The Garland Of Love

America's leading expert on love and relationships writes with insight and clarity on the meaning of love, offering readers a welcome opportunity each day to reflect on the love in their lives. Kingma exults in love's power to change us--to help us grow emotionally and spiritually--and explores love's many-faceted possibilities. 365 line drawings.

This is the story of a girl named Andal who lived long ago in the 8th century AD. Andal is an important figure in human history because she shared her gift of poetry and more with the world. Andal was a true lover and a conservationist of Mother Nature. When my grandmother from India visits our place in the United States, she often plays Andal’s famous poems called Thirupaavai every morning. When my grandmother mentioned that Andal was a young girl when she became a legend, it spiked my curiosity to get to know more about Andal and her story. Her story is fascinating with events occurring in multiple worlds in different time periods! While I was reading about Andal, I discovered the reasons I was so drawn to her: her respect for her father, her acts of kindness to her friends, her love for nature, humans and animals and her constant happiness despite growing up with less. "Annexed with "Thirupaavai" the most popular literary work of Andal transliterated in English with meaning."

Available only in Middle French and German translation until now, this volume constitutes the first full-length , French-English bilingual edition of Rene of Anjou's Livre du cuers d'amours espris, including all sixteen of the celebrated color plates, a critical introduction, notes on the translation, and a comprehensive bibliography. The book tells the tale of desire and adventure as Heart -- part of Rene torn from his body by Love -- travels a complex allegorical landscape in quest of the lady Mercy, who is being held prisoner by a band of miscreants led by Refusal and Shame. Rene begs the reader to help him determine which of three entities is responsible for his torment: Fortune led him to the lady whom he loves; once he arrived, Love, in the guise of his lady's gaze, struck his heart; and Destiny insists that he reflect upon her alone. In addition to being a compelling courtly page-turner, The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart represents the rare instance in which a medieval love story is told simultaneously in three frameworks: autobiographical letter, dream vision, and quest romance. This structure makes clear the multiple logics within which the author's psychology is reflected in the story, and illustrates how the symbol of the heart, as it travels through these shifting frameworks, dramatizes vital relations linking self, desire, and writing.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.