What do you think?
Rate this book
Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard
A classic love story, retold for our times.
Paris in 1117. Heloise, a brilliant young scholar, is astonished when the famous, radical philosopher, Peter Abelard, consents to be her tutor. But what starts out as a meeting of minds turns into a passionate, dangerous love affair, which incurs terrible retribution.
Nine centuries later, Arthur is in Paris to recreate the extraordinary story of Heloise and Abelard in a novel. To his surprise, his daughter visits and agrees to help, challenging his portraits of a couple who seem often inscrutable, sometimes breathtakingly modern. It soon emerges she is on her own mission to discover more about her parents' fractured relationship - and that Arthur's connection to his subject is more emotional than he cares to admit.
Paris in 1117. Heloise, a brilliant young scholar, is astonished when the famous, radical philosopher, Peter Abelard, consents to be her tutor. But what starts out as a meeting of minds turns into a passionate, dangerous love affair, which incurs terrible retribution.
Nine centuries later, Arthur is in Paris to recreate the extraordinary story of Heloise and Abelard in a novel. To his surprise, his daughter visits and agrees to help, challenging his portraits of a couple who seem often inscrutable, sometimes breathtakingly modern. It soon emerges she is on her own mission to discover more about her parents' fractured relationship - and that Arthur's connection to his subject is more emotional than he cares to admit.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2019
53 people are currently reading
331 people want to read
About the author
Melvyn Bragg
135 books141 followersMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939) is an English author, broadcaster and media personality who, aside from his many literary endeavours, is perhaps most recognised for his work on The South Bank Show.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Read
March 3, 2019I loved Now is the End - in fact it was my top historical fiction read of 2015. Love without End, on the other hand, I found unreadable. Such a disappointment. Abandoned around 100 pages.
February 16, 2019
Melvyn Bragg’s fictionalised biography of the lives and love story of Abelard and Heloise makes few concessions to modern social norms and political correctness. In his account the past – in this case Twelfth Century Paris – really is a foreign country. How in a post-religious world to make belief and dogma seem convincing? How to reconcile the behaviour of Abelard in his treatment of Heloise without losing historical perspective and modern sympathy? How to present religious and theological debate in a manner comprehensible to an audience which has lost touch with its importance for the people of medieval times? How to avoid the facile and melodramatic, but persuade today’s reader of the reality and enduring quality of their love?
To solve these problems, the author has chosen to set his tale in separate time periods: the Paris and France of the philosopher Peter Abelard and his lover, the puella docta, Heloise, unacknowledged daughter of a high ranking cleric; and modern Paris where a scholarly writer is researching their lives for a novel on their enduring love affair. The scholar invites his estranged daughter to stay with him and as the Twelfth Century tale proceeds, they meet, explore and debate Abelard’s apparently exploitative and unprincipled behaviour towards Heloise. The daughter is initially unsympathetic, but the father sets and explains the context and the times.
Does this approach work? That’s the big question. It all could seem rather like a literary version of Bragg’s own Radio 4 show, In Our Times. In fact the novel reads initially like one of those lightly dramatized documentaries that used to show on the History Channel. It’s a bit clunky to start with – but stick with it – I, at least, grew into it, despite the frequent breaks from the medieval narrative to allow modern discussion on, say, Abelard’s uncaring and impulsive behaviour, or the desire of both Abelard and Heloise to lock themselves away in monasteries and convents.
Of course there is drama. The castration of Abelard is graphically presented. The sensual nature of their love affair is not ignored. But Bragg keeps close to the historical record and through the artifice of his contemporary commentators attempts to make sense of its protagonists to his own readers. His modern pair, father and daughter, have their own story to tell, but it is rather mundane compared with that of Abelard and Heloise. I did not think as highly of this novel as I did of Bragg’s last, Now is the Time, but I did enjoy it and found the explicatory approach interesting. I did feel that Bragg had to work quite hard to make the final chapters of the story compelling, but he succeeds, on an intellectual level, if not quite on an emotive one.
To solve these problems, the author has chosen to set his tale in separate time periods: the Paris and France of the philosopher Peter Abelard and his lover, the puella docta, Heloise, unacknowledged daughter of a high ranking cleric; and modern Paris where a scholarly writer is researching their lives for a novel on their enduring love affair. The scholar invites his estranged daughter to stay with him and as the Twelfth Century tale proceeds, they meet, explore and debate Abelard’s apparently exploitative and unprincipled behaviour towards Heloise. The daughter is initially unsympathetic, but the father sets and explains the context and the times.
Does this approach work? That’s the big question. It all could seem rather like a literary version of Bragg’s own Radio 4 show, In Our Times. In fact the novel reads initially like one of those lightly dramatized documentaries that used to show on the History Channel. It’s a bit clunky to start with – but stick with it – I, at least, grew into it, despite the frequent breaks from the medieval narrative to allow modern discussion on, say, Abelard’s uncaring and impulsive behaviour, or the desire of both Abelard and Heloise to lock themselves away in monasteries and convents.
Of course there is drama. The castration of Abelard is graphically presented. The sensual nature of their love affair is not ignored. But Bragg keeps close to the historical record and through the artifice of his contemporary commentators attempts to make sense of its protagonists to his own readers. His modern pair, father and daughter, have their own story to tell, but it is rather mundane compared with that of Abelard and Heloise. I did not think as highly of this novel as I did of Bragg’s last, Now is the Time, but I did enjoy it and found the explicatory approach interesting. I did feel that Bragg had to work quite hard to make the final chapters of the story compelling, but he succeeds, on an intellectual level, if not quite on an emotive one.
December 28, 2021
Probably the last book of my ‘Good Reads’ 2021 Reading Challenge and what a great book to finish the year with!
Melvyn Bragg chooses to retell the story of Peter Abelard and Heloise, putting a certain distance between himself and the medieval lovers by the invention of Arthur, a modern-day writer engaged in writing a new biography of Abelard and Heloise and his daughter Julia, charged with some final proof reading of his manuscript. Arthur’s relationship with his ex-wife, Julia’s mother, seems to have parallels with the story of Abelard and Heloise.
Bragg has obviously carefully researched what little is known of the fated lovers in 12th century France and in telling the story he gives us a fascinating insight into both their lives and the mores of the time, a time when the Roman Catholic church was beginning to enforce its rule of celibacy for its clergy. The life of a religious philosopher, not yet a priest, immured in the precincts of Notre Dame is brilliantly counter-pointed by the faith-endorsed brutality shown to Peter Abelard by his rivals and peers.
Towards the end of the novel Bragg puts into Arthur’s mouth the following paragraph. I repeat it here as I can relate to it, and am able to concur with it totally. It is rare to read in a novel something which you feel speaks directly to and for you.
‘ ….. When I was a boy in a Christian country called England, long ago, I was as fundamentalist as they could make me. I liked singing the hymns - I still know some of them by heart. The virgin birth? Resurrection? Of course! Ascent into Heaven and eternal life - that was inevitable if you behaved. But adolescence and reason took over, and soon nothing was left, save a memory of a young person who was once me. Church history, names, miracles, above all phrases from the Bible linger on. Maybe that’s why my secular loyalty to Christianity holds on in those phrases. And Heaven persists, like a small irremovable scar, even though I no longer believe it exists and abandoned it decades ago. Yet I don’t resent those who do believe it exists. For me it has become a cultural inheritance.’
Once again Melvyn Bragg doesn’t disappoint!
Melvyn Bragg chooses to retell the story of Peter Abelard and Heloise, putting a certain distance between himself and the medieval lovers by the invention of Arthur, a modern-day writer engaged in writing a new biography of Abelard and Heloise and his daughter Julia, charged with some final proof reading of his manuscript. Arthur’s relationship with his ex-wife, Julia’s mother, seems to have parallels with the story of Abelard and Heloise.
Bragg has obviously carefully researched what little is known of the fated lovers in 12th century France and in telling the story he gives us a fascinating insight into both their lives and the mores of the time, a time when the Roman Catholic church was beginning to enforce its rule of celibacy for its clergy. The life of a religious philosopher, not yet a priest, immured in the precincts of Notre Dame is brilliantly counter-pointed by the faith-endorsed brutality shown to Peter Abelard by his rivals and peers.
Towards the end of the novel Bragg puts into Arthur’s mouth the following paragraph. I repeat it here as I can relate to it, and am able to concur with it totally. It is rare to read in a novel something which you feel speaks directly to and for you.
‘ ….. When I was a boy in a Christian country called England, long ago, I was as fundamentalist as they could make me. I liked singing the hymns - I still know some of them by heart. The virgin birth? Resurrection? Of course! Ascent into Heaven and eternal life - that was inevitable if you behaved. But adolescence and reason took over, and soon nothing was left, save a memory of a young person who was once me. Church history, names, miracles, above all phrases from the Bible linger on. Maybe that’s why my secular loyalty to Christianity holds on in those phrases. And Heaven persists, like a small irremovable scar, even though I no longer believe it exists and abandoned it decades ago. Yet I don’t resent those who do believe it exists. For me it has become a cultural inheritance.’
Once again Melvyn Bragg doesn’t disappoint!
October 8, 2019
An interesting and worthwhile read. Melvyn Bragg has probably done more than any other living British person to make that culture, which had been appropriated by the elite, available to everybody. All you need is to have survived into adulthood with your sense of humanity and natural curiosity intact and In Our Time and (particularly) The South Bank Show gave university level access to arts, history, theology and philosophy to everybody.
This book isn't a great novel in itself but it gives something back to the writer as well as to the reader. That a novel can entertain and inform the reader is a given, but that it can also do the same to the writer isn't always appreciated. The parallels between Bragg and the fictional author Arthur are not coincidental. I don't know, and don't need to know, whether Bragg is, like Arthur, using the writing of a novel about Abelard and Heloise to come to terms with events in his own life. What seems apparent is that the writing is doing him a great deal of good and affording him great pleasure. The opportunity the novel offers to broaden and deepen his knowledge and understanding of important (Arthur would argue, pivotal) figures in medieval theology and learning is justification in itself. That this can be shared with the reader is enriching. But, further, the simple enjoyment it gives both ways is surely a major function of the novel form.
Interesting that the narrative sections of the novel often suffer from the descriptive over-writing more commonly found in novelists less aware and less skilled. I presume this is deliberate. If I'm right then there must be some attempt here at making a popular novel out of what would usually be deemed academic subject matter. If this is the case then I don't think it altogether succeeds but it is a worthwhile experiment in accessibility.
On this point, it took me a while to click with the particular admixture of form and content, but when I adjusted to it I found myself in a page-turner and engaged in both eleventh and twenty-first century narratives.
And I didn't mind that Julia took on the role that Bragg plays in In Our Time, of the one seeking to understand what the great thinkers already know, and that Arthur's dialogue more than resembles the collected wisdom of whichever dons and research fellows he has gathered around him this particular Thursday morning.
Note: In Our Time is a radio programme where important historical, cultural or philosophical issues are opened up in a mixture of questioning and explanation.
This book isn't a great novel in itself but it gives something back to the writer as well as to the reader. That a novel can entertain and inform the reader is a given, but that it can also do the same to the writer isn't always appreciated. The parallels between Bragg and the fictional author Arthur are not coincidental. I don't know, and don't need to know, whether Bragg is, like Arthur, using the writing of a novel about Abelard and Heloise to come to terms with events in his own life. What seems apparent is that the writing is doing him a great deal of good and affording him great pleasure. The opportunity the novel offers to broaden and deepen his knowledge and understanding of important (Arthur would argue, pivotal) figures in medieval theology and learning is justification in itself. That this can be shared with the reader is enriching. But, further, the simple enjoyment it gives both ways is surely a major function of the novel form.
Interesting that the narrative sections of the novel often suffer from the descriptive over-writing more commonly found in novelists less aware and less skilled. I presume this is deliberate. If I'm right then there must be some attempt here at making a popular novel out of what would usually be deemed academic subject matter. If this is the case then I don't think it altogether succeeds but it is a worthwhile experiment in accessibility.
On this point, it took me a while to click with the particular admixture of form and content, but when I adjusted to it I found myself in a page-turner and engaged in both eleventh and twenty-first century narratives.
And I didn't mind that Julia took on the role that Bragg plays in In Our Time, of the one seeking to understand what the great thinkers already know, and that Arthur's dialogue more than resembles the collected wisdom of whichever dons and research fellows he has gathered around him this particular Thursday morning.
Note: In Our Time is a radio programme where important historical, cultural or philosophical issues are opened up in a mixture of questioning and explanation.
April 12, 2019
Historical fiction based around the doomed romance of the famous medieval couple. This was a good read and you felt swept up in the story of Heloise and Abelard but it didn't blow me away. I was somehow expecting something more.
March 22, 2023
Would have preferred this without the parallel narrative but still a touching and good read
March 23, 2022
Quite good.
My favourite parts were:
'The heart has its reasons that reason does not know' -Pascal
P10 coup de foudre
P18
I considered all the usual attractions for a lover and decided she was the one to brighten my bed, confident that I should have an easy success for at that time I had youth and exceptional good looks as well as my great reputation to commend me and I feared no rebuff from any woman. (Cocky asshole)
P20 Aristotle said that the best ratio was forty to sixteen.
P30 Just his presence threatened to unbalance her.
P31 They shine the light of learning on the world and the darkness retreats.
P41 How could logic compete with sensation?
P55 The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade (novel)
P70 Love was not logical.
P84 in flagrante
P87
'...I think fiction finds its own path to truth. There's more than one track up that mountain. Novels can make a unique connection- once person is alone, writing, and contact is made miles and centuries away with another person alone, reading. Receiving the message. Not from outer space but from inner space. And there's instant connection. It's a sort of magic. '
...
'Exhibition. It's a marvel of the mind. You become invented characters - you are Jane Eyre, you feel for her and know her, or you are Bill Sykes clubbing Nancy to death. Hundreds of imaginary people inhabit those catacombs in your skull and you can be more absorbed in and concerned about them than you are for your friends. And that is just part, just a speck, of this limitless alternative universe that each of us, every single one of us, inhabits.'
P89 -90
He had not anticipated the character of love.
He had thought it had no substance. It showed itself only in feelings that could not be described orv analysed with any reasonable accuracy. It was a situation, an immersion, a drowning without death. Or perhaps there was a death, he reasoned, the death of continence and resurrection into a new, sensual faith. This was the heart of live, he now realised, as he lay, open- eyed, in the middle of Île de la Cité. Was love a second baptism? It had dramatic consequences. He was totally in thrall to its competing demands. He feared that Fulbert might send her away from Paris. That must not happen. He could not live without her. But love itself? What was it? His mind could find no concept for it. It was ineffable. It seemed all- powerful, like God.
He had said as much in one of his recent lectures, for the fun of it, and set out to find proofs for it. But now, speaking silently to himself in the void of the night, he meant it. It was all- conquering, like God. He could not summon any feeling that would challenge it, whereas lust could always be challenged by more lust or less. Love was indivisibleand, again like God, it spread to all things. He saw now that the helpless feeling of the past few months threatened to overwhelm the logical philosophy to which he had devoted himself. It was irresistible. Perhaps the Fall of Eden gave it a unique energy, darkly rooted, fathomless in its force. For who could explain it? And live, like the life of a soul, could be perpetual. He knew that he would love Heloise until he died, and after death they would strive to met again and love on. Love was sovereign, God's gift. The intellect could only bow down to it.
P103
Doubt was the key. Without doubt, he believed, there could be no rock for faith to build on.
P103
To question was to conquer.
P110
Autobiography can be a liar's charter.
---
Parmenides and Heraclitus.
P112
Novels can tell truth.
P113
But inside what Abelard said there was a cry for freedom. A cry to people to start thinking for themselves. He was saying, "Overthrow this tyranny of ancient authorities! Liberate your minds! You are shackled. Only reason and logic can set you free."
---
Kowtowing
P125
Once Heloise had accustomed herself to the seeping blood from her wounds, she began to savour the journey.
P128
How could she be so brave? How could that sleeping form draw so much love from him? He wanted to touch her but feared to worsen the wounds. Could nobody but himself see the force between them, like the stairways of light to Heaven that stream through broken clouds? How could love be so strong and present yet as natural as air?
How could she be so loving, placing his interests above her own? If only his eyes could look on her with an intensity that would close the wounds. If only he could find a way to express what he felt and not be so constrained to say only what he thought.
P140
She wanted so much to know the world that had made him, and experience pleasure and wonder that childhood could be such a thing.
P150
Astralabe... Greek... name of an astronomical instrument used for taking the altitude of the suns or stars and for the solution of other mysteries in astronomy and navigation. He should never lose his way. (Name of her son)
P162
St Paul says, "Do not seek a wife. Those who marry will have pain and grief in this bodily life..."
P166
'Why should I be a "wife"? I do not want it. It will not comfort me. I do not want to love because marriage makes me love. Or to love with you because it is your due from your wife: that is prostitution. I do not want the chains that are hung around a wife and husband. We have lived freely, Peter. Please let us keep doing that. Let us be free like true lovers should be. I will be your friend, your amica - a much happier, sweeter title than "wife" - bound to you only by love.'
P169 Imagination is the undiscovered physics in the minds of all of us.
---
I believe that imagination is the least known but most powerful part of the brain.
P170
Perhaps that comes from some chemistry of curiosity we have. An itch to add to all forms of knowledge. Maybe to appease a hidden god of imagination squatting inside our minds.
---
tip of the brainberg
P171
It used to be thought of as some sort of magic. But it's all over the place. Technology is its favourite child at the moment. The magic of one century becomes the commonplace of the next. But the even more extraordinary fact here is that all of us are in this "ocean of unknowing" together - this is not a zone reserved for experts. If it were, how could discoveries of any kind in any medium transfer from one mind to another, which they do every day?
We all make it up. You and I make up and remake our lives and reorder our memories all the time. As do thousands of artists, scientists, artisans, labourers, idlers, gardeners, song-writers, engineers, shop assistants, biologists, physicists, everyone. Every moment were are looting the past, putting together the present, then protecting it into an unknown future. It's being alive. One stride and we're in a different world. And now the internet, the iPhone, artificial intelligence, robots are taking us further and further out of ourselves. We are giving what were thought of as essential bits of us to machines. Less us, more them. Soon the question will be, what is a person?
Yet we eat, we drink, we starve, we fight, we bleed, all in ways Abelard and Heloise's world would recognize. We are stratified. We contain multitudes. And this is just the start of it.
P172
Your generation, Julia, will be borne along by this Silicon Valley newness, and I envy what you will be able to know. Fasten your seatbelt. Imagination is where we are all equal, private, connected and free. Whoever learns to control it could become as powerful as God or gravity. Meanwhile, I find the past just as fathomless and majestic as the future.
---
It's always nice to be with nice people.
P197
'Can I not help you conquer that fear?' she cried. '"Perfect love drives out fear," said St Paul. Can our live not help you? Has that become so weak which once appeared unconquerable? ...
P214
And Heaven persists, like a small irremovable scar, even though I no longer believe it exists and abandoned it decades ago.
P221
'Who knows? I could say that some of him was me - a very, very little. But more of me is she. But there are those bits of me - my experience is a miniscule part in the scheme of things. It's the same with everyone. I am my outward life, but I am also what I am to myself, and someone else to those I know. I am those I read and meet, I am what I hear and hope for and regret. I am what I dream and imagine, what I envy and desire. I am, we all are, as Whitman said, multitudes. Everyone comes from everything.'
P283
He sent her bouquets of what she most wanted - words, ideas, explanations, without fail and without compare.
P286
We married quite soon after we met, and even on that day I feared I might lose her. But from the start I could see it and feel it, and I could never convince myself that she was in love with me anything like as much as I was with her. But we got on. Or I thought we did.
P289
'Heloise's unbreakable love for Abelard...' He hesitated. 'Well, that is my love for your mother, which has never lessened and never been challenged. (...)
I wasn't right, not enough for her, so why shouldn't she find a fuller life with someone else?'
P294 sic et non - yes and no
Scito te ipsum - know yourself
P302 (double tomb with Abelard inside)
She outlived her lover by twenty-one years. At her death, bells tolled. There were processions and psalms were sung. It is reported that when they opened the tomb to place her body alongside his, Abelard opened his arms to embrace her.
(Bodies moved to cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris in a sepulchrenear the gate in a soaring tomb, columned on four sides)
My favourite parts were:
'The heart has its reasons that reason does not know' -Pascal
P10 coup de foudre
P18
I considered all the usual attractions for a lover and decided she was the one to brighten my bed, confident that I should have an easy success for at that time I had youth and exceptional good looks as well as my great reputation to commend me and I feared no rebuff from any woman. (Cocky asshole)
P20 Aristotle said that the best ratio was forty to sixteen.
P30 Just his presence threatened to unbalance her.
P31 They shine the light of learning on the world and the darkness retreats.
P41 How could logic compete with sensation?
P55 The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade (novel)
P70 Love was not logical.
P84 in flagrante
P87
'...I think fiction finds its own path to truth. There's more than one track up that mountain. Novels can make a unique connection- once person is alone, writing, and contact is made miles and centuries away with another person alone, reading. Receiving the message. Not from outer space but from inner space. And there's instant connection. It's a sort of magic. '
...
'Exhibition. It's a marvel of the mind. You become invented characters - you are Jane Eyre, you feel for her and know her, or you are Bill Sykes clubbing Nancy to death. Hundreds of imaginary people inhabit those catacombs in your skull and you can be more absorbed in and concerned about them than you are for your friends. And that is just part, just a speck, of this limitless alternative universe that each of us, every single one of us, inhabits.'
P89 -90
He had not anticipated the character of love.
He had thought it had no substance. It showed itself only in feelings that could not be described orv analysed with any reasonable accuracy. It was a situation, an immersion, a drowning without death. Or perhaps there was a death, he reasoned, the death of continence and resurrection into a new, sensual faith. This was the heart of live, he now realised, as he lay, open- eyed, in the middle of Île de la Cité. Was love a second baptism? It had dramatic consequences. He was totally in thrall to its competing demands. He feared that Fulbert might send her away from Paris. That must not happen. He could not live without her. But love itself? What was it? His mind could find no concept for it. It was ineffable. It seemed all- powerful, like God.
He had said as much in one of his recent lectures, for the fun of it, and set out to find proofs for it. But now, speaking silently to himself in the void of the night, he meant it. It was all- conquering, like God. He could not summon any feeling that would challenge it, whereas lust could always be challenged by more lust or less. Love was indivisibleand, again like God, it spread to all things. He saw now that the helpless feeling of the past few months threatened to overwhelm the logical philosophy to which he had devoted himself. It was irresistible. Perhaps the Fall of Eden gave it a unique energy, darkly rooted, fathomless in its force. For who could explain it? And live, like the life of a soul, could be perpetual. He knew that he would love Heloise until he died, and after death they would strive to met again and love on. Love was sovereign, God's gift. The intellect could only bow down to it.
P103
Doubt was the key. Without doubt, he believed, there could be no rock for faith to build on.
P103
To question was to conquer.
P110
Autobiography can be a liar's charter.
---
Parmenides and Heraclitus.
P112
Novels can tell truth.
P113
But inside what Abelard said there was a cry for freedom. A cry to people to start thinking for themselves. He was saying, "Overthrow this tyranny of ancient authorities! Liberate your minds! You are shackled. Only reason and logic can set you free."
---
Kowtowing
P125
Once Heloise had accustomed herself to the seeping blood from her wounds, she began to savour the journey.
P128
How could she be so brave? How could that sleeping form draw so much love from him? He wanted to touch her but feared to worsen the wounds. Could nobody but himself see the force between them, like the stairways of light to Heaven that stream through broken clouds? How could love be so strong and present yet as natural as air?
How could she be so loving, placing his interests above her own? If only his eyes could look on her with an intensity that would close the wounds. If only he could find a way to express what he felt and not be so constrained to say only what he thought.
P140
She wanted so much to know the world that had made him, and experience pleasure and wonder that childhood could be such a thing.
P150
Astralabe... Greek... name of an astronomical instrument used for taking the altitude of the suns or stars and for the solution of other mysteries in astronomy and navigation. He should never lose his way. (Name of her son)
P162
St Paul says, "Do not seek a wife. Those who marry will have pain and grief in this bodily life..."
P166
'Why should I be a "wife"? I do not want it. It will not comfort me. I do not want to love because marriage makes me love. Or to love with you because it is your due from your wife: that is prostitution. I do not want the chains that are hung around a wife and husband. We have lived freely, Peter. Please let us keep doing that. Let us be free like true lovers should be. I will be your friend, your amica - a much happier, sweeter title than "wife" - bound to you only by love.'
P169 Imagination is the undiscovered physics in the minds of all of us.
---
I believe that imagination is the least known but most powerful part of the brain.
P170
Perhaps that comes from some chemistry of curiosity we have. An itch to add to all forms of knowledge. Maybe to appease a hidden god of imagination squatting inside our minds.
---
tip of the brainberg
P171
It used to be thought of as some sort of magic. But it's all over the place. Technology is its favourite child at the moment. The magic of one century becomes the commonplace of the next. But the even more extraordinary fact here is that all of us are in this "ocean of unknowing" together - this is not a zone reserved for experts. If it were, how could discoveries of any kind in any medium transfer from one mind to another, which they do every day?
We all make it up. You and I make up and remake our lives and reorder our memories all the time. As do thousands of artists, scientists, artisans, labourers, idlers, gardeners, song-writers, engineers, shop assistants, biologists, physicists, everyone. Every moment were are looting the past, putting together the present, then protecting it into an unknown future. It's being alive. One stride and we're in a different world. And now the internet, the iPhone, artificial intelligence, robots are taking us further and further out of ourselves. We are giving what were thought of as essential bits of us to machines. Less us, more them. Soon the question will be, what is a person?
Yet we eat, we drink, we starve, we fight, we bleed, all in ways Abelard and Heloise's world would recognize. We are stratified. We contain multitudes. And this is just the start of it.
P172
Your generation, Julia, will be borne along by this Silicon Valley newness, and I envy what you will be able to know. Fasten your seatbelt. Imagination is where we are all equal, private, connected and free. Whoever learns to control it could become as powerful as God or gravity. Meanwhile, I find the past just as fathomless and majestic as the future.
---
It's always nice to be with nice people.
P197
'Can I not help you conquer that fear?' she cried. '"Perfect love drives out fear," said St Paul. Can our live not help you? Has that become so weak which once appeared unconquerable? ...
P214
And Heaven persists, like a small irremovable scar, even though I no longer believe it exists and abandoned it decades ago.
P221
'Who knows? I could say that some of him was me - a very, very little. But more of me is she. But there are those bits of me - my experience is a miniscule part in the scheme of things. It's the same with everyone. I am my outward life, but I am also what I am to myself, and someone else to those I know. I am those I read and meet, I am what I hear and hope for and regret. I am what I dream and imagine, what I envy and desire. I am, we all are, as Whitman said, multitudes. Everyone comes from everything.'
P283
He sent her bouquets of what she most wanted - words, ideas, explanations, without fail and without compare.
P286
We married quite soon after we met, and even on that day I feared I might lose her. But from the start I could see it and feel it, and I could never convince myself that she was in love with me anything like as much as I was with her. But we got on. Or I thought we did.
P289
'Heloise's unbreakable love for Abelard...' He hesitated. 'Well, that is my love for your mother, which has never lessened and never been challenged. (...)
I wasn't right, not enough for her, so why shouldn't she find a fuller life with someone else?'
P294 sic et non - yes and no
Scito te ipsum - know yourself
P302 (double tomb with Abelard inside)
She outlived her lover by twenty-one years. At her death, bells tolled. There were processions and psalms were sung. It is reported that when they opened the tomb to place her body alongside his, Abelard opened his arms to embrace her.
(Bodies moved to cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris in a sepulchrenear the gate in a soaring tomb, columned on four sides)
June 21, 2020
Recommend reading their letters or a nonfiction account, this edition had a superfluous modern day father/daughter storyline which only served to add the author’s opinion on philosophy and the story in a terribly pedantic manner. I ended up skipping most of these by the end of the book.
October 27, 2019
The tale of Abelard and Heloise is known to many. Personally I'd never read anything about them but I was intrigued by this book.
It's told between two eras, the time of the lovers and present day when author Arthur tries to understand their relationship and explain it to his daughter.
Abelard was a renowned philosopher and Heloise was believed to be intelligent beyond her time as a female. When Abelard begins tutoring Heloise their romance begins but is destined to be a disaster.
On discovery of their relationship Abelard is punished severely and lives a very difficult life often facing near death. One of the punishments he suffered was castration which was the ultimate factor in his decision for him to become a monk and the beginning of their seperation. For Heloise she is forced in to a life as a nun never forgetting her love for Abelard.
This truly is a heartbreaking story and the detail provided by Bragg is great. I did however struggle to picture the characters which is something I like to do when reading.
I am not sure how I felt about the chapters in present time, although they provided more information on what happened they also felt unnecessary. Personally as I enjoy history I would have enjoyed this more without those chapters or have them told as the historical ones but I can see that maybe they'd encourage others who aren't so interested in history to read the book and get a feel for history.
I am thankful I read this tho as it's given me an era of history I'd like to read more about especially the life of Abelard.
He seems to have been exceptional as a philosopher and author of many works and I will be taking some time to learn more about this man. I think my first point of call will be the The Letters of Abelard and Heloise which have been translated and published by Penguin House.
In his words
"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"
I really like that quote! I'd recommend this to those who aren't already familiar with the story.
It's told between two eras, the time of the lovers and present day when author Arthur tries to understand their relationship and explain it to his daughter.
Abelard was a renowned philosopher and Heloise was believed to be intelligent beyond her time as a female. When Abelard begins tutoring Heloise their romance begins but is destined to be a disaster.
On discovery of their relationship Abelard is punished severely and lives a very difficult life often facing near death. One of the punishments he suffered was castration which was the ultimate factor in his decision for him to become a monk and the beginning of their seperation. For Heloise she is forced in to a life as a nun never forgetting her love for Abelard.
This truly is a heartbreaking story and the detail provided by Bragg is great. I did however struggle to picture the characters which is something I like to do when reading.
I am not sure how I felt about the chapters in present time, although they provided more information on what happened they also felt unnecessary. Personally as I enjoy history I would have enjoyed this more without those chapters or have them told as the historical ones but I can see that maybe they'd encourage others who aren't so interested in history to read the book and get a feel for history.
I am thankful I read this tho as it's given me an era of history I'd like to read more about especially the life of Abelard.
He seems to have been exceptional as a philosopher and author of many works and I will be taking some time to learn more about this man. I think my first point of call will be the The Letters of Abelard and Heloise which have been translated and published by Penguin House.
In his words
"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"
I really like that quote! I'd recommend this to those who aren't already familiar with the story.
Read
November 13, 2019The tale of Abelard and Heloise is known to many. Personally I'd never read anything about them but I was intrigued by this book.
It's told between two eras, the time of the lovers and present day when author Arthur tries to understand their relationship and explain it to his daughter.
Abelard was a renowned philosopher and Heloise was believed to be intelligent beyond her time as a female. When Abelard begins tutoring Heloise their romance begins but is destined to be a disaster.
On discovery of their relationship Abelard is punished severely and lives a very difficult life often facing near death. One of the punishments he suffered was castration which was the ultimate factor in his decision for him to become a monk and the beginning of their seperation. For Heloise she is forced in to a life as a nun never forgetting her love for Abelard.
This truly is a heartbreaking story and the detail provided by Bragg is great. I did however struggle to picture the characters which is something I like to do when reading.
I am not sure how I felt about the chapters in present time, although they provided more information on what happened they also felt unnecessary. Personally as I enjoy history I would have enjoyed this more without those chapters or have them told as the historical ones but I can see that maybe they'd encourage others who aren't so interested in history to read the book and get a feel for history.
I am thankful I read this tho as it's given me an era of history I'd like to read more about especially the life of Abelard.
He seems to have been exceptional as a philosopher and author of many works and I will be taking some time to learn more about this man. I think my first point of call will be the The Letters of Abelard and Heloise which have been translated and published by Penguin House.
In his words
"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"
I really like that quote! I'd recommend this to those who aren't already familiar with the story.
It's told between two eras, the time of the lovers and present day when author Arthur tries to understand their relationship and explain it to his daughter.
Abelard was a renowned philosopher and Heloise was believed to be intelligent beyond her time as a female. When Abelard begins tutoring Heloise their romance begins but is destined to be a disaster.
On discovery of their relationship Abelard is punished severely and lives a very difficult life often facing near death. One of the punishments he suffered was castration which was the ultimate factor in his decision for him to become a monk and the beginning of their seperation. For Heloise she is forced in to a life as a nun never forgetting her love for Abelard.
This truly is a heartbreaking story and the detail provided by Bragg is great. I did however struggle to picture the characters which is something I like to do when reading.
I am not sure how I felt about the chapters in present time, although they provided more information on what happened they also felt unnecessary. Personally as I enjoy history I would have enjoyed this more without those chapters or have them told as the historical ones but I can see that maybe they'd encourage others who aren't so interested in history to read the book and get a feel for history.
I am thankful I read this tho as it's given me an era of history I'd like to read more about especially the life of Abelard.
He seems to have been exceptional as a philosopher and author of many works and I will be taking some time to learn more about this man. I think my first point of call will be the The Letters of Abelard and Heloise which have been translated and published by Penguin House.
In his words
"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"
I really like that quote! I'd recommend this to those who aren't already familiar with the story.
May 12, 2020
First off, the subtitle seems a bit odd. I have to admit I can't remember having heard of the title characters before, despite the blurb describing it as one of the "most enduring" love stories in history. Maybe I didn't go to the right schools or something...
Secondly, the modern strand of the novel seems a bit awkward and unnecessary. I found the medieval sections more interesting and would have preferred it if the book had just focussed on the title characters rather than shoehorning in a middle-aged, middle-class dad and a cliched subplot about family secrets. It did make me wonder if said middle-aged dad is some kind of avatar for the author. I didn't connect with him or his daughter and their constant wine and brandy-drinking. Again, maybe that's a class difference thing.
It was interesting to learn about the main characters - Abelard and his battles with the church authorities and Heloise wanting more education and independence than 12th century custom would permit a woman to have. There were parts - especially towards the end - where the medieval sections felt rushed, like they were racing to get information out before handing over to the next modern section. As I said, the novel would have benefitted greatly in my view from chopping out the modern strand and just being entirely set in the medieval era.
As it is, it's only OK.
Secondly, the modern strand of the novel seems a bit awkward and unnecessary. I found the medieval sections more interesting and would have preferred it if the book had just focussed on the title characters rather than shoehorning in a middle-aged, middle-class dad and a cliched subplot about family secrets. It did make me wonder if said middle-aged dad is some kind of avatar for the author. I didn't connect with him or his daughter and their constant wine and brandy-drinking. Again, maybe that's a class difference thing.
It was interesting to learn about the main characters - Abelard and his battles with the church authorities and Heloise wanting more education and independence than 12th century custom would permit a woman to have. There were parts - especially towards the end - where the medieval sections felt rushed, like they were racing to get information out before handing over to the next modern section. As I said, the novel would have benefitted greatly in my view from chopping out the modern strand and just being entirely set in the medieval era.
As it is, it's only OK.
August 11, 2019
I really wanted to like this book more than I did, wanted it to be a five star read. I’ve been fascinated by the story of Abelard and Heloise for years, since first visiting their joint tomb in Pere Lachaise. And there’s a lot to admire in the novel, not least Bragg’s research (although he doesn’t wear it lightly). But the main obstacle for me is the writing: ‘He strode our to ensure that he was punctual.’ There was ‘Something in the way she walked?’ Oh, Melvin! And o eople take a gulp of wine, which is always ‘a rather nice Chablis’ or something similar. It’s strewn with cliches and they marr what would otherwise be a good story, well told.
‘Misery vomited into his mind... ‘ I mean who, which editors and agents, let this pass?
The juxtaposition of chapters of the story with that of the novelist who’s writing it is a good idea on the face of it but Bragg doesn’t take it any further than kind of Sophie’s World speech making, an excuse for Bragg to pontificate while at the same time lazily fast-forwarding or explaining his narrative. And of course it give the reader no room to think, as all that’s being pre-empted by the author-character and his daughter. I don’t know. I really wanted to like this better. And if I had been Bragg’s editor...!
‘Misery vomited into his mind... ‘ I mean who, which editors and agents, let this pass?
The juxtaposition of chapters of the story with that of the novelist who’s writing it is a good idea on the face of it but Bragg doesn’t take it any further than kind of Sophie’s World speech making, an excuse for Bragg to pontificate while at the same time lazily fast-forwarding or explaining his narrative. And of course it give the reader no room to think, as all that’s being pre-empted by the author-character and his daughter. I don’t know. I really wanted to like this better. And if I had been Bragg’s editor...!
April 26, 2020
How could I have forgotten what a consummate author Melvyn Bragg is? Why have I waited so long to read another book by him? I was hooked as soon as I began reading Love Without End, and just had to keep reading until I found out what happened. At times I was enraged by the deceit and duplicity displayed, even more so as these were real events. (How can people do such awful things?) And at others enchanted by the beauty so evidently displayed. This is a story that will stay with me for a very long time.
The storyline of Arthur and Julia provided a perfect foil to the tale of Heloise and Abelard, perhaps because as I was often able to draw parallels between the two despite the fact that they were separated by 900 years. It also provided a perfect setting for filling some of the gaps that it would have been difficult to include in the account of Heloise and Abelard without making it quite ponderous or detracting from its appeal.
As well as being a novel, this book also provides the opportunity for deep thought and provokes deep thinking, though what this looks like will differ from reader to reader. So read, and enjoy, but also use this book to enlarge your mind and your thinking.
The storyline of Arthur and Julia provided a perfect foil to the tale of Heloise and Abelard, perhaps because as I was often able to draw parallels between the two despite the fact that they were separated by 900 years. It also provided a perfect setting for filling some of the gaps that it would have been difficult to include in the account of Heloise and Abelard without making it quite ponderous or detracting from its appeal.
As well as being a novel, this book also provides the opportunity for deep thought and provokes deep thinking, though what this looks like will differ from reader to reader. So read, and enjoy, but also use this book to enlarge your mind and your thinking.
January 7, 2020
2.5 stars.
I’d been attracted to the book by its story of Abelard and Heloise, the brilliant medieval scholars whose love story captivated me at university and who have never quite released their hold on me. Bragg’s novel, however, is not straightforward historical fiction, as it weaves another story in and out of the past, entwining Abelard and Heloise’s story with that of the modern writer Arthur. He (we’re told) is the author of the historical chapters that we read and, in the modern chapters, we’re invited to follow his progress as he wanders through Paris, having long lunches and intellectual conversations with his daughter Julia. The major difficulty that Bragg faces with the book is that intellect is prized over humanity, which may mean that we get closer to what Abelard and Heloise actually believed, but robs the reader of any chance of truly engaging with them...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/01/07/l...
I’d been attracted to the book by its story of Abelard and Heloise, the brilliant medieval scholars whose love story captivated me at university and who have never quite released their hold on me. Bragg’s novel, however, is not straightforward historical fiction, as it weaves another story in and out of the past, entwining Abelard and Heloise’s story with that of the modern writer Arthur. He (we’re told) is the author of the historical chapters that we read and, in the modern chapters, we’re invited to follow his progress as he wanders through Paris, having long lunches and intellectual conversations with his daughter Julia. The major difficulty that Bragg faces with the book is that intellect is prized over humanity, which may mean that we get closer to what Abelard and Heloise actually believed, but robs the reader of any chance of truly engaging with them...
For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/01/07/l...
February 28, 2019
An interesting retelling and interpretation of the real-life love affair of Peter Abelard and Heloise in 12th Century France. Abelard was a renowned scholar in theology and philosophy, lodging in the house of the gifted scholar Heloise, who was first his pupil and then his lover. Their doomed romance becomes the chosen topic for the author Arthur, living in modern-day Paris. When his estranged daughter comes to visit, Arthur uses his novel as an opportunity for them to reconnect and talk about things he has long hidden from her.
This approach to telling the story of Heloise and Abelard allows Bragg to critically appraise these real-life characters through the lens of the fictional characters. Arthur and his daughter have very different reactions to the decisions made by the lovers throughout their story, which allows Bragg scope to discuss the relevance of a nine hundred year old love story in today's world.
This approach to telling the story of Heloise and Abelard allows Bragg to critically appraise these real-life characters through the lens of the fictional characters. Arthur and his daughter have very different reactions to the decisions made by the lovers throughout their story, which allows Bragg scope to discuss the relevance of a nine hundred year old love story in today's world.
August 19, 2020
I feel sorry but I really didn’t enjoy this book. It was hard going. The story of Abelard and Héloïse was familiar to me in essence and this retelling didn’t help me identify with it as a great romance - in particular I felt Héloïse wasted her life and I couldn’t sympathise with their decisions to leave their baby son and withdraw to monastic life separately. Abelard may have had a vocation but there is no evidence that she did.
The modern story told in parallel was very heavy handed and felt like a lecture as the father tried to explain his writing of the medieval story to his daughter. The daughter’s comments on Abelard and Héloïse mirrored my thoughts but her father convinced her of their enduring love story - he didn’t convince me.
The modern story told in parallel was very heavy handed and felt like a lecture as the father tried to explain his writing of the medieval story to his daughter. The daughter’s comments on Abelard and Héloïse mirrored my thoughts but her father convinced her of their enduring love story - he didn’t convince me.
January 31, 2021
a fictionalized account of the 12th century famed, tragic lovers, heloise & abelard + fleshed out through an alternating narrative of present-day conversations between an author and his daughter + extensively researched, at turns esoteric and earthy with its juxtaposition of philosophy and passion, despair and devotion
•
“After the prayer she experienced an envelopment of harmony, in mind and in body. At last they were together, would be eternally. That was the message she took from his letter. She wept as the prayers, so long repressed, finally struggled free. Love without end.”
•
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
•
“After the prayer she experienced an envelopment of harmony, in mind and in body. At last they were together, would be eternally. That was the message she took from his letter. She wept as the prayers, so long repressed, finally struggled free. Love without end.”
•
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
July 19, 2023
This is a very impressive novel.The story was vaguely familiar to me but not the detail.Bragg has succeeded in making the world and attitudes of medieval times and people believable to modern readers.Much of the book involved religious and spiritual themes which may not be palatable to many but the story itself is compelling, involving love,lust,erudition ,violence,castration and reconciliation.Melvyn Bragg is concerned to tell the story in all its religious trappings and succeeds in making me appreciate the outlook and sacrifices of the two lovers.This is a serious book but worth while for those interested in the mysteries of the human heart and historical figures.
April 5, 2019
I am a fan of Melvyn Bragg and was really looking forward to his new novel. This is the story of the famous lovers, Heloise and Abelard. Taken largely from their letters, the novel tries to piece together the events of their lives but seems hidebound in extracting "the truth" and does so, I feel, at the expense of pace and passion. Would that the author's imagination had been given more reign here! The side-line story of researcher/writer Arthur and his daughter with their constant musings only further serves to fragment what is already a fragmented story. Disappointed.
February 9, 2020
I could not get past the first few chapters--the modern times section with daughter and dad was written in such stilted language it was unreadable and the sections about the past with Abelard and Heloise--well, let's just say how could anyone take one of the most famous western romances of history--full of passion, love and tragedy and turn it into a story as dull as dirt? I read a wonderful fiction about the lovers a long time ago before I had a goodreads account and I cannot remember the name of it--if I do I will post it for others to look up. Or just read their actual letters and poems.
August 25, 2022
Beautiful and tragic. The way the author so seamlessly weaves together two separate stories into one deep exploration of love, loss, faith and hope. Impeccable. 100% rereading. I was left wishing I had my annotation supplies. To be fair, the beginning was a bit slow to start a little odd and clunky with the two separate yet entwined narratives and really being dropped right in the middle of them. As I read on though I could not help but fall in love, not only with the story of Heloise and Abelard but of Arthur and his daughter.
March 10, 2023
I have read Melvyn Bragg books before and really enjoyed them. So, I think it was more the subject matter that did not appeal here.
It is the story of a contemporary author, writing about a medieval couple, Heloise & Abelard, and using it to come to terms with the difficult his own marriage breakdown. It's a bit of a clunky contrivance.
And basically it's quite difficult for us in this century to understand the lives of these two very clever, (at the beginning) privileged people.
I think in the end, I didn't like them enough to be fully engaged with the novel.
It is the story of a contemporary author, writing about a medieval couple, Heloise & Abelard, and using it to come to terms with the difficult his own marriage breakdown. It's a bit of a clunky contrivance.
And basically it's quite difficult for us in this century to understand the lives of these two very clever, (at the beginning) privileged people.
I think in the end, I didn't like them enough to be fully engaged with the novel.
August 16, 2019
I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this. I felt the modern part of the story was unnecessary and whilst fairly accurate the narrative didn’t grip me. The characterisation I felt was cliched and I never cared much about the characters. A shame because the premise of this book is interesting....it just didn’t work for me.
September 8, 2019
Received from Net Gallery and I really struggled with this book! It was like I couldn't figure out where I had read this before and I had not,it just seem like Romeo and Juliet story! I think I made it not even half way and couldn't read anymore! I got inpatient with the book and how it was written and maybe It's Just Me,I lost interest! I'm so sorry don't mean to hurt someone's feelings!
November 2, 2019
Abelard and Heloise are a legendary love story and through the retelling of the story the present and the past are united. A touching piece of history told masterfully.
Thank you NetGalley, Melvyn Bragg and Arcade Publishing for this advanced reader edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner
Thank you NetGalley, Melvyn Bragg and Arcade Publishing for this advanced reader edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner
November 2, 2019
I'm a huge fan of the story of Abelard and Heloise so I had great expectations for this book.
Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed as I found the story fragmented and it failed to keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed as I found the story fragmented and it failed to keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
May 22, 2020
This was a very readable, well written tale of two iconic romantic figures and their tragic (but uplifting) love story. Their 12th century world in Paris and how modern they were for their times was fascinating. I’d heard of them but had no idea the scope of their lives. The philosophical discourse between them through out the book is engaging and thought provoking.
May 6, 2019
I found this book more interesting in an intellectual way than gripping emotionally. I was expecting to be drawn in by this great love story of all time but instead felt as though I was being told about it in a very factual way. The modern story doesn’t seem very relevant.
December 13, 2019
Timeless
This story is so well known, but expertly brought to life in this novel. The technique of inter posing the story with that of a modern commentator allows us to see that this love from a previous millennium is a universal and inspiring one that endures. Recommended.
This story is so well known, but expertly brought to life in this novel. The technique of inter posing the story with that of a modern commentator allows us to see that this love from a previous millennium is a universal and inspiring one that endures. Recommended.
Read
January 17, 2020While living in Europe for a couple of decades, I would often hear references to Heloise and Abelard.
This was an engaging read to give the basic idea of their story, without having to slog through their letters and more historical works on their histories!
This was an engaging read to give the basic idea of their story, without having to slog through their letters and more historical works on their histories!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews