A thinking-person's guide to romantic love, a bold and challenging book that makes the case for love in an age both cynical about and fearful of strong passion

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, political correctness, cynicism, pragmatism, and the commodification of sex have reduced romantic love to a discredited myth or a recreational sport—"a cause for embarrassment," argues Cristina Nehring. In her brilliantly researched first book, 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 celebrated lovers ranging from HÉlÖise and Abelard to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and from literature as diverse as Ovid's Art of Love and the poems of Emily Dickinson, Nehring celebrates the wild, irreverent, and uncompromising models of love we have inherited. As she rediscovers romantic love's fearless and heroic provenance, she challenges readers to demand partnerships that fully engage body, heart, and mind.

In an age when "settling" is encouraged and marriage is often described in business terms, Nehring's passionate defense of romantic love is timely and thoroughly refreshing. By reclaiming the right to love, to yearn, and—yes—to risk, A Vindication of Love aims to establish a new romantic paradigm for a new century.