Marilyn Yalom's new book is The Amorous Heart: An Unconventional History of Love. Her other books include A History of the Wife and How the French Invented Love. From the author's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:Q: You write that an experience at the British Museum inspired your new book. What initially caught your attention, and how did that eventually result in this book?Visit Marilyn Yalom's website.
A: In 2011, I was attending an exhibition of medieval artifacts at the British Museum. In one case I saw a collection of gold coins and pieces of jewelry that were part of the Fishpool treasure hoard discovered in Nottinghamshire in 1966.
Suddenly a heart-shaped brooch caught my eye. I noticed the heart’s two lobes at the top and the V-shaped point at the bottom as if I were seeing them for the first time. Then for a brief moment I was invaded by images of hearts—the ones I had known all my life from valentines, candy boxes, balloons pendants and bracelets.
It dawned upon me that the perfectly symmetrical heart is a far cry from the lumpish organ we carry inside us, and I asked myself how the human heart had been transformed into such a whimsical icon. From that...[read on]
How the French Invented Love is one of Publishers Weekly's top nonfiction books of 2012.
Writers Read: Marilyn Yalom (January 2013).
--Marshal Zeringue