Héloïse and Abelard

I was recently contacted by a producer at BBC Radio 4 and asked to make an impossible choice. Could I pick a book that was particularly special to me and go on A Good Read to talk about it?

After much soul-searching (and bookshelf-browsing) I decided to go with a book from what I consider to be one of the most interesting periods of European history: the twelfth century. Not a period that had been featured on the show before, apparently.

Although there are many books I love from that era, I ended up choosing the Letters of Abelard and Héloïse. It is one of the world’s great love stories, but one that it seems fewer and fewer people know about. Peter Abelard was about the most famous person in the Western world, renowned as a logician, theologian, composer and musician. Héloïse was the brilliant, feisty niece of Abelard’s Paris landlord. They fell in love, setting in motion a tragic affair which the Letters find them reflecting on in their mature years.

I particularly wanted the world to hear more about Héloïse, increasingly recognised as one of the most significant characters in an age of extraordinary women. The Letters show her balancing faith and desire, railing at her God, committed to the ideal of learning, rejecting the sham of marriage as a disgrace, only really interested in true love freely given. The tenderness between the two former lovers is unforgettable, as are the depths of passion that still stir in their letters, and echo for us across the 900 years since they were written.

The show goes out on Monday 25 November at 3pm, and will be available on BBC Sounds thereafter. You can find the programme here.