What¹s the most romantic book you¹ve ever read?
That¹s the question we put to some of today¹s noted writers, and Cupid has helped them respond. Read on to see what inspires hearts and flowers from the following authors.
We¹re also curious about your answer to our question. Share it with us! If there¹s a book that stirs you--and as you can see from the responses below, what¹s romantic isn¹t necessarily a bodice-ripping romance novel -- feel free to post your review in our Post Your Own Reviews forum where you can register to win our featured Give-Away.
Happy Valentine¹s Day from all of us at BookPage.
Murdoch's novels often have that effect; she and her characters can think and love at the same time, no mean feat. Another nice thing about The Sandcastle is that it's dedicated to the great critic John Bayley, her husband, and it was written just about the time she got married to him in 1956--so that in reading the book you experience a pleasant entangling of the novel's emotional life and the author's emotional life.
Nicholson Baker is the author of Vox (Vintage, $9), The Mezzanine (Vintage, $9), and other books. His new book, The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber, will be published by Random House in April.
For more recent fiction: Oral History by Lee Smith, Saudade by Katherine Vaz, and The Love Letter by Cathleen Schine. And, finally, one of the most bittersweet declarations ever occurs in A Moveable Feast when Hemingway thinks to himself as he gazes upon the wife he is about to abandon for another woman, "I wish I had died before I loved anyone but you."
Whitney Otto is the author of the novels How to Make an American Quilt (Ballantine $10; Villard $20) and Now You See Her (Ballantine $12).
Or maybe it was Mr. Rochester's dark, original secret: a pyromaniacal wife stashed in the attic! Or maybe it was the triumphantly understated happy ending--"Reader, I married him."--after all of poor Jane's extraordinary trials. Whatever the reason(s), Jane Eyre is still the most romantic book I've ever read. It certainly gave Artie P. a lot to live up to.
Among other books, Hilma Wolitzer is the author of Wish You Were Here (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $3.95) and, most recently, Tunnel of Love (HarperCollins, $12).
At the bearing heart of the novel is a love affair--between George Webber and Esther Jack--an affair that was passionate and tempestuous, tender and raging, everything that I thought a love affair should be.
This was the story of a young man in a small town who burned to be a writer (so did I!), who wanted to conquer the fabled rock that was New York City (so did I), who longed to be loved by a glittering woman from that world (so did I!). Ultimately, the love affair proved impossible and went askew. But the impossible loves are always unforgettable--and The Web and the Rock which I've read countless times, for many reasons, is truly unforgettable to me.
Robert Cormier is the author of many books for young adults, including I Am the Cheese (Dell, $4.50), The Chocolate War (Dell, $4.50), and, most recently, In the Middle of the Night (Delacorte, $15.95).
It's hard to find a truly romantic book for grown ups because we are such cynics, but there is a marvelous novel I read when I was 11 which fits the bill exactly. It's call Thunderhead by Mary O'Hara, and all the romantic stuff is there: a big beautiful Wyoming setting, a love affair between a boy and his horse, and, running alongside the children's story, a poignant and delicate account of a marriage in crisis. When I reread the book last year, it had all the sexiness and complicatedness a child could only sense, but the adult could appreciate. Thunderhead is still a beautifully written love story.
Kirsty Gunn's first novel is Rain (Atlantic Monthly Press, $15). She lives and writes in London.
Noel Riley Fitch is the author of Sylvia Beach & the Lost Generation (W.W. Norton, $16.95), Walks in Hemingway's Paris (St. Martin's Press, $16.95) and, most recently, Anais (Little, Brown, $24.95).
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