A Vindication of Love

In the twenty-first century, political correctness, cynicism, prag-matism, and the commodification of sex have reduced romantic love to a discredited myth or a recreational sport--"a cause for embarrassment," says Cristina Nehring. In "A Vindication of Love," Nehring wrests romantic love from the clutches of retrograde feminists and cutting-edge capitalists, thrill-seeking convenience shoppers and safe-sex moralists. With help from lovers ranging from Heloise and Abelard to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Nehring celebrates the wild, irreverent, and uncompromising models of love we have inherited--as she rediscovers romantic love's fearless and heroic provenance, and challenges readers to demand partnerships that fully engage body, heart, and mind.

A highly acclaimed and consistently provocative critic and essayist, Cristina Nehring has written for Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, the New York Times Book Review, Conde Nast Traveler, New York magazine, American Scholar, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. She lives with her daughter in Paris, Los Angeles, and Chania, Greece.