Top ten love stories
In honour of Valentine’s Day, I offer you my top ten love stories from literature:
Romeo and Juliet - W. Shakespeare – most people haven’t read the play, but most will know it - the tragic story of two young lovers from feuding families.
Ana Karenina - L. Tolstoy – the second most famous, the second most-not-read, love story of a married woman and a young lover, taking on society and social norms.
The Great Gatsby - F. S. Fitzgerald – the third most famous, but probably most read, love story of unrequited love.
Wuthering Heights - E. Bronte– the darkest, most passionate and most obsessive love story where social status and norms ruin everything.
Doctor Zhivago - B. Pasternak – an impossible love that endures through war and upheaval.
The Age of Innocence - E. Wharton – a forbidden love, shaped by societal expectations, a love that cannot be claimed.
Ethan Frome - E. Wharton (I know this is my second Wharton, but I couldn’t leave this one off the list) – a quiet, aching love that offers glimpses of joy, only to be crushed by duty, poverty and circumstance.
The History of Love - N. Krauss – finally, a not entirely tragic love story – even though the lovers are separated for decades, they are connected through a single book.
The Museum of Innocence - O. Pamuk – an obsessive devotion, which sees longing turned into a literal museum of love, filled with mementos and objects of love (can’t wait to go to Istanbul to visit this museum).
The Fortress by - M. Selimovic – finally a non-tragic love story where love helps the main protagonist heal after the trauma of war and imprisonment.
Bonus – real-life love story of Bennelong and Barangaroo – two First Nations lovers – a love tested by their profoundly different responses to the British invasion of their land.
Looking at this list, it seems we are most fascinated with tragic love stories. What is your favourite love story from literature?