Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard

This is a well-researched piece of historical fiction about the famous medieval couple, Abelard and Heloise. In it, the author shares his perception, grounded in research, of the rocky and devastating path that these lovers took. We first meet Heloise before she became involved with Abelard. She comes across as a bright young woman, opinionated and well educated unlike most young women of her time. You can't help but read through the early parts of their relationship reflecting on what ultimately happened.I was truly impressed with the character that the author created in Heloise. She comes across as so strong, and she had to be. Her life was determined in its early stages by men who seem to care more about themselves than about her, even though she should have been a priority for two of them. And ultimately, of course, she became a powerful figure in her own right, in her own way. The book is a somewhat startling glimpse of what life could have been like with the predominance of the church as it was then. It seems that the institution was more important than the people who were a part of it, and I find that a hard idea to stomach.I thought some of the actual writing of this was a little clunky. Sometimes speech didn't sound natural, and it was a little wordy in places. Sometimes, there was more telling than showing. But, all in all, I found this a gripping imagining of what Heloise and Abelard's lives were like.

It is a very moving book a nd it breaks your heart for the love they had and was denied.

The characters were obscured by some of exchange of philosophy . The language was very dry at times. Did not seem like a love story