I just did not enjoy this as much as I'd hoped I would. The modern day story line was unnecessary and sucked the life from the story of Abelard and Heloise.

I received a digital ARC from NetGalley. I was on the fence with this book. I loved the woman and the man, not so much. he seemed stubborn and maybe that was just the times when men didnt take advice from women. Either way it was an OK book

2.5 stars.

I'd been attracted to the book by its story of Abelard and Heloise, the brilliant medieval scholars whose love story captivated me at university and who have never quite released their hold on me. Bragg's novel, however, is not straightforward historical fiction, as it weaves another story in and out of the past, entwining Abelard and Heloise's story with that of the modern writer Arthur. He (we're told) is the author of the historical chapters that we read and, in the modern chapters, we're invited to follow his progress as he wanders through Paris, having long lunches and intellectual conversations with his daughter Julia. The major difficulty that Bragg faces with the book is that intellect is prized over humanity, which may mean that we get closer to what Abelard and Heloise actually believed, but robs the reader of any chance of truly engaging with them.

There are two stories. On the one hand: Paris, the 13th century, on the tiny island in the middle of the Seine where Canon Fulbert and his niece Heloise live in the cloisters of Notre-Dame. They have heard rumours about the tempestuous scholar Abelard, whose popular lectures at the cathedral school dare to question all manner of ideas about God and the soul. It wins him the admiration of the students, but the enmity of many of his senior colleagues - as does his magnetic effect on women, whom he admires but casually dismisses. For Heloise, trapped in the stifling life of a respectable maiden, but gifted with a fierce desire for knowledge, Abelard is a fascination - a crush. And, when the oblivious Fulbert hires this enfant terrible to teach his brilliant niece, the inevitable happens. The two young people fall in love, setting in motion a terrible cycle of passion, vengeance and self-abnegation that will shape the rest of their lives.

On the other hand, Arthur wanders in modern-day Paris with his daughter Julia, who has come to visit him while he works on a new book. He is obsessed with Abelard and Heloise, longing to talk through every detail with her. She has come in the hope of finally understanding why her parents split up years ago, thereby making sense of her own sense of loss. Over nice lunches in Parisian bistros, Arthur monologues to her about the medieval lovers while Julia, perhaps in the place of the reader, makes occasional comments. (You know exactly the kind of person Arthur is: the person you'll inevitably end up sitting next to at a work dinner who, when you ask an innocuous question, begins a half-hour lecture about their favourite topic, leaving you unable to get a word in edgeways.) Bragg clearly feels that Arthur and Julia are his way to make the medieval world accessible, because he wants - and Arthur, in his novel, wants - to capture the true medieval world of the mind, complete with all its complex and very foreign notions about the soul and God. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work, because these modern chapters feel like university tutorials (or an episode of In Our Time), bookended by 'charming scenes in Paris' in an attempt to make the reader see them as fiction. 

Arthur (and Bragg) want us to sympathise with Abelard, and here's another problem. Despite his status as Great Romantic Hero, Abelard wasn't actually a particularly pleasant person by modern standards, being incredibly self-centred. Arthur spends many of his 'conversations' with Julia explaining why this brilliant, edgy man was ahead of his time and should therefore be admired by the modern reader. He goes into detail about the letters that Abelard and Heloise exchanged after their separation - their self-imposed exile from one another - and I fully believe that he / Bragg are correct in saying that Heloise encouraged Abelard to prioritise his own career at her expense. But it doesn't make a particularly satisfying novel, especially in the current climate. Essentially we have two stories in which women are submissively respectful towards self-centred men, admiringly allowing them to carry on with their great works despite the chaos they have suffered in their own lives. Bragg wants his Heloise to be brilliant and questing and ferociously intelligent, but I don't think he's all that good at writing women, because she comes across as rather flat and uninspiring. It's perfectly possible to write ruthlessly intelligent women who are both intellectual and emotional beings (see Dorothy Dunnett, A.S. Byatt or Joyce Carol Oates). But that's not what we get here.

Bragg is still one of this country's great public intellectuals, and I'm sure his other books are superb. Indeed, this novel was perfectly readable; it's not screamingly bad by any means. But, alas, it has no soul and feels very dated in today's literary climate. Essentially it's a story about a self-absorbed, middle-aged man writing a book about another self-absorbed man, and occasionally breaking off to mansplain history to his admiring daughter. Arthur (and Bragg?) is so caught up in his hero-worship of Abelard that he fails to do justice to Heloise, who here simply acts as the mirror which reflects back and magnifies Abelard's brilliance. Considering the turbulent events at its heart, it is disappointingly cold and lifeless, and left me distinctly lukewarm.

This review will be posted on my blog on 7 January at the link below:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/01/07/love-without-end-melvyn-bragg

I’ve never read anything by Melvyn Bragg before, although he has been writing since the 1960s and most of his novels fall into my favourite genre, historical fiction. His new book, Love Without End, a retelling of the story of Abelard and Heloise – often described as one of the greatest love stories of all time – sounded appealing to me, so I thought I would give it a try.

The novel opens in 12th century Paris, where Heloise is living with her uncle, the canon Fulbert. She is intelligent, resourceful and exceptionally well educated for a woman of her time, particularly in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. When the renowned philosopher and scholar Peter Abelard returns to Paris after an absence of a few years, Heloise longs to go and sit with the male students listening to his lectures, but she is aware that this is an opportunity open only to men. A solution is found when Canon Fulbert allows Abelard to join his household as private tutor to Heloise, but he quickly comes to regret this decision when he discovers that his niece and her tutor have fallen in love.

I’m not going to say any more about the legend of Heloise and Abelard – if you don’t already know the story you probably don’t want me to spoil it for you, and it’s so well documented the details can easily be looked up online anyway. All I will say is that, like Romeo and Juliet and other legendary lovers, their romance is dramatic and tragic. Melvyn Bragg’s account follows the usual, accepted outline of the story, using sources such as the Penguin Classics collection of the translated letters of Abelard and Heloise, although he also uses his imagination to fill in some of the gaps and mixes some fictional characters in with the real historical ones.

Despite all the drama and tragedy, however, I found this novel strangely flat and emotionless. There seemed to be no real chemistry between Heloise and Abelard; although Bragg tells us that they are passionately in love, I never really felt that for myself. Even the setting never came to life; I wanted to know what it felt like to live in 12th century Paris, what it looked like, sounded like, smelled like…but instead I came away with the feeling that the story might as well have been taking place in any city and at any time.

Even so, I might have still enjoyed this book if it had just concentrated solely on the story of Abelard and Heloise. Recently, though, I’m finding that authors rarely seem to write books set entirely in the past anymore. Instead we get two alternating storylines – one set in the past and one in the present. In this case, the present day story follows an author, Arthur, who is visiting Paris with his daughter, Julia, to finish researching and writing a novel about Abelard and Heloise. It is supposedly Arthur’s novel that we are reading in the historical chapters, while in the modern day chapters he and Julia talk about his work and how he has interpreted various parts of the Abelard and Heloise legend.

The Arthur and Julia storyline appears to exist purely as a way for Bragg to discuss and comment on various aspects of the relationship between Heloise and Abelard or to explain things for the benefit of the modern reader, rather than leaving us to reach our own conclusions. Most of the discussions involve Julia questioning Abelard’s behaviour and Arthur trying to defend him by pointing out that she needs to put things into historical context and judge Abelard by the standards of the 12th century instead of the 21st. I found both Arthur and Julia very irritating; their dialogue seemed unnatural and not the way two people would speak to each other in real life. They just didn’t feel like real human beings at all and were a distraction from the Heloise and Abelard story rather than an interesting addition to it.

This was disappointing, but maybe I need to give Melvyn Bragg another chance and try one of his other books.

This was an enjoyable fictional account of the doomed relationship between Heloise and Abelard. I thought the writing was really good and the story moved along at a nice pace.

Abelard and Heloise are a legendary love story and through the retelling of the story the present and the past are united. A touching piece of history told masterfully.

Thank you NetGalley, Melvyn Bragg and Arcade Publishing for this advanced reader edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

The tale of Abelard and Heloise is known to many. Personally I'd never read anything about them but I was intrigued by this book.
It's told between two eras, the time of the lovers and present day when author Arthur tries to understand their relationship and explain it to his daughter.

Abelard was a renowned philosopher and Heloise was believed to be intelligent beyond her time as a female. When Abelard begins tutoring Heloise their romance begins but is destined to be a disaster.

On discovery of their relationship Abelard is punished severely and lives a very difficult life often facing near death. One of the punishments he suffered was castration which was the ultimate factor in his decision for him to become a monk and the beginning of their seperation. For Heloise she is forced in to a life as a nun never forgetting her love for Abelard.

This truly is a heartbreaking story and the detail provided by Bragg is great. I did however struggle to picture the characters which is something I like to do when reading.

I am not sure how I felt about the chapters in present time, although they provided more information on what happened they also felt unnecessary. Personally as I enjoy history I would have enjoyed this more without those chapters or have them told as the historical ones but I can see that maybe they'd encourage others who aren't so interested in history to read the book and get a feel for history.

I am thankful I read this tho as it's given me an era of history I'd like to read more about especially the life of Abelard.

He seems to have been exceptional as a philosopher and author of many works and I will be taking some time to learn more about this man. I think my first point of call will be the The Letters of Abelard and Heloise which have been translated and published by Penguin House.

In his words
"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth"

I really like that quote! I'd recommend this to those who aren't already familiar with the story.

Received from Net Gallery and I really struggled with this book! It was like I couldn't figure out where I had read this before and I had not,it just seem like Romeo and Juliet story! I think I made it not even half way and couldn't read anymore! I got inpatient with the book and how it was written and maybe It's Just Me,I lost interest! I'm so sorry don't mean to hurt someone's feelings!

The story of Heloise and Abelard always fascinated me; in that aspect Bragg's novel was well-researched and never strayed far from the story, which was disheartening. It would have been even more exciting if the characters were more fleshed-out and not just historical carricatures. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the story with the modern day novelist who's writing it is a great idea yet it wasn't executed properly; the trope seems an excuse for Bragg to pontificate while at the same time lazily fast-forwarding or explaining his narrative, whilst the reader is given no room to think, as all that’s being pre-empted by the author-character and his daughter.

I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this. I felt the modern part of the story was unnecessary and whilst fairly accurate the narrative didn’t grip me. The characterisation I felt was cliched and I never cared much about the characters. A shame because the premise of this book is interesting....it just didn’t work for me.

Heloise and Peter Abelard were the Romeo and Juliet in the Middle Ages. The novel does a great job in staying true to their story. However, there was very little character development. The characters are very stereotypical. I also felt emotionally detached from the story because it was more often told to me than shown. I thought the modern storyline was a bit unnecessary and it took away my enjoyment of the characters in the Middle Ages. Still, I recommend this for those of The Captive Queen, The Scribe of Siena, and Four Queens!