The subtitle Bradley Pearson slaps on his narrative in The Black Prince is "A Celebration of Love," so you can be pretty sure that love is going to get some serious attention in the pages that follow.
Throughout the novel, Bradley waxes philosophical about the relationship between passionate romantic love and artistic inspiration. He never thought much about the connection between those two things before he fell earth-shatteringly in love, but once that unexpected transformation happens, he suddenly feels as though his love has revealed the mysteries of the universe.
Hey, not too shabby for a love affair that lasts for less than a month.
Questions About Love
- Why does Bradley Pearson refer to Eros, one of the classical gods of love, as "the black Eros" throughout his narrative?
- How does Bradley Pearson differentiate between the love he once had for his former wife, Christian, and the love he comes to feel for Julian Baffin?
- According to Bradley Pearson, what motivates Rachel Baffin to pursue his downfall so ruthlessly?
Chew on This
In The Black Prince, Bradley Pearson says that his love for Julian Baffin was transformative and that it exposed him to higher planes of thought and creativity than any he had ever experienced before. On the whole, the artistic achievement of The Black Prince itself suggests that Bradley is right: experiencing love has made him a better artist.
Although Bradley Pearson claims to have fallen in love with Julian Baffin in The Black Prince, it isn't Julian herself Bradley loves. What Bradley really loves is an idea and an ideal: an abstract conception of love that barely relates to Julian herself.