Decent love story?

[Bastable]

I'm after a decent love story, nothing sappy though. The love story doesn't have to be the main story line, just as long as there's a good one in there.

Any ideas?

[prendrelemick]

Thats just about every novel ever written.:D

[dfloyd]

Lara and Zhivago's feelings for each other run throughout the book, but circumstances always prevented their having a permanent relationship.

[dfloyd]

is Camille by Alexander Dumas fils, or the Lady of the Camellias. In the book, the protaganist Armand falls in love with an older woman, Camille, who is a courtesan. This is the only novel by the son of Alexandre Dumas and is a classic love story. A very good 1930s black and white movie tells the story of Armand and Camille. A young Robert Taylor plays Armand with Greta Garbo as the tubercular courtesan, Camille. Nominated for an acedemy award in 1936.

[Emil Miller]

There are two that immediately come to mind although they are so famous that you may well have read them already:

1.The Great Gatsby

2.Of Human Bondage

[dfloyd]

than love stories. Gatsby's pschological obssesion with Daisy Buchanan and Philip Carey's mindless obssesion with the uncaring Mildred are probably more Freuedian than anything else. A love story must have caring on the part of both parties. Obsessive behavior is not love.

[Dinkleberry2010]

A wonderful love story is Portrait Of Jennie by Robert Nathan. It's a novella written in 1939, and filmed in 1949.

[dfloyd]

I didn't know it was a novella; however, I've seen the movie with Joseph Cotton, one of my favorite actors. I can't remember who played Jennie. Maybe Jennifer Jones?

[kiki1982]

Dumas sr has a lot of love, both as main feature and background. But I don't know if you want to plough through his books for those scenes, although he is quite entertaining... I have picked up La Tlipe Noire (The Black Tulip) which is supposed to feature a girl who helps to escape someone from prison. Knowing Dumas, there will be a great display of typical French emotion ;). The Vicomte de Bragelonne is also a great display of illegitimate love affairs of Louis XIV. Hilarious at times, with rivalling men. The trick that Louis's sister-in-law who is having an affair with him, wants to play on her husband of course goes totally wrong :p. Sometimes also very sad. But read the two prequels first. The Three Musketeers has also a love story in it, albeit small, but with a great end.

Wuthering Heights might be interesting then. It is also obsessive, but at least from both sides...

Jane Eyre also contains the greatest love story of all time, but that might be too sappy for you, although it only takes up about a third of the book.

Towards the end of Les Misérables by Hugo there is also the great love tory of Marius and Cosette. But to get to it, you need to read the other 1000 pages first... Although Marius's observations in the Luxembourg-gardens are so cute :p.

What Brian de Bois-Guilbert tells Rebecca is also pretty lovely, but that love story is very small... Sad really, because it is absolutely breathtaking and so free-thinking. (Ivanhoe)

Pushkin's The Commandant's Daughter is also pretty special.

Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd is also one where a great love story runs in the background.

On a more contemporary note: Saramago's The Siege of Lisbon features a love story of a 50-year-old man for his new boss. So cute... And told in such a lovely way.

I don't now, there are so many.

[lavendar1]

"The Lady with the Dog" -- Anton Chekhov

[Emil Miller]

than love stories. Gatsby's pschological obssesion with Daisy Buchanan and Philip Carey's mindless obssesion with the uncaring Mildred are probably more Freuedian than anything else. A love story must have caring on the part of both parties. Obsessive behavior is not love.

I think you are right, but the original post asked for something that was "nothing sappy," and that effectively omits the Mills and Boon aspect of human relationships. To suggest that Gatsby didn't love Daisy Buchanan but was in thrall to some underlying psychological need, has been the subject of countless writings; for my part, however, he was in love with her. Of Human Bondage is more poblematical because of W.S. Maugham's homosexuality. However, many of us know the unreasoned longing for someone who may not normally have been part of our received view of the world, and Maugham's novel descibes it as accurately as any that I have read.

[Adagio]

I'm with Kiki1982 here; Hardy is ace when it comes to a damn good love story.

I'd suggest Far from the Madding Crowd or Tess.

Bronte's Jane Eyre is another great love story.

[Bastable]

Kiki1982: i have read Les Miserables before, it was even my favourite book for a spell. Eponine's story always made me cry:(

I've never read any Hardy before, i'll have to check him out.

Brian Bean: I've heard quite conflicting opinions of Of Human Bondage that has made me hesitate to read it, but i just might check it out when i have the time based on your recommendation

dfloyd: A friend once told me she Doctor zhivago was the most depressing book she'd ever read, thoughts?

[The Comedian]

If the sort of love doesn't have to be generic romantic love, then you might like Willa Cather's My Antonia. It's a beautiful novel that deals with a love begun in childhood and takes many forms as the characters grow into adults. And if you're willing to experiment with graphic novels/comics, then Craig Thompson's Blankets is a novel that you should look into. I think it's one of the great graphic novels of the last 5 years, and the central plot is romantic relationship.

[dfloyd]

without Lara and Zhivago going through the trials they were subjected to in the 1917 Russian revolution. Then, after being separated from Lara for years, Zhivago spies her on the street. He calls her name, but she doesn't hear him. Running after her, he suffers a heart attack and dies. The story in the movie is told by Zhivago brother (Alex Guiness) to Lara and Zhivago's child who is working in a communist commune. Is the story depressing? Not for the average person. Is Romeo and Juliet depressing? Not for the well-adjusted person. A love story is not a love story without turmoil. Some, like Jane Eyre, have a happy ending. Others, like Wuthering Heights, do not. But Zhivago is a good story, but it's just a story. I never get depressed because of something I read.

[kiki1982]

Well, thank you Dfloyd for spoiling it for some people. Not that I mind knowing the outcome, but other people might do... Anyway, does Wuthering Heights have a sad ending? I seemed to have noticed that actually was a pretty happy one... But ok, we will not spoil it.

Anyway, @Bastable:

I think I'm even sadder that I don't cry at Eponine's story because her life is so meaningless... It's like she doesn't matter but is still a person. A kind of non-person... The version of her death in the 2000 film is quite thought-provoking.

About Hardy: he is mostly depressing (naturalist), but he writes most beautifully. Far from the Madding Crowd is gentle and calm and at parts really speeds up. Symbolic too.

My first experience with Hardy was Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Great read. One of my favorite writers.

Next on my list is Jude the Obscure. Allegedly his best. We will see.

[kelby_lake]

than love stories. Gatsby's pschological obssesion with Daisy Buchanan and Philip Carey's mindless obssesion with the uncaring Mildred are probably more Freuedian than anything else. A love story must have caring on the part of both parties. Obsessive behavior is not love.

I thought we were looking for interesting love stories, not cosy ones?

Anyhow I'd put Gatsby in there- even if you don't class Gatsby and Daisy as being a love story, Gatsby still follows the old love story pattern, and you've got other couples with more love.

There's always Lolita, if you can stand creepiness. Amazing lines in there.

Giovanni's Room; probably something in Shakespeare, take your pick; Wuthering Heights; Pride and Prejudice; Jane Eyre; Rebecca.

[mal4mac]

I'm reading Fielding's "Tom Jones" at the moment, which includes an extremely non-sappy and extremely funny love story... How Tom gets out of the naughty affair with the gamekeepers daughter, leaving him free to pursue 'his real love', the squires daughter, might be the funniest and most touching thing I've ever read...

[sixsmith]

I'll second 'Giovanni's Room': contains some truly wrenching passages of love lost. What about 'Love in the time of Cholera'?

[mal4mac]

Well, thank you Dfloyd for spoiling it for some people...

Thanks for the heads up kiki! Fortunately, I read this first. I will now avoid this thread...

[kiki1982]

It was Dfloyd's reply about Doctor Zhivago at abouty the end of page one. You can still read the rest. And his spoiler was on about the 2nd line.

[wessexgirl]

Well, thank you Dfloyd for spoiling it for some people. Not that I mind knowing the outcome, but other people might do... Anyway, does Wuthering Heights have a sad ending? I seemed to have noticed that actually was a pretty happy one... But ok, we will not spoil it.

Anyway, @Bastable:

I think I'm even sadder that I don't cry at Eponine's story because her life is so meaningless... It's like she doesn't matter but is still a person. A kind of non-person... The version of her death in the 2000 film is quite thought-provoking.

About Hardy: he is mostly depressing (naturalist), but he writes most beautifully. Far from the Madding Crowd is gentle and calm and at parts really speeds up. Symbolic too.

My first experience with Hardy was Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Great read. One of my favorite writers.

Next on my list is Jude the Obscure. Allegedly his best. We will see.


I love Hardy too, and Jude is my favourite. I don't think I'm giving anything away if I say you may cry at this one, be prepared.

[Dinkleberry2010]

From our perspective of today it's hard to believe the outcry that Jude The Obscure had when it was published in the late 1890s. The outrage and animosity directed toward Jude and toward Thomas Hardy was so great that it determined Hardy to leave the novel writing field and devote himself to composing poetry.

[dfloyd]

I didn't think the members of the forum would not know the outcome. The novel is not a mystery! Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel in the best tradition. It doesn't have a happy ending. As I remember it, Heathcliff knocks a hole in Cathy's coffin so he has acess to her after his own death. You call this a happy ending?

[mal4mac]

The forum is open to everyone, and you cannot expect everyone to know the outcome. You should at least have a spoiler warning.

[kiki1982]

I didn't think the members of the forum would not know the outcome. The novel is not a mystery! Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel in the best tradition. It doesn't have a happy ending. As I remember it, Heathcliff knocks a hole in Cathy's coffin so he has acess to her after his own death. You call this a happy ending?

POILER ALERT WUTHERING HEIGHTS

I remember the smile on his face as he died. Why have a smile on his face, if it is not a happy ending. Of course death is sad, but death can also mean union. At least if one looks beyond the absolute fact of death, and I think most of us would agree that Heathcliff was no longer tormented towards the end.


SPOILER OVER


You cannot expect everyone to know the outcome of a book because it is a well-known one. Sure, it has been adapted for the screen several times but does that mean that they did it according to the original? No, so then keep that ending hidden. or at least, like I did now, put a spoiler alert on so that people know that there is a risk of revealing a part of the plot. No matter how long one has been reading for, one still has things to read. So it is remotely possible that someone who has been doing this for years and years and years is still able to not have read Dr Zhivago and also does not wish to know the end.

[neilgee]

I rated Love for Lydia by H.E Bates as a good novel with a meaningful plot that happens to include a moving love story, if - as I think - the original post was after something like this that is enchanting without getting over-sentimental then you could do worse than reading this.

I agree with Floyd's comment on The Great Gatsby too. I didn't regard TGG as a "love story" at all.

[prendrelemick]

Troilus and Cressida, an interesting account of love and necessity.

[Pecksie]

Some good love stories that haven't been mentioned yet:

'First love' by Turgenev, a novella about a teenager's love for a slightly older girl who is surrounded by suitors. Set in Russia in the nineteenth century, and an interesting depiction of upper-class mores.

'The end of the affair' by Graham Greene, in which a man hires a detective in order to find out why his (married) lover left him some years before. Religion plays an important part in the story, giving it added interest.

'Never let me go' by Kazuo Ishiguro; the love story is not the main subject of the book, but still it's there --- love in the face of terrible odds.

'Family happiness' by Tolstoy, a novella about a girl's marriage to her much older suitor. No sappiness at all here --- the title is ironic.

'Eugene Onegin' by Pushkin, a novel in verse about a sweet and bookish girl who falls in love with a rake. Pushkin's sarcastic wit makes it a fun read.

[kiki1982]

La Tulipe Noire turns out to be really cute, delicate and sweet. No big passionate embraces. Really gentle. :)

[Emil Miller]

'The end of the affair' by Graham Greene, in which a man hires a detective in order to find out why his (married) lover left him some years before. Religion plays an important part in the story, giving it added interest


I have to second this one. One of Greene's best and, like a number of his novels, based on personal experience.

[Three Sparrows]

Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte is a very not-sappy love story; a little melodramatic, but what Bronte isn't?
Also, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Hugo has quite a bit about love, but isn't really a true romance.

[Pensive]

Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte is a very not-sappy love story; a little melodramatic, but what Bronte isn't?
Also, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Hugo has quite a bit about love, but isn't really a true romance.

I don't know, but I kind of remember some really sappy excerpts from Charlotte's Jane Eyre at least! :p

[Hank Stamper]

I didn't think the members of the forum would not know the outcome. The novel is not a mystery! Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel in the best tradition. It doesn't have a happy ending. As I remember it, Heathcliff knocks a hole in Cathy's coffin so he has acess to her after his own death. You call this a happy ending?

tsk. you missed out the bit where they all turn into vampires.

[Emil Miller]

tsk. you missed out the bit where they all turn into vampires.

Of course, you realise there is probably some guy in
Hollywood reading this and thinking it's a great idea for a movie?

[DisPater]

Jostein Gaarder - The Orange Girl (Appelsinpikenl)

[Mariamosis]

This may be a little repetitive, however, I would recommend Emile Zola's 'Germinal', 'The Beast Within', 'The Masterpiece' (for a very different twist on a love story), Dostoyevsky's 'The Idiot', and almost any book by Hardy.

[Blyss]

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje is my favourite love story. Its a tough read though, you have to know your history or at least be interested in it, but beyond that its fabulous.

[tamlynn]

Two of my favorite love stories are The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Sparks and Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.

I think The Horse Whisperer is Sparks' best novel and Loving Frank is a fictional account of Frank Lloyd Wright's love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They were both very good love stories. :thumbs_up

[tay190]

Though I adore Wuthering Heights, I do remember remarking that it reminded me of a soap opera, meaning it probably consitutes as sappy.
I recommend anything by Nicholas Sparks.

[myrna22]

I'm after a decent love story, nothing sappy though. The love story doesn't have to be the main story line, just as long as there's a good one in there.

Any ideas?

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
Nuns and Soldiers, by Iris Murdoch
The The Twyborn Affair, by Patrick White

[King Mob]

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is beautiful. I'm not quite fond of soapy love stories and the title of the book pushed me back a little, but I had to read it for college and found it incredible. I could say many great things about it but Thomas Pynchon said it better on his review: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/books/the-heart-s-eternal-vow.html

[myrna22]

An Equal Music, Vikram Seth

[Itsonlytrung]

I'm after a decent love story, nothing sappy though. The love story doesn't have to be the main story line, just as long as there's a good one in there.

Any ideas?
How about a 4 page short-story on infatuation? This will blow you out the water: Araby, Dubliners, by Jame's Joyce.

[keilj]

Tender is the Night by Scott Fitzgerald

For Whom the Bells Tolls by Hemingway

Sweet Thursday by Steinbeck


you can't go wrong with any of these 3

[myrna22]

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

[Katy North]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Bronte

Both books are love stories that have sappy bits in them, but which overall are about the two protagonists quarreling their way into love. :D

[emfayemc]

Jane Austen's Persuasion is one of my favorites - it deals with a wealthy girl who fell in love with a penniless naval officer when she was nineteen. She was going to marry him, but was persuaded by family and friends not to because she would be looked down upon by society. Seven years later he comes back a rich and handsome Captain, and her family is now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. It's very ironic and witty - it deals more with the expectations of society versus what we as people want, but the love story is the absolute base. Be sure to check it out, it's a wonderful read! :)

[kiki1982]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Bronte

Both books are love stories that have sappy bits in them, but which overall are about the two protagonists quarreling their way into love. :D

:lol:

That's it. They are in the middle of it before they even realise.

About Persuasion: it's a little the same as quarreling their way into love, although more gentle. It's more: 'No, I have forgotten him/her long ago. Why am I still thinking about him/her then? Oh, just memories, because I have definitely forgotten him/her.

SLIGHT SPOILER

You see, I am courting another which proves I have definitely forgotten him/her.'

SLIGHT SPOILER OVER

ah

[Snowqueen]

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, I think all these are good love stories.

[kiki1982]

The last one is definitely not sappy. Its cute if anything, particularly the end :p.

Pride and Prejudice is also not really sappy, but it does have the name of being it. It is actually a lesson in humility.

Jane Eyre, well, like another one here said... It is a little sappy in places, but still, it is a great read.

[mystery_spell]

If you'd like to read a fictional story that involves plenty of magic and love, I suggest you read A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. It's a fantastic book so don't let the size scare you off.

[Helga]

I haven't read through all the posts here before me so I don't know if it has been mentioned before but Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier comes to mind...

[Silverblue]

i don't know if it's been posted before but "The lover" by Marguerite Duras is an amazing book, as well for the writing as for the story.

i read it a few times and i'm never tired of it. it's just lovely.

[myrna22]

I haven't read through all the posts here before me so I don't know if it has been mentioned before but Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier comes to mind...

Yes, I agree. It's a good choice. And I did mention it before, post 46. :)

[Bashayer]

a great words i have ever listen too >>>>>>>>>>>>
love is like water and food we can not live without it <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
it like the clouds come fast and go fast >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
thanks for this topic >>>>>>>>