Heart: A Personal Journey Through Its Myths And Meanings

The Story

From one of our most acclaimed writers comes this dazzling meditation on the way the heart has been imagined through time in myth, art, and popular culture -- and what those images reveal about the human condition itself. In this rich selection of musings, Gail Godwin deftly combines history, literature, religion, psychology, medicine, the fine arts, and stories from her own life to explore the heart's meanings and metaphors -- as the seat of passion, longing, sadness, and love.Beginning with a cave painting in Asturias, Spain -- the first known representation of the heart -- Godwin offers a lively cultural tour through history to the end of the 20th century and the dawn of a new millennium. Like a long conversation with an insightful friend, Heart offers a profound new look at what it means to be human, from a writer at the pinnacle of her creative talents.