The Letters of Abelard and Héloïse – A Particular Account of their Lives, Amours, and Misfortunes – consists of the authentic communication between a monk and a nun who had a romance in the 12th-century and they are a rare insight into how people worshipped, thought, spoke, lived and loved 800 years ago. We hear about their extravagant passion for each other, the public scandal, secret marriage, and breakup – and their relationship to God and the church. The letters were written after the couple’s separation when they both lived a monastic life dedicated to religion.
“-Accordingly we find in them surprising mixtures of devotion and tenderness, of penitence and remaining frailty, and a lively picture of human nature in it contrarieties of passion and reason, its infirmities, and its sufferings.”
The letters were first published in 1616 in Paris. They were written in Latin, and translated into French in a very popular edition in 1693. The edition presented here is the English translation published in 1782.
Download the classic work: The Letters of Abelard and Héloïse here:
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise I
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise II
