The Book of the Heart - Hardcover

Young, Louisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007109105 ISBN 13: 9780007109104

Publisher: Flamingo, 2002

Synopsis

A beautifully designed, utterly beguiling, painstakingly researched history of the human heart

`There is a universal human fascination with the heart which no other organ has inspired – not the brain, not the eyes. The heart is simply a lump of muscle, a pump, and yet it is the home of love, and courage, and religion, and soul, and almost any other human feeling you care to think of. ’

This is Louisa Young’s starting point, and she goes on to produce a book that it is readable, erudite, funny, accurate, sumptuously illustrated, intriguing, stimulating and made to be given, from the heart, as a good gift. The book is in four parts (like the heart): The Physical Heart; The Religious Heart; The Heart in Art; and The Written Heart. The first part covers, amongst other things, anatomy and the history of ideas about how the heart works; weaknesses of the heart and disease; surgery and transplants; and other animals’ hearts – the heart as the seat of life. The second has the Bleeding Heart of Christ; pagan sacrifice; saints’ attributes; the heart in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism etc – the heart as the seat of the soul. The third looks at votive art, the `heart/fruit thing’; sublimated visual hearts; kitsch; advertising and logos; cartoons – the heart as visual symbol. The fourth at expressions of love in literature, from the Greeks’ musings on eros and agape via myths and legends and the invention of courtly romance to the romantic novel; also song lyrics – the heart in writing.

About this title

Review:

'Wonderfully eclectic. Young's range of reference is enormous and she is breezily at ease with it, moving nimbly from Burt Bacharach to Jeremiah in one sentence. The book is beautifully produced, small and square and beribboned, and wrapped in silver and scarlet like a Valentine Day's present. There are numerous pictures, some startlingly strange, many beautiful. But although the book looks like a box of chocolates, and offers correspondingly assorted and delicious satisfactions, it is harder centred than it appears. Young's commentary on her material is astute and illuminating.' Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times

‘The Book of the Heart makes emotive reading. It entranced me, and caused a lifestyle revolution. While reading it, I stopped using salt or butter, gave up booze, started jogging and, for the first time ever, started making doting daily phone calls to my Significant Other, hundreds of miles away. This ambitious book could so easily be pretentious, but instead remains disarming, canny and beguiling. It is like Jack Horner's dream of a Christmas pie: wherever you put in your thumb, you will dig out the juiciest of plums.’ Independent

‘Strong and confident, exploring without sentiment or insincerity what it means to love somebody.’ The Guardian

Synopsis:

This book presents a cultural and emotional history of the heart. The book is divided into four parts (like the heart): The Physical Heart; The Religious Heart; The Heart in Art; and The Written Heart. The first part covers, amongst other things, anatomy and the history of ideas about how the heart works; weaknesses of the heart and disease; surgery and transplants; and other animals hearts - the heart as the seat of life. The second has the Bleeding Heart of Christ; pagan sacrifice; saints attributes; the heart in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism - the heart as the seat of the soul. The third looks at votive art, the "heart/fruit thing"; sublimated visual hearts; kitsch; advertising and logos; cartoons - the heart as visual symbol. The fourth looks at expressions of love in literature, from the Greeks musings on Eros and Agape through myths and legends and the invention of courtly romance to the romantic novel; and song lyrics - the heart in writing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0007109105
• ISBN 13: 9780007109104
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512