well, of course Pride and Prejudice! but people, what about The Princess Bride?!? yeah it's a little cheesy, but you already know that going into it! oh, and The China Garden is pretty good too...
well, of course Pride and Prejudice! but people, what about The Princess Bride?!? yeah it's a little cheesy, but you already know that going into it! oh, and The China Garden is pretty good too...
the real life of sebastian knight
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.
--Shakespeare
Originally Posted by Jamilah
I have a hard time accepting them as a great romantic couple. Both Heathcliff and Cathy were incredibly selfish and ill-tempered people, their love was more obsession than love, they destroyed everything and everybody they touched. I have problems holding their relationship up as any kind of ideal or admiring it in any way. I loved the book, I just didn't come away from it thinking it was a love story, it was more a story of obsession, deception and self-destruction.
I don't read a lot of romantic stories so my choices are limited. I tend to read books with relationships that are marred in some way, indifferent or end badly. Someone mentioned Love in the Time of Cholera and I would whole-heartedly agree with that, that's probably the most positive love story I've read. There's a couple of good love stories from Trollope, he usually has at least one couple that ends tragically and one that ends up blissfully happy, The Duke's Children is the one that springs to mind right away because I loved the dialogue in that one but I could pick any of the 10 Trollope books I've read and find evidence of a great love story. And Dr. Zhivago is a great love story...if you can ignore they were both married to other people and really, why shouldn't you be able to ignore something like that.
the luminous grass of the prairie hides
feet lovely and still as sleeping doves,
porcelain bones strong enough to carry a life,
but weighty and unmovable
As black Dakota hills. ~ Riesa
Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys, also by Neil Gaiman (I love Neil Gaiman)
and Happy Endings by Katherine Stone.
Shall these bones live?
I exactly feel the same about the relationship of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. That never seemed admirable to me; Destructive love (if it was love which I doubt). 'Extreme obsession' would be a good word to use. But this destructive love is what makes Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights. I don't like it, but I like the way it held me to the book.
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
Hop on Pop.
I'm not kidding.
---------------------hedonistic
A Room with a View. E.M. Forster.
One of the best French poets; Louis Aragon says about Jamila by Chingiz Aytmatov; "This is the best love story ever written".
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels that way. Sometimes I feel like such a spoil sport because I just don't see the romance in that book, it left me feeling more disturbed than anything else.I exactly feel the same about the relationship of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. That never seemed admirable to me; Destructive love (if it was love which I doubt). 'Extreme obsession' would be a good word to use. But this destructive love is what makes Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights. I don't like it, but I like the way it held me to the book.
the luminous grass of the prairie hides
feet lovely and still as sleeping doves,
porcelain bones strong enough to carry a life,
but weighty and unmovable
As black Dakota hills. ~ Riesa
trust me, you're not alone. though i did enjoy the book as a whole, i felt that the levels of obsession and deceit for the period in which it was written explain why emily bronte was an outcast...yeah, it's a bit harsh, but true...
Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow ~ Mark Twain
Imagination is more inportant than knowledge ~ Albert Einstein
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as much as you please ~ Mark Twain
A good friend will always be willing to bail you out of jail at 3:30 in the morning, but a best friend will be the one sitting next to you saying, "Damn that was fun. Let's do it again!"
Yes, Idril, as Snow Queen says, you are certainly not alone! I love Wuthering hehts and think its a fantastic novel, but if you need to talk about the romance alone, it is not romance but obsession. At least in Phanton of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame , both high on my list of books with Romance, though the Romance IS obsessive, there is always the element of sacrifice to redeem them. Here you have selfishness on Kathy's side and senseless vengeance on Heathcliff's. I get a real thrill when Reading the famous " Nelly, I AM Heathcliff" speech, but in real life I would kind it as a kind of psychotic condition which will destroy personalities if not treated.
The reedimg feature i would find is the blossoming relationship between Cathy and Hareton, which gives indications of being a constructive and co-operative rather than obesessive and selfish romance.
I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
There's a pair of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know!
How dreary to be somebody!
La Divina Commedia for me.
I much prefer romance with a darker twist, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Anthony and Cleopatra, Taming of The Shrew, Phantom of the Opera and Othello. I feel they show love for what it is, an overpowering and blinding emotion. Of course there's obsession and bitterness, there's deception and desperation. At the end of it all though there's the will to give up everything for that one person. I'm not a cynic and I am in love (In fact I have my own Mr Rochester.) I don't think love is evil I just don't think it should be portrayed without showing the minefield of emotions that entail.
Also (I'm probably going to get hung for this) I find Romeo and Juliet one of the most pathetic and tedious love stories ever!!! I don't feel it was one of Shakespeare's best at all!!! How can anyone talk about Shakespeare's love stories and not talk about Othello or Twelth Night (which also has the whole unrequited love)
Ooook rant over.....sorry.
I take all of your points about Wuthering Heights. I can appreciate why many would not see this as story of romantic love. To me, it is. The book was written during the age of the Industrial Revolution when times (lifestyles and ideas) were changing and evolving faster than the British could make sense of the new age. Commonly held ideas about religion were challenged too. Anyhow, to me Healthcliff represents the turmoil and confusion of the day. He's one of the most deeply layered characters I've come across in literature. He is not anyone's hero, including Catherine's. He's deeply flawed but his one moral credit is how deeply he loves Catherine. I don't think he's obsessed. He's just stuck. They can't regress back to their childhood and the only option seems to be death for them both. Catherine admits they are twin flames (sorry to be corny here) and that their essence (soul) is the same. So, when they break the bonds of this earth and their earthly bodies, they are free. Their love is elevated to a spiritual plane and you feel that throughout this book that they only want to live out this existence. They are elemental forces, like the wind, clouds, thunder, or even ghosts. No they are not likeable, but I'm compelled to move past their flaws and value the experience they have together. They can't fight their destiny and they don't know how to deal with it. It's not perfect love, but it's eternal. Just my thoughts. Thanks.
The Kreutzer Sonata
Just kidding, probably the Divine Comedy, or Orpheus and Eurydice.
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