From the medieval tragic impossibility of combining honor and passion to the modern idea of a free relationship: Sabine Melchior-Bonnet's book is devoted to the evolution of ideas about love and separation. The author traces it by the example of personal stories of famous people: among the heroes of this book are Abelard and Heloise, Napoleon and Josephine, Pushkin and Goncharova, Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas, Prince Charles and Princess Diana… Their letters and diaries contain testimonies of love and infidelity, quarrels and disappointments, which reflect the ideals and values of different eras, and the breakup of relations itself becomes the point at which duty and feeling, freedom and taboo, intimate and social converge in a tragic conflict. Analyzing these documents, the author demonstrates how ideas about reputation, honor, happiness, self-realization and freedom have changed from the XII century to the present. Sabine Melchior-Bonnet is a historian, a specialist in the history of emotions. She worked at the College de France, author of the book "The History of the Mirror", published by the publishing house "New Literary Review".