Abelard and Heloise's Love Story from the Perspective of their Son Astrolabe: Luise Rinser's Novel Abelard's Love

In Luise Rinser's novel Abelard's Love (1991) we are confronted with a remarkable but very little known literary treatment of the love affair between the famous twelfth-century philosopher Abelard and his wife Heloise, seen from the perspective of their son, Astrolabe. Whereas recent research has paid much attention to this extraordinary couple because of their love poetry, their noteworthy correspondence, and their highly intellectual contributions, practically nothing is known about their son. In Rinser's novel, Astrolabe intensively struggles to get to know his distant parents and to understand their love for each other in light of their extremely difficult conditions as university teacher and, respectively, abbess. Astrolabe's almost desperate attempts to get close to his parents dramatically reveal the author's own approach to love in a world surrounded by hostility. Contrary to general concepts about Abelard's alleged mistreatment of his mother, the young man realizes the tragic but fundamental love between his parents. As the analysis of Rinser's novel reveals, even when words fail to address love appropriately, its lifelong force continues to exert its influence.