litlover12 | My top 10 literary romances

rachkmc did this at her blog, and asked me to do it too. Since it's her birthday, how can I say no? (She just called hers "Rachel's Favorite Romances," but she stuck to literature and literary adaptations. I'm going to follow her lead in that, or I could never narrow it down to ten. But I'm counting plays as literature. Also, I stole one or two of the pictures off her blog. Thanks, Rachel!)

10. Brandon and Marianne, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

(More because of the movie -- and fanfic :-)-- than the book, really. Austen tended to write her romances with a cool detachment that made them less sentimental than they're reputed to be. However, I have to believe that if she'd seen Alan Rickman, her pen might have heated up just a little.)

"But you will not stay away long?"

9. Beauty and the Beast, Beauty, Robin McKinley

(Absolutely the best version of the story that I've ever seen.)

". . . I cannot live without you, Beauty."

8. Percy and Marguerite, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy

"'Percy! I entreat you!' she whispered, 'can we not bury the past?'"

7. Anne and Gilbert, the Anne of Green Gables series, L. M. Montgomery

(In the books. Don't faint, but I don't like the movies. Sorry, I know everyone else does, but I just don't!)

"I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school."

6. Elizabeth and Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

5. Cyrano and Roxane, Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand

"In my most sweet unreasonable dreams,
I have not hoped for this! Now let me die,
Having lived."

4. Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, My Fair Lady, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (from Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw)

"Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?"

3. Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything."

2. Peter and Harriet, the Lord Peter Wimsey series, Dorothy L. Sayers

"Just exercise your devastating talent for keeping to the point and speaking the truth. . . . That's what I love you for. Didn't you know?"

1. Amy and Arthur, Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens

"I am yours anywhere, everywhere! I love you dearly!"

(If you want, you may regard this as a meme, and make your own list!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What a great list. I'm particularly happy about 7., because that's exactly how I feel about it too. I can stand the first film, but only the first, but I'm not overly fond of it. The books, though... I've loved them every since I was a girl, and there was a time when I could quote entire chapters word for word. There are few books I love as much as I love the Anne series. And Anne and Gilbert together. I suppose they might've shaped my never-ending love for a soulmate kind of relationship.

I haven't seen "A Tale of Two Cities", but I read the novel, not a long time ago, and I loved Sydney Carton so much. And the scene you referred to as well.

"Little Dorrit" is both on my to-read and to-watch lists, but it'll have to wait till I'm done with my obligatory college reading.

Great post. I may do a similar one once I've a little more time.

My top 10 literary romances

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