The Flight of Starlings

Only a handful of great love stories are remembered down through the ages. Two generations ago, it would have been hard to find a reasonably educated person who did not know the tragic history of Abelard and Heloise, real-life characters who lived in twelfth-century France. Today most have never heard of them, although their story has been preserved for us in an exchange of letters between the two, which scholars agree are authentic. The Flight of Starlings retells the fascinating events of their lives as narrated by the fictional septuagenarian Adele, who at the age of 15 becomes Heloise's protégé in 1139. At the time, the 40-something Heloise was Abbess of the convent of the Paraclete, located a few miles northeast of Troyes in the domain of Champagne. Years before, Heloise had been forced the become a nun by her husband Peter Abelard, a master at the school of Notre Dame and a man who achieved "rock-star" fame in this lifetime. He was drawn to Heloise foremost, he claimed, by her extensive learning and intellectual prowess equal to his own—proof that a handful of women were highly educated even back then. Heloise assigns Adele the task of copying the collection of letters she has exchanged with Abelard over the years due to the younger woman's proficiency with Latin. These include a lengthy epistle entitled The Historie of my Calamities, in which Abelard records how fate had conspired to make his life a series of miseries. When Adele asks Heloise whether Abelard is telling the truth, Heloise says, "Yes, mostly, but.." There are always two sides to any story, and Adele lets us hear Heloise's side. Adele is also an eyewitness to the two trials of Abelard for hearsay instigated by his archrival, Bernard of Clairvaux, know today as St. Bernard. Although Adele gets off to a rocky start with Heloise, the pair, who share much in common including being orphaned as babes, forge a close bond over the years. Adele is devastated when Heloise dies in 1164. Incorporated within the text are quotes from the letters that demonstrate how little separates our times from theirs including the pitfalls and tragedies of love affairs that, as the pop song puts it, are "too hot not to cool down." Everyone loves a love story and theirs is a doozy. But this is much more than a love story. It also explores the oppression of women by the church and the snuffing out of the relative freedom of thought during was what is now called the Little Renaissance, due in large part to Abelard's teaching methods. By 1200 the Inquisition was making any questioning of church dogma a capital offense. The author has endeavored to create a meticulous portrayal of the life and times of this fascinating period in Western history.