This work investigates the origin and development of the concept of courtly love within the literature of the Middle Ages. C. S. Lewis, a scholar of English literature, utilizes a historical and analytical framework to trace how the allegorical tradition shaped the expression of romantic love in medieval poetry. He argues that the shift from the Ovidian tradition to the allegorical mode fundamentally altered the Western perception of romantic relationships.

Scholars recognize this text as a foundational study in the history of ideas and medieval literary conventions. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's meticulous attention to the evolution of poetic symbolism.