"Luisa Passerini explores the emotional basis of the idea of a united Europe between the world wars, uncovering the meanings of European identity and European unity.".

"She investigates the idea of a united Europe in connection with a discourse on love which had been developing in the West since the seventeenth century. These ideas were debated by literary scholars, novelists and poets, who focused on the theme of courtly love and its connections with romantic love.

In a tour de force of political and cultural exploration, Luisa Passerini rediscovers the points of convergence between these two strands of thought, finding one of the symbols of their encounter in the myth of Europa, the Phoenician princess seduced by Zeus in the shape of a bull and brought westward."--BOOK JACKET.