uncovering the mystery behind a seventeeth-century forbidden love
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Cyr, Myriam
- Publish Year
- 2006
- Shelfmark
- Z EUR 3 2006 - A
- Thesaurus
- seksualiteit, relaties, religieuzen, militaire beroepen, 17e eeuw, Portugal
- Description
- In 1669, a Parisian bookseller published a slim volume called Portuguese Letters, which unveiled a love affair between a young Portuguese nun and a French officer that had occurred a few years earlier during a war-torn period in Portgual. The book contained passionate love letters the nun had written when the officer was forced to return to France. The letters took Paris by storm. They spoke of love in a manner so direct, they sent shivers of recognition through the sophisticated stratums of polite society. As remarkable as the letters are, they were rivaled by the mystery that surrounds them: the author was unknown, and most people assumed they were the fictional product of a French aristocrat. The consensus was that no woman could write words of such stunning truth and beauty. Now, through meticulous research, Myriam Cyr makes the case that the nun, Mariana Alcoforado, did indeed write the letters, and her story is one of the most moving in the history of forbidden love.