{"title":"James Burge","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"heloise-and-abelard-book-james-burge-9781861974174","title":"Heloise And Abelard","description":"Abelard was a brilliant philosopher in Paris. Heloise, his student 15 years his junior, was a poet already famous for her learning, a woman with a uniquely powerful insight into her own feelings. The letters they wrote to each other - some of which have only recently come to light - open a miraculous window onto the story of their affair. We know about their terms of endearment, about the passion of their lovemaking, of stolen moments in churches, of their erotic play. The letters tell the story of the birth of their child, of their secret marriage and the violence and tragedy which followed, culminating in a brutal attack in which Abelard was castrated. In panic and shame the couple separated to continue their lives - and very successful careers - in monasteries. 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His only hope of escape is a journey down through Hell and out to the edge of the universe. To this audaciously ground-breaking story Dante added a delicate web of symbolism which has captivated his readers for centuries. This was Dante’s intention: alongside the gripping tale Dante hoped to give his audience an insight into the true nature of the universe. Dante did not start life as the great story-teller of the universe. In his youth he was more like a love-sick poet, writing intellectual verse Beatrice, the girl he had loved since they were both children. As Florence descended into civil war, he seemed to take no interest. Fate had to work very hard to turn him into the author of the Divine Comedy. It required him to go through his own journey of bereavement, loss, exile and condemnation to death. It was only when he saw his world on the brink of chaos and destruction that he began his great work. Finally Dante mastered the mysterious interplay between symbols and narrative which gives fiction its ability to enchant and fascinate. Only then did he realise that, in the right hands, a story could have the power to lead us out of the dark wood.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49556942323985,"sku":"GOR006446654","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50936120836369,"sku":"GOR010193178","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/075249922X.jpg?v=1750913716"},{"product_id":"heloise-abelard-book-james-burge-9780060816131","title":"Heloise \u0026 Abelard","description":"\u003cp\u003eAuthor and filmmaker James Burge presents the romantic tale of doomed medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard. Combining the latest scholarship with over a hundred recently discovered letters that enrich and deepen this heart-rending story, Burge paints a fuller picture of Heloise as a woman who tested the cultural constraints of her time, and discusses Abelard's many theological disputes with his teachers, which eventually led to his trial for heresy.\u003c\/p\u003e British author James Burge is a producer and director of documentaries for the BBC and the Discovery Channel. His fascination with the Middle Ages, which dates from his study of medieval philosophy as a university student, led him to make \"Strange Landscape,\" the BBC series about medieval culture, and to create a dramatization of the writings of the eccentric thirteenth-century English friar, Roger Bacon. He also writes periodically for the Independent on Sunday.\"The two lovers are as vivid as one could wish ... Burge achieves something truly difficult: he reminds us that, for Abelard and Heloise, their world was as new, risky and unpredictable as ours is, and every day as fresh with possibilities.\"- Sunday Times (London)","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562460291345,"sku":"GOR013674942","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49727106056465,"sku":"CIN0060816139G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50604320030993,"sku":"CIN0060816139VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50983032160529,"sku":"NIN9780060816131","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51020701303057,"sku":"GOR002791979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060816139.jpg?v=1751289394"},{"product_id":"heloise-abelard-book-james-burge-9780060736637","title":"Heloise \u0026 Abelard","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe heart-rending love story of Abelard and Heloise was one of the most talked about relationships in the Middle Ages, and is one of the greatest love stories of all time. Peter Abelard was arguably the greatest poet, philosopher, and religious teacher in all of twelfth-century Europe. In an age when women were rarely educated, Heloise was his most gifted young student. As master of the cathedral school at Notre Dame in Paris, Abelard was expected to be celibate; his career would be destroyed by marrying. In spite of this, Abelard and Heloise's private tutoring sessions inevitably turned to passionate romance, and their moments apart were spent writing love letters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Heloise became pregnant, her possessive guardian and uncle, Fulbert, angrily insisted that they marry. The ceremony was held in secret, but the rumor spread through Paris. Enemies confronted Heloise, who publicly denied the marriage in order to protect Abelard's career. Fearing for her safety, Abelard slipped Heloise out of the city and sent her to a convent. Robbed of his niece and his family's honor, Fulbert took revenge by having Abelard brutally castrated. Abelard retreated to a monastery, and the famous lovers now lived separate lives behind cloistered walls -- but their love, and their letters, continued.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor a long time, the only letters known to have survived dated from the later period of their separation. Then, astoundingly, a few years ago a young scholar identified 113 new letters between the pair. Lost for almost nine hundred years, these fresh missives provide an intriguing snapshot of the couple's clandestine passion that is erotic, poignant, and at times even funny.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Burge is the first biographer to combine these astonishing new discoveries with the latest scholarship, resulting in a more complete biography; one that paints a fuller picture of Heloise as a woman who tested the cultural constraints of her time. Burge also addresses Abelard's theological disputes with other teachers, including Bernard of Clairvaux, which led to Abelard's eventual trial for heresy. But \u003cem\u003eHeloise \u0026amp; Abelard\u003c\/em\u003e is much more than a biography. It opens a window onto the enormous and exciting changes that took place in medieval Europe, even as it presents us with the richest telling yet of one of history's greatest love stories.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580668420369,"sku":"GOR013546978","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49638721978641,"sku":"GOR005920337","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50296724128017,"sku":"CIN0060736631A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50303644172561,"sku":"CIN0060736631G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415393796369,"sku":"CIN0060736631VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060736631.jpg?v=1751163449"},{"product_id":"heloise-and-abelard-book-james-burge-9781861974822","title":"Heloise And Abelard","description":"Abelard was a brilliant philosopher in Paris. 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