all, though in descending order.

Primarily, I enjoyed gaining insight into Heidi’s life as she shared details about her childhood, college days, marriage, and journey through adulthood. Her human experience was so relatable (of course!) and her vulnerability was admirable.

Secondly, I enjoyed her application of the contrast between duty and desire through different works of literature. Each of these sections made me want to read the work, as Heidi never fails to do when she is talking books. It’s actually possible that this was the mouthful I found most enjoyable (however my “descending order” line made for a more orderly review ;)).

Lastly, I did enjoy her applications of Scripture but got a little lost in the philosophical sauce when these sections seemed to drone on. This last mouthful took a lot of chewing, and maybe I just wasn’t in the mood this month…

Overall a cozy and interesting read. I have been quicker to recognize this tension between duty and desire in other works I’m reading… and my own life. Thank you, Heidi!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly wonderful. Heidi White offers an extraordinary exploration of how the best of stories reflect our divided souls and the one True Myth that offers us wholeness and healing: the saving, loving grace and mercy of Jesus.

If only as an English major long ago, I had sat under such teaching as to this proper worth and value of literature, as well as its purpose to point us to what is good, true and beautiful. If only I could have better emulated such instruction as a teacher myself all of these years.

Thankfully we never stop learning, and God never stops pursuing our healing and wholeness so that we can better reflect His love and truth to the world around us. And so I am thankful for such wonderful works as this which tutor and guide us to see that “literature is both a window and a mirror - a window into a world beyond ourselves and a mirror into the world of ourselves.” (p60) May we all have eyes to see Jesus and His truths in all of the best books.

Heidi’s beautiful work offers wonderful clarity and sharpness to our often blurred vision. Highly recommend

[Madison McLendon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excursion through literature, describing how great stories reveal unique insights into our human nature. The premise of this book is that our hearts are divided into our duties and what we desire. When God created man, those two aspects were not meant to be opposites but fulfilled in each other. Unfortunately, sin taints that beautiful design and now we are warring within ourselves, with others, and with God. Heidi White starts the book with an accurate look at the souls struggle between duty and desire. After a beautiful examination of this topic through a series of lenses and stories, the book ends hopefully. Our sure hope is in Christ! Heidi White has a lovely writing style that is clear and engaging. It is evident that she is well read personally and has thought deeply in this topic for a long time. This is a great read!

[PaminKokomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Stories are icons of human experience,” and in this insightful book, Heidi White traces the divided soul, the “mystery of one immense dilemma—the fallen nature of the world and our innate longing for its restoration,” from Eve’s tragic bite of the forbidden fruit, through the parables of Jesus, through great (True) literature from Homer to C. S. Lewis, and on into her own storied life. Duty and desire are intrinsically good, says White, but in this fallen world they are distorted from their proper objects until they are healed in Christ, at the Eucharistic feast, and ultimately in the Kingdom of God.

After long hearing the author talk on the Close Reads Podcast about these ideas as they appear in literature, I was delighted to learn more through the pages of this book!

[Chas Bomgardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like a return to English class in all the best ways. Heidi led the reader through a master class of seeing our Divided Souls in literature and really drove home the point that this is why we read- story is important and as much of the Bible is story it only makes sense to see and analyze the rest of literature through that lens of The Greatest Story being a “true myth”. I am not sure I’ve ever enjoyed a non fiction book more in my life. I will have to simply read this again and again to fully take it all in. This inspires me to keep reading and to look to Christ to heal my divided soul.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve looked forward to this book for years from hearing Heidi White talk about the great divide between duty and desire on the Close Reads podcast. Whenever she speaks of the topic it really hits home and resonates within me. Now The Divided Soul is a beautiful development of her argument that original sin severed the unity between duty and desire and that this painful reality and hope of healing is reflected in all the great stories. She uses many examples of beautiful literature to explain her theory and ends with a hopeful description of the Divine Physician and the healing He offers. I highly recommend this book!

[Keegan Gaudin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will likely be my favorite read of 2025.

An excellent book that unpacks the tendencies of our divided souls through the medium of stories. A spiritual and literary exploration of our humanness. A sublime memoir, speaking the language of anyone who longs for reconciliation and eternal fellowship with God (the true myth) while making sense of the soon but not yet aspects of that reality and of our human condition now through the medium of earthly myths and stories. I would recommend it to everyone.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using literature as examples, Heidi walks through various examples where duty and desire are divided. While doing this, she weaves in her own story, while also incorporating Lewis’s “True Myth” perspective & where duty and desire show themselves in the Christian life, where they are divided, and how (Who!) can unite them together in an honorable & God-glorifying way. Very thoughtful & lots to think about here in my own life.

[Kristin]

Heidi White's thesis, that man's soul has a bent toward either duty (finding fulfillment in work and being conscientious) or desire (finding fulfillment in pleasure), is well supported in her book. She brings out this theme in many classical stories as well as sharing some of her own life. She elaborates on ideas of how to knit the soul together -- bringing those two opposing forces into a complete human -- by repentance and loving God and neighbor. Thought provoking!

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conversationally written, a very good argument that all literature – and life – is about the struggle to choose duty over desire. Well researched and argued, it was hampered a bit by the fact that as a small publisher, it felt like it needed stronger editing. Morning read.

[HJ Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth a read and a re-read. I will be pondering this book for a long time. While I had heard many of Heidi’s thoughts on her podcast, reading them all together in book form cemented the ideas in my head. Read good literature and find yourself in the true myth.