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Greatest love story ever written?


SueK

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Another question to ask: is it only Classics that are worth mentioning or do you think modern writers can write a great love story too?

 

I guess the reason they are classics is because lesser books have fallen by the wayside and therefore those that have becomes known as classics are truly great books and difficult to match.

 

I think the greatest love story ever if Pride and Prejudice but I have read that a large number of times and Persuasion only once. I remember Persuasion being my other favourite from Jane Austen's complete works when read 15 years ago.

 

For modern love stories my vote definitely goes to The Time Traveller's Wife.

 

However if anyone is looking for a good modern love story, not necessarily great, I can think of Captain Corelli's mandolin, Cross Stitch (also known as Outlander) by Diana Gabaldon, The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons, Twilight of course, the Clan of the Cave Bear series and even Harry Potter!

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I'm reading Wuthering Heights at the moment and agree with the person who said their love was more obsessional than anything else. True love to me should be unselfish and you couldn't find a much more selfish pair than Heathcliff and Catherine. Both are always wishing the other would suffer in their absense or when wronged. It wasn't an act of love for Heathcliff to leave Catherine for three years with no knowledge of his whereabouts and nor was it for Catherine to marry someone else because Heathcliff was penniless and not well-bred. A lot of what both of them did was out of vindictiveness not love.

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I don't read love stories. So, anyone recommend any so I can also post.:lurker:

Any of the ones suggested here are great reads. :)

 

And while this thread may not be about the love of friends, I can't help but mention Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

One of the very best examples of platonic love that I've ever read, I think! Gorgeous book with an incredibly sad ending. ;)

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I'm reading Wuthering Heights at the moment and agree with the person who said their love was more obsessional than anything else. True love to me should be unselfish and you couldn't find a much more selfish pair than Heathcliff and Catherine. Both are always wishing the other would suffer in their absense or when wronged. It wasn't an act of love for Heathcliff to leave Catherine for three years with no knowledge of his whereabouts and nor was it for Catherine to marry someone else because Heathcliff was penniless and not well-bred. A lot of what both of them did was out of vindictiveness not love.

 

Selfishness was their indeed their problem, but I still think it was love.

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After a lot of thought it has to be Romeo and Juliet... I watched the film version of it last night. Beautiful tragic story

Zeffirelli or Luhrmann (i.e. Di Caprio & Danes)? Incidentally I own both (plus the ballet version, choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev) and think they're brilliant for different reasons - Zeffirelli's lovers are the age they're meant to be in the play (early teens), so even with the period costumes it all feels so real, plus the costumes themselves are stunning; Luhrmann's modernised version actually works quite well I find, I'm not a Di Caprio fan but he plays a decent boyish Romeo, Danes is superb as Juliet, and the Mercutio/Tybalt fight scene always gives me chills... /Shakespeare geek hat off.

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The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992)

 

Great Canadian novel, I think its Canadian, anyway great story and shows how love can connect people back to humanity after war.

 

I've seen the film, but never read the book. I prefer to read the book before I see the film, which is probably why I've never read it, but my friend has a copy and has always said I should read it, so maybe I'll add it to my TBR shelf.

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Zeffirelli or Luhrmann (i.e. Di Caprio & Danes)? Incidentally I own both (plus the ballet version, choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev) and think they're brilliant for different reasons - Zeffirelli's lovers are the age they're meant to be in the play (early teens), so even with the period costumes it all feels so real, plus the costumes themselves are stunning; Luhrmann's modernised version actually works quite well I find, I'm not a Di Caprio fan but he plays a decent boyish Romeo, Danes is superb as Juliet, and the Mercutio/Tybalt fight scene always gives me chills... /Shakespeare geek hat off.

 

The Luhrmann versin :lol:

 

I like Shakespeare too. Am going to see R&J at the Globe Theatre in August :lol: should be good.

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Oh good, enjoy :lol: you might actually encounter me milling around and not even know, I'm an intern there (although I won't be seeing the play myself as I can't afford to sit down and they will not give me a discount... :lol:)

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For me it has to be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin and The Ghost by Danielle Steel.

 

Pride and Prejudice

 

I am currently reading this book at the moment and I think it is a beautiful love story. I love the film (one with Keira Knightly) and have seen it many times. I love to see the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy progress :lol:.

 

The Ghost

This is an amazing book which I have read and re-read many times :). It ia about a man named Charles who is left heart broken after the sudden end to his marriage. He rents a chateau in New England where he feels the presence of Sarah a woman who died there a few centuries ago. He finds her diaries which in time mend his broken heart and help him to love again. It is a beautiful story and I enjoy it more every time I read it :D.

 

I would like to read The Time Travellers Wife as I saw a clip for the movie and it looks brilliant :lol:.

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Much as I adore the witty exchanges of "Pride & Prejudice", I'd have to say "Persuasion": Anne and Capt. Wentworth's love stands everything time, distance and opinion throws their way - Wentworth's letter at the end always makes me blubber:

 

 

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. - Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? - I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice, when they would be lost on others. - Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating in F.W. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.

 

 

 

... *sigh*!.

 

Oh, yes! The letter is incredible. I will always and forever prefer Capt. Wentworth to Mr. Darcy and any other literary hero because of that letter. "You pierce my soul" had me in tears.

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Eugene Onegin, by Alexander Pushkin. Wonderfullly nuanced Russian novel written in Iambic Verse basically about not knowing about the love you've got till it's gone. Turned into an opera but Tchiakovsky. Mmmmm agonisingly bittersweet.

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Much as I adore the witty exchanges of "Pride & Prejudice", I'd have to say "Persuasion": Anne and Capt. Wentworth's love stands everything time, distance and opinion throws their way - Wentworth's letter at the end always makes me blubber:

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. - Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? - I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice, when they would be lost on others. - Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating in F.W. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.





... *sigh*!

 

I just have to say i totally agree. That letter sends shivers down my spine. It's so passionate. I love the fact that a love can not take silence and isolation any more. He just has to know! Brilliant choice.

 

As far as a modern romantic love goes: i think The Time Travellers Wife is beautiful. It's a more real love to me. Gritty in places. But to me that makes it a stronger type of love. I think it's wonderfull the way they need each other so much. The waiting, enduring and loving each other all the more for it.

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