5. <i>Fin’amor</i> Castrated: Abelard, Heloise, and the Critics who Deny

A brief chapter on the famous story of Abelard and Heloise, illustrating the difference between the fraud (courtly love) and the real, if dangerous, thing (fin’amor). This chapter also deals with criticism—specifically the tradition (contested, though far from extinguished today) of denying the authenticity of the famous letters amidst suggestions that the passions portrayed therein are either false, or merely pedagogical.