Sabine Melchior-Bonnet studies breakups by asking questions about the basis of falling in and out of love, the parts played by cultural and religious conventions, the burden of morality, and the arsenals of legislation.

From Héloïse and Abélard to Onassis and Callas, by way of George Sand and Alfred de Musset, the infidelities of Louis XIV, or the divorce of Lady Di and Charles, Sabine Melchior-Bonnet gives us the chapter that has been missing from the story of romantic relationships. A story that, naturally, ends poorly. Sabine Melchior-Bonnet is a historian specializing in the history of emotion. Among her books are Les Grands Hommes et leur mère ("Great Men and Their Mothers") as well as Histoire du miroir ("The History of Mirrors") and Histoire de la frivolité ("The History of Frivolity"). She co-edited a Histoire du mariage ("The History of Marriage").