Heloise, Mangy Hager’s first work of fiction for adults, has been longlisted for the 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and it turned out to be interesting reading, though *chuckle* perhaps not in the way that its author intended it to be. It is a retelling of a story many already know: the doomed love of the famous 12th century French lovers whose letters have come to exemplify passion and romance for a thousand years. Hager’s novel, the blurb tells us, offers a plausible interpretation of the known facts and a vivid imagining of the gaps in the lives of the philosopher and theologian Peter Abélard – who was compelled to be celibate by his position as a secular canon – but who seduced his younger pupil-scholar Héloïse d’Argenteuil who subsequently became his not-so-secret wife and then a reluctant nun. Both of them paid a terrible price for their forbidden love, which makes for a good story even if you already know its outline. But what made it interesting for me was its problematic aspects…
In order to discuss this, it is necessary to reveals elements of the story, so be warned:
SPOILER ALERT
The novel is written entirely from Heloise’s point-of-view, tracing her rescue from an unhappy foster-home to her uncle’s Fulbert’s care and placement in a convent at Argenteuil, now a suburb of Paris. There she gains access to education from the Jewish convert Saris, learning Latin and Greek and exploring the works of Ovid and Virgil. But when the convent is closed due to political manoeuvring, Heloise takes shelter under her uncle’s roof in Paris, and pining for her lost education opportunities, she discreetly attends male-only lectures by the famous teacher Abelard. Highly intelligent, Heloise is frustrated by the restrictions on education for girls in this medieval era and is delighted when her uncle allows Abelard to take lodgings with him and to teach the teenage Heloise. They enjoy intellectual word play and robust discussions, but eventually the first of the problematic incidents takes place. Their mutual attraction and shared passion leads to him forcing himself on her. In this novel, although she loves him and he loves her, it is unquestionably rape.
And she forgives him.
It turns out that she has quite a lot of forgiving to do.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/01/12/heloise-by-mandy-hager/ ( )