The Amorous Heart: An Unconventional History of Love (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465094707)

An eminent scholar unearths the captivating history of the two-lobed heart symbol from scripture and tapestry to T-shirts and text messages, shedding light on how we have expressed love since antiquity

The symmetrical, exuberant heart is everywhere: it gives shape to candy, pendants, the frothy milk on top of a cappuccino, and much else. How can we explain the ubiquity of what might be the most recognizable symbol in the world?

In The Amorous Heart, Marilyn Yalom tracks the heart metaphor and heart iconography across two thousand years, through Christian theology, pagan love poetry, medieval painting, Shakespearean drama, Enlightenment science, and into the present. She argues that the symbol reveals a tension between love as romantic and sexual on the one hand, and as religious and spiritual on the other. Ultimately, the heart symbol is a guide to the astonishing variety of human affections, from the erotic to the chaste and from the unrequited to the conjugal.

Author: Marilyn Yalom
ISBN-10: 0465094708
ISBN-13: 9780465094707
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 01/09/2018
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/08/2018
Booklist 01/01/2018 pg. 21
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2018 pg. 78
Library Journal 02/01/2018 pg. 113