The story of the relationship between Abélard and Héloïse is one of the world’s most celebrated and tragic love affairs. It is told through the letters of Peter Abélard a French philosopher and one of the greatest logicians of the twelfth century and of his gifted pupil Héloïse. Through their impassioned writings unfolds the story of a romance from its reckless ecstatic beginnings through to public scandal an enforced secret marriage and its devastating consequences. These eloquent and intimate letters express a vast range of emotions from adoration and devotion to reproach indignation and grief and offer a fascinating insight into religious life in the Middle Ages. This is the revised edition of Betty Radice's highly regarded translation in which Michael Clanchy the biographer of Abélard updates the scholarship on the letters and the lovers. This volume includes Abélard's remarkable autobiography and his spiritual advice to Héloïse and her nuns as well as a selection of the 'lost love letters' of Abélard and Héloïse letters between Héloïse and Peter the Venerable two of Abélard's hymns a chronology notes and maps.
