Peter Abelard

Helen Waddell's "Peter Abelard"

I read Helen Waddell's 1933 novel, "Peter Abelard" after a recent visit to a local Washington, D.C. library outside my neighborhood. I learned that the book would be featured in a discussion and lecture series titled "Heroes and Demigods: The Rise and Fall" to be lead by a highly distinguished professor, Ori Z. Soltes, Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University. The coming event rekindled an old interest in Abelard which I had never pursued. The library provided me a copy of the book, and I am looking forward to Soltes' lecture later this month.

Helen Waddell (1889 -- 1965) was a scholar of medieval life. "Peter Abelard", her only novel, was a great critical and commercial success when it was published but unfortunately is out of print. The novel is a historically informed retelling of the romance between Abelard and Heloise. It also explores the philosophy and theology of Abelard and weaves together thought and romance.

Abelard (1079 -- 1142) was a famed, brilliant teacher and logician. At the age of 37, while teaching in Paris, he met and fell in love with the beautiful and intellectually-gifted 17-year old Heloise. Waddell's novel begins at this point in Abelard's life with references back to his earlier years. The two lovers have a passionate affair, and Heloise bears a son, named Astrolabe. Abelard and Heloise secretly marry, but the marriage soon comes out. Heloise reluctantly joins a convent and leaves Paris to protect Abelard's career. Heloise's uncle has Abelard brutally castrated. These events are narrated well, if elliptically, in the book.

In what is essentially the second part of the novel, Abelard is tried and convicted of heresy for one of his writings and is forced to throw it in the fire. While sentenced to imprisonment, the sentence is commuted and he retreats to life in an isolated rural area as a near-hermit. His retreat is ultimately named Paraclete for the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. While living alone Abelard has an insight into the nature of evil and into the doctrine of Atonement. Waddell's novel ends with the communication of this insight by a third party to Heloise, who is still unhappy as a nun and still deeply in love with Abelard. Heloise will go on to establish a convent at Paraclete and she and Abelard will exchange a famous series of letters.

Waddell's book is beautifully if densely written. The focus is on Abelard and Heloise, but the book offers a realistic portrayal of 12th century medieval life in Paris. It shows the life of the schools, the Church, and of the ever-present bars and taverns. Waddell quotes extensively from medieval poetry, some of which is by Abelard, that she collected and translated in her other writings. The poems offer a commentary on the events in the novel. For example, here is a little poem by the love-struck Abelard, sung during a scene in a tavern.

"So by my singing am I comforted
Even as the swan by singing makes death sweet,
For from my face is gone the wholesome red
And sorrow in my heart is sunken deep.
For sorrow still increasing,
And travail unreleasing,
And strength from me fast flying
And I for sorrow dying,
Dying, dying, dying,
Since she I love cares nothing for my sighing."

Waddell also introduces and develops well many secondary characters in the story. The many characters make the book move slowly for readers without a basic familiarity with Abelard or the Paris of his day. The writing is by turns witty, ironic, and full of romantic and philosophical insight. As Waddell's book develops, its focus is more on Abelard and his intellectual insights than on the love story. Abelard is a philosophical rationalist who objects to the traditionalism and appeals to authority of the theologians of his day. He becomes a hero by his growth in understanding more than by his early egoism and his treatment of Heloise. Abelard's theological insights transform the character of his relationship to Heloise.

Waddell's book moved me to read Henry Adams' chapter on Abelard in his "Mount Saint Michael and Chartres" which discusses Abelard's life and philosophy at some length. I am looking forward to participating in a discussion of this fascinating book with other interested readers at the library in the lecture-discussion series led by Professor Soltes. Although Waddell's book has fallen into some obscurity, it is deeply worth reading for readers interested in the Abelard-Heloise romance, in varied understandings of religion and sexuality, or in the philosophy of religion.

Robin Friedman