num_pages: 415
description: This fiction is based on the 12th century love letters of the novel's main character, Heloise, the most brilliant and learned woman of Christian Europe who, at the age of 17, fell in love with her tutor, Peter Abelard. A celebrated philosopher, he was considered a cleric and forbidden to wed. Nevertheless they married clandestinely and Heloise secretly bore him a child. Discovered, they were forcibly separated and Abelard viciously punished by castration. Both then devoted themselves to contemplative lives. He became a monk and established a religious order; she founded a great convent, The Paraclete.
language: English
title: Stealing Heaven
titlecomplete: Stealing Heaven
characters: Héloïse d'Argenteuil, Pierre Abélard
genres: Historical, Womens, Religion, 12th Century, Historical Romance, France, Medieval, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance
ratings_count: 277
places: France
publisher: Soho Press