The amorous heart : an unconventional history of love The symmetrical scalloped exuberant heart is everywhere: it gives shape to candy and candy boxes cookies and cakes earrings and pendants floral arrangements jewelry containers vases soaps padlocks and frothy milk on top of a cup of coffee. We see it used as a verb on t shirts ( I [heart] New York ) and in text messages (the incredible variety of heart emojis). In all of its forms and across borders continents and languages the heart symbol conveys one thing and one thing only: love. How can we explain the ubiquity and power of what might be the most recognizable symbol in the world In The Amorous Heart Marilyn Yalom embarks on an investigation into the hearts mysteries tracking the heart metaphor and heart iconography across three thousand years and shedding light on how human beings have found expressed and experienced love itself 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