On the Lack of Romance and Lots of Selfish Belief in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Pierre Bayle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I must say that these letters were not quite what I had expected. That was because Abelard and Heloise didn't exactly live up to their reputation. I'm not sure how they ever ended up on the most-romantic-tragic-love-story-list. Don't get me wrong, I found the letters to be profoundly interesting on many different levels. A treasure for historians. Interesting character studies. But romantic? Not so much.

Abelard strikes me as too much of a narcissist to raise much sympathy for his misfortunes – especially since he basically does everything in his power to turn everyone against him. And the sad thing is, he doesn't even notice it – because he's just too damn full of himself. Lot's of self serving bias going on in there, I'd say.

And what about Heloise? Well, I've got a little more sympathy for her and her situation. What I find strange though – and maybe that's just my modern mind - is that among all those lamentations neither of them writes a single word of their offspring? All they talk about is themselves and their miserable lots. And that brings me right to the topic of their faith. You don't need to read much between the lines to notice that their so called piety and religious career, if you will, is a purely selfish endeavor. There's none of the nobler motivations. No ambition to make the world a better place and what not. All those I could tolerate within the proper framework – even as an atheist. For them, though, religion is but a means to an end. And I'm quite repulsed by that.

What strikes me as very ironic is that they feel oh so bad about having chosen their paths for the wrong reasons and about their lingering love for each other. So they apparently come to the conclusion that they should embrace their roles and try harder in order to – here it comes – receive absolution and save their own souls. They don't even seem to grasp the fact that this very foundation of their belief essentially turns everything they do into a selfish act. Yeah, they probably should feel bad, but they do so for all the wrong reasons. And the saddest part is Abelard's self-righteous attitude that people like him so often tend to display.



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