Includes bibliographical references (p. [370]-375).

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER ONE: PERDITE VIXI: LIFE AS FAILURE -- INTRODUCTION PART Π: A WAY OF WRITING -- CHAPTER TWO: LITERARY TIMIDITY: THE TWENTY-THIRD SERMON ON THE SONG OF SONGS -- CHAPTER THREE: CONFIGURATIONS: THE TREATISE ON THE STEPS OF PRIDE AND HUMILITY -- INTRODUCTION PART ΠΙ: A WAY OF LIVING -- CHAPTER FOUR: LOVE Shadows and Fog: The Sermons on the Virgin Mary -- CHAPTER FIVE: DEATH: A Passage to Paradise: Sermon 26 on the Song of Songs -- INTRODUCTION PART IV: A WAY OF CELEBRATING -- CHAPTER SIX: GEMS AND GLITTER: SUGER OF ST. DENIS AND BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX ON ART -- CHAPTER SEVEN: THE GEMS OF CHRISTMAS: THE SERMONS ON THE NATIVITY AND ABSTRACT ART -- CHAPTER EIGHT: RESURRECTION -- CHAPTER NINE: FROM RESURRECTION TO PENTECOST -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- LATIN APPENDIX -- BIBLIOGRAPHY.

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The work of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) consists of mystical highlights, moments of stylistic beauty and traditional exegetical discourse. In contrast to previous studies this book does not limit itself to the historical and devotional side of Bernard, but brings to the fore his stylistic originality. Bernard emerges as a flexible thinker, a great dramatist and an adroit master of language who combines the fixed pattern of monastic life with the vicissitudes of extra-mural events. On the one hand, Bernard's writings are composed according to the rhythm of the uninterrupted ritual of prayer and singing inside the walls of the monastery. On the other hand, that ritual is interspersed with notions of love and death. The present study describes the literary devices through which Bernard shapes the monastic existence as a subtle blend of liturgical routine and uncontrollable events and emotions.