The Book of the Heart

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 via myths and legends and the invention of courtly romance to the romantic novel; and song lyrics - the heart in writing.