The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics) Summary and Reviews

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics)
by Peter Abelard, Heloise

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics)
List Price: $15.00
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Author: Heloise, Peter Abelard
Editor: Michael Clanchy
Contributor: Michael Clanchy
Translator: Betty Radice
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-04-27
ISBN: 0140448993
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Penguin Books
Product features:

Book Reviews of The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: The greatest love letters ever written
Summary: 5 Stars

This collection contains not only the letters exchanged by Heloise and Abelard in later life, but also Abelard's autobiography (the 'Historia Calamitatum') in the form of a letter addressed to an anonymous friend. This is well worth reading because it is one of the earliest forms of autobiography ever written, and tells the story of Abelard's eventful and controversial life from his own point of view. It is a fascinating character study (Abelard even seems to change whilst writing it) and reveals a great deal of egomania and possibly a persecution complex. It is also amazing to see how he can be such a gifted philospher and theologian, yet fail to understand other people at all. Despite his sometimes colossal arrogance, Abelard's attitude to God is one of great humility and I find it quite moving. The narrative is centred around the disastrous event of his castration, which he accepts very humbly. On the other hand everything else that goes wrong is blamed on other people wholesale, with Abelard casting himself as the misunderstood and persecuted saint, and there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth on his part. I love his persecution complex, too - he claims that his monks tried to murder him by poisoning the chalice from which he was taking communion!

The letters in the rest of the book date from after Abelard's autobiography was published, and if you read them closely you'll see just how clever Heloise really is. They're worth reading anyhow, because of the breathtaking passion they convey, but if you look you'll notice she manages to use his own philosophical doctrines to defeat him and rewrites the Historia Calamitatum for him from her own perspective. You get the feeling he fell in love with her for her mind, and she proves that even after ten years locked away in a convent her wits are as sharp as ever. However, Abelard's replies start off quite cool and unresponsive; he is irritated rather than impressed by her ability to outwit him and seems keen to terminate their correspondence. Yet she manages to change him as it progresses, from severe misogyny into acceptance of women's role in the world and particularly in the religious life. What a woman.

And when he says "Heaven is like so many palaces..." the word he uses in Latin is 'Palatia'. It's an odd word in context, so why does he choose this particular one? 'Palatium' is also the name of his hometown, where he took Heloise to give birth to their child, and where they lived together for a short but happy time. So... he's secretly trying to say that Heaven is like the time they spent together before disaster tore them apart. This is the closest he gets to telling her he loved her.

Biographies & Memoirs Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in So You'd Like to...read 15 of the greatest books of all time?
The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library) ImageThe Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (Everyman's Library)
by Dante Alighieri
Everyman's Library; Published: 1995-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops: $26.00
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ImageThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
Back Bay Books; Published: 1976-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: $21.99
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics)
by Peter Abelard, Heloise
Penguin Books; Published: 2004-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.66
Price in other shops: $15.00
Peter Pan (100th Anniversary Edition) ImagePeter Pan (100th Anniversary Edition)
by J. M. Barrie
Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); Published: 2003-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.31
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Politics of Jesus ImageThe Politics of Jesus
by John Howard Yoder
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Published: 1994-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.42
Price in other shops: $22.00
St. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) ImageSt. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)
by Saint Augustine
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1998-06-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops: $7.95
Anesthesia: A Brief Reflection on Contemporary Aesthetics ImageAnesthesia: A Brief Reflection on Contemporary Aesthetics
by Tripp York
Seaburn; Published: 2008-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) ImageHamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2003-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops: $5.99
Survivor: A Novel ImageSurvivor: A Novel
by Chuck Palahniuk
Anchor; Published: 2000-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.43
Price in other shops: $13.95
Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories ImageFranz Kafka: The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka
Schocken Books Inc.; Published: 1995-11-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.45
Price in other shops: $15.00
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Art of Courtly Love ImageThe Art of Courtly Love
by Andreas Capellanus
Columbia University Press; Published: 1990-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $24.50
Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) ImagePower and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
by Maureen C. Miller
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2005-01-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.42
The Book of the City of Ladies (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Book of the City of Ladies (Penguin Classics)
by Christine de Pizan
Penguin Classics; Published: 2000-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.37
Price in other shops: $12.95
The Selected Writings of Christine De Pizan (Norton Critical Editions) ImageThe Selected Writings of Christine De Pizan (Norton Critical Editions)
by Christine de Pizan
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1997-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.44
Chronicles of the Crusades (Penguin Classics) ImageChronicles of the Crusades (Penguin Classics)
by Jean de Joinville, Geffroy de Villehardouin
Penguin Classics; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: $16.00
Heloise & Abelard: A New Biography (Plus) ImageHeloise & Abelard: A New Biography (Plus)
by James Burge
HarperOne; Published: 2006-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.18
Price in other shops: $14.95
Two Lives of Charlemagne (Penguin Classics) ImageTwo Lives of Charlemagne (Penguin Classics)
by Einhard, Notker the Stammerer
Penguin Classics; Published: 1969-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.48
Price in other shops: $15.00
A History of the Franks (Penguin Classics) ImageA History of the Franks (Penguin Classics)
by Gregory of Tours
Penguin Classics; Published: 1976-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: $18.00
The Book of Margery Kempe (Norton Critical Editions) ImageThe Book of Margery Kempe (Norton Critical Editions)
by Margery Kempe, Lynne Staley
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2000-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.06
The Lais of Marie de France (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Lais of Marie de France (Penguin Classics)
by Marie de France
Penguin Classics; Published: 1999-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.26
Price in other shops: $13.00