# Greatest love stories of all times



## Mira (Dec 13, 2009)

Any suggestions? Both new and old books are welcome And they don't all have to be about romantic love, or have a happy ending. Just love in general. I'm kind of working on this idea for a non-fiction piece....


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## The Backward OX (Dec 13, 2009)

Antony & Cleopatra? Hard to beat that.


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## The Backward OX (Dec 13, 2009)

Love in general?


Ask the French


“I love Paris in the spring time
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles.

I love Paris ev’ry moment
Ev’ry moment of the year
I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris
Because my love is here.”


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## moderan (Dec 13, 2009)

The Ballad of Lost C'Mell
Helen O'Loy


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## Leyline (Dec 13, 2009)

_Time Enough For Love_ Robert A. Heinlein

A philosophical treatise on love masquerading as the memoirs of oldest man alive. Approaches the concept from many angles, some which may make sensitive readers eyes bug.

The most beautiful and effective segment is _The Tale Of The Adopted Daughter_.


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## Edgewise (Dec 13, 2009)

_Ask the Dust_ by John Fante.


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## moderan (Dec 13, 2009)

Ligeia


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## Gumby (Dec 15, 2009)

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale is by far the best _romance_ love story I have ever read.


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## terrib (Dec 15, 2009)

The Thorn Birds was good....


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## Fleurdelis (Dec 17, 2009)

My all time favorite love story is Fargo.

Most love stories happen during the honeymoon stage of a relationship.  Those aren't love stories, to me.  They are infatuation stories.  In that stage of a relationship, your body is releasing all sorts of chemicals that change you.  You have no idea if it's a real, enduring thing.

The cop and the painter in Fargo is the most real, most beautiful love story to me.  

When she gets a call at some ungodly hour and has to go to work, her husband insists on making her breakfast before she goes.  They are sitting in bed, just having woken up.  He hacks a huge loogie and she smiles to herself.  The beauty of that moment almost brings tears to my eyes.

That is true love.  That speaks to me.

You can keep your 'You complete me"s.


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## Cressida (Mar 4, 2010)

I am not much of a love story reader, certainly in recent years,  although  quite like including it in my owns writing. I would however recemmend the following:

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico - Intense and heartbreaking but wonderfully writing. Beauty and the Beast Tale set during WWII

The Go Between by LP Hartley - Immortal opening line and gets better from there.

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - Absolutely wonderful tale of repressed love between two domestic servants in the 1930's. Set against a backdrop of British Facism this is one of my all time favourite books.

The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye - Sweeping saga set in India.


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## qwertyman (Mar 4, 2010)

Cressida said:


> Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - Absolutely wonderful tale of repressed love between two domestic servants in the 1930's. Set against a backdrop of British Facism this is one of my all time favourite books.


 
Yes, ripped my heart out. 

It still hurts.


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## VinrAlfakyn (Apr 28, 2010)

Ok, so love isn't the focus of these books, but it's definitely an undercurrent. It's not just romantic love either, it's love in general. Both of these are by Mark Helprin.

The Swan Lake Trilogy (they look like little kid books, but trust me, they're not)
Winter's Tale

Another one that comes to mind:
The Dream of Scipio-Iain Pears

And a short story by Kristen Kathryn Rusch:
Without End (This one can be found in The Retrieval Artist and Other Stories)


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## tommethew (Oct 4, 2010)

Greatest love stories books of all times  :

- True Believers by Nicholas Sparks 
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 
- Emma by Jane Austen 
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje


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## garza (Oct 4, 2010)

El amor en los tiempos del cólera - Gabriél García Márquez


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## ppsage (Oct 4, 2010)

Ground Beneath Her Feet, Rushdie.


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## Katie D (Oct 10, 2010)

For me there are a few: The bronze horseman series, Wuthering Heights, The bridges of madison county, Jane Eyre...I could go on but I might get a bit excited thinking about all that lurve and I have to fold the washing.


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## gagoots (Oct 10, 2010)

Check out some Paulo Coelho.


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## WolfieReveles (Oct 10, 2010)

Tess of the D'Urbervilles


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## chicagnosticjew (Oct 10, 2010)

The one love that I connect to the most would be in William Goldman's _Marathon Man_. The way he works himself up is exactly what I and probably a lot of others do. It's mostly a spy/mystery novel but it only adds to the suspense. He's also overall a very good writer, and only cuts to the chase for dramatic effect, never to buy off the reader.


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## Brightstar94 (Nov 5, 2010)

I , of course love all the classics, Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights etc etc but I've also grown fond of some of the more obscure authors. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (possibly my favorite book ever), Villette, a lesser known book by Charlotte Bronte, Georgette Heyer. 
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is another favorite. It isn't mushy romantic but very poignant.


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## elfwriter (Mar 10, 2012)

Antony Cleopatra was a classic. You can not top that.


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## iykewifey (Mar 20, 2012)

Franchise River

redeeming love.

love the book to bit.


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## Senserial (Aug 24, 2013)

terrib said:


> The Thorn Birds was good....



"The Thornbirds" is great! Very sad, but very touching and deep love story. Classic in the genre.


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## John T. K. (Jul 19, 2015)

As far as classics go, Jane Eyre always got to me. I don't generally read love stories but I still remember that book being a rather powerful one.


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## aurora borealis (Jan 19, 2016)

I don't really read love stories, but I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights when I read them.


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## TKent (Feb 12, 2016)

Bridges of Madison County


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## Allysan (Feb 13, 2016)

I've never been one for the classics. For me, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay and the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi really got me. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare made me bawl my eyes out like never before and the Twilight series made me dump my at-the-time boyfriend because it skewed my perception of how things were "supposed" to be. Give me a break, I was like eighteen...


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## TKent (Feb 13, 2016)

The Sea of Tranquility was sooooooo wonderful! Love a good new adult romance! And yes, I adored Twilight as well  




Allysan said:


> I've never been one for the classics. For me, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay and the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi really got me. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare made me bawl my eyes out like never before and the Twilight series made me dump my at-the-time boyfriend because it skewed my perception of how things were "supposed" to be. Give me a break, I was like eighteen...


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## TKent (Feb 13, 2016)

Great thread to celebrate Valentine's day!!


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## aj47 (Feb 13, 2016)

_Shards of Honor_ by Lois McMaster Bujold is my absolute, all-time fave love story.  It's also got action/adventure and space travel and stuff, but the love story is what makes it.


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## Schrody (Feb 13, 2016)

*Oh, this.* On so many levels. I cried so much... Maybe because I thought I would never experience love like that...


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## Aquilo (Feb 13, 2016)

Oh wow, difficult question... I'm not one for the classics, so for me it would have to be _In The Absence of Light_, by Adrienne Wilder. It's about a young autistic man, looking at love and surviving in the world without any carers. He falls for a guy, and... it's just so beautiful. There's a moment where he takes this man into a pitch-black field, just them, the darkness... where the night takes away all prejudice, all colour, just leaving them and... I'm not a soppy lass -- I swear to god I'm not a soppy lass, I like my gore -- but this... every time... Wilder gets me every goddamn time.

And it's reminded me how much I've missed writing...


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