Valentine’s Day is fast approaching—the stores are festooned in pink and red, couples are hand-holding, those little heart shaped candy boxes are ubiquitous, Lifetime is playing rom-coms on 24-hour loops. It’s all romantic and terribly fine. Unless, of course, you’re single. And then, sometimes, it can be drivel. Or it makes you feel like drivel.
If you’re single this Valentine’s Day, or even if you’re not, you may want to try a different sort of romantic escape. Delve into a romantic novel, where you can lust after dark, handsome, five o’clock shadowed men, quietly weep for unrequited or long-lost love, get swept away on the misty Highland moors, and wallow and wallow and wallow.
I know what you’re thinking. Romance novels are nothing but clichés, all bare-chested, hulking men and ripped bodice-wearing women. And many beads of glistening sweat. Those are romance novels, (and probably some of those are meritorious) not romantic novels. Don’t misunderstand. There are still some glistening, bare-chested men and women clad in ripped bodices. But there are also real characters with real hurts and wants and needs. They’ll make you feel. Here are ten of them, the top ten best love stories of all time:
10. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Initially this novel seems oppressed, restrained, stiflingly conservative, innocent—just about as far away as you can get from the sexy, steamy, bare-fleshed romance scenes of our imagination. But the book’s surface of upper crust New York society and its decorous conventions belies the aching yearning of protagonist Newland Archer. He longs just as much for beautiful, exotic, and forbidden Countess Ellen Olenska (a woman who’s not his wife) as he does for his own freedom, an unfettered life.
9. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Can love persist after “till death do us part?” Du Maurier certainly seems to think so. In this chilling tale, the ghost of Mr. DeWinter’s first wife simply will not let go. Her spirit haunts the Manderley estate, and it is no Casper the friendly ghost. Dead or not, she proves a formidable force, influencing her intensely loyal, and equally evil, housekeeper to terrorize her new replacement. Don’t glance over your shoulder, Rebecca may be waiting…
8. Katherine by Anya Seton
There’s something so compelling about non-fiction, probably nothing more so than a real life fairytale. And this is it, the love affair that changed history. John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and a married man, falls madly in love with Katherine de Roet, also married. She becomes the love of his life and long-time mistress, bearing him four children. It is only after decades of war, adultery, murder, and loneliness, that they finally find happiness. This is a deftly written work, an enticing read for fans of historical fiction.
7. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
This classic love story won the Booker Prize in 1992, has been translated into 40 languages, sold more than one million copies, and inspired a critically acclaimed motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes. All of this, a testament to its brilliance. Rich and finely wrought, it is a tale of four damaged people and how their lives intersect in an Italian monastery at the close of WWII.
6. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
One of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thornbirds is a sweeping saga that offers it all: the thrilling Australia of 1915, ancient family secrets, big dreamers, the hardships of ranchers eking out an existence on unforgiving land, illicit passions, and a taboo love affair between a young woman named Meggie Cleary and a tormented priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart. It’s an epic journey, one that will keep you up all night flipping the pages.
5. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre by the Bronte sisters
These enduring works are the archetypes of Gothic romance: misty moors, eerie manors, hopelessly passionate men, seduction, and obsessions driven to the point of madness. Here, too, love persists after death. The Heathcliff/Catherine pairing is convoluted, twisted, obsessive, simultaneously tender and cruel, the epitome of a love/hate relationship. Jane Eyre, iron-willed and fiercely independent—undoubtedly one of the first feminists—enjoys a warmer, deeply tender relationship with Mr. Rochester, but her hopes of happiness are threatened by dark secrets buried within the walls of the Rochester house.
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Certainly, this story and its author have captured the imagination of this generation; it is reproduced everywhere—in BBC mini-series, in films, in novels with zombies. We are fascinated with Victorian culture, waxing nostalgic about its prim ideals and sweeping romance. It is one of the most celebrated love stories of our epoch, so you might as well read the original and see for yourself what all the fuss is about. It’s worth the fuss.
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s magnum opus, one of the greatest books ever written. A deeply profound meditation on the human soul, it simply demands to be read. Like any good love story, Anna makes the courageous—and disastrous—decision to flee her loveless marriage for the dashing Vronsky. As she becomes a figure of public scandal, she grapples with her decisions within the confines of 19thcentury Russia. Anna is a living, breathing, three-dimensional character, as fully fleshed as they come. You will feel intensely every moment of her emotional turmoil, right until the tragic, yet somehow inevitable, second when she throws herself upon the tracks.
2. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
This artfully crafted modern classic has enraptured millions of readers; few stories are as thrilling, swashbuckling, romantic, breathtaking, compelling, or poignant. The plotting of the story is brilliant, the characters finely drawn. This IS one of those stories with a bare-chested, hulking man. His name is Jamie Fraser, but he is no stereotype. His passionate relationship with Claire Beauchamp Randall couldn’t be more sensual or deeply felt. As for Claire, she has an impossible decision to make, to stay with her Scottish lover in one century or return to her mild mannered husband in the present. These characters, these people, will find their way under your skin, be exhaled in your every breath. This is one of those novels that stay with you long after the last page is turned. You’ll be glad it does.
1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Here it is, the most romantic novel ever written. Sweeping, atmospheric, epic, poetic, incredibly lush, it is one of the greatest reading experiences there is. It is an unparalleled, aching, all-encompassing, passionately irrational love affair between two people, between people and their land, for a South that has been gutted by war and left in burning ruins. It is a breathless love poem written to the women left behind by war, to the scorched earth, to a way of life gone extinct. It is a story of strength, of survival, of broken love. And Rhett Butler—talk about dashing, rakish, and heartthobby. When your nose is buried deep in its pages, this is the novel that makes you think “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” about the demands of your real life. If by some tragic circumstance you have not yet read this masterpiece, you absolutely should.
What are some of your favorite love stories? Tell us in the comments section!
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