Have you ever wondered why ancient people don't seem to have thought of love in the same way we moderns do? Why do modern love tales have to have "difficulties"? Is romantic love natural, or was it invented? De Rougemont tries to make the case that it was, telling tales & dropping hints about gnostics, troubadors, tyrants, and mystics. Sort of like Greil Marcus before there was Greil Marcus, and pretty convincing, too.