Favorite Love Stories?

Hmmm...

This is off the top of my head, and subject to revision, but I'll say "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.

Menzogna e sortilegio, strangely translated as House of Liars, by Elsa Morante.

I agree on Love in the Time of Cholera, I just read it recently. A book to savor, and I could do with rereading it, or scanning again for my favorite passages. I understand that by now there are tomes written about this book, but it is fresh to me.

I began reading Love In the Time of Cholera several years ago when it first came out in American paperback but couldn't get into it. You folks are making me think I should give it another try. In general I am not a big Marquez fan--there are other Latin American writers I prefer like the Cuban Cabrera Infante and the Peruvian Vargas Llosa, whose THE FEAST OF THE GOAT was the best new novel I read last year.

Speaking of Vargas Llosa, here's my nominee: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. Lots of fun!

larry, I'm not a big fan of García Márquez either (I like most of his work, but I think magical realism is a bit overhyped). IMHO, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are his best accomplishments.

Cabrera Infante is a hell of a good writer, the (very Cuban) way he plays with language is fascinating. I loved Tres Tristes Tigres.

I also have to agree on Vargas Llosa. Like Borges, he's underappreaciated because of his political views. Both The Feast of the Goat and The War of the End of the World are masterpieces.

Fbaezer:

Yes, the Cabrera Infante novel THREE TRAPPED TIGERS is one of the best I've ever read. It must be stunning in Spanish. I liked it better than any Marquez I've ever read.

I must read more Vargas Llosa. D'Art recommended AUNT JULIA and you nominated THE WAR AT THE END OF THE WORLD, so they are now both on my list. I dislike judging writers by their politics, because there are some miserably bad writers whose politics I endorse and some brilliant writers like Celine whose politics I deplore. The two things really have nothing to do with one another.

It's funny how this thread about love stories has morphed into a Latin American fiction thread!!!

Do men read more romance novels than women?

I am having trouble remembering love stories I liked. Which of course says more about me than the stories, or does it. I think dramatic romance as such thrives on inaccessibility and I have outgrown thinking of that as intensely interesting - not always, but generally. Love in the Time of Cholera interested me past that. I do remember my first love story, which other people think of as a 'western'...the Virginian. by Owen Wister. As a thirteen year old girl I was transfixed and read and reread it over and over. Sure it was a western but to me it was terribly romantic.

"Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness."
--Anatole France

I think some of the greatest love stories are by Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It, for example. I suppose Romeo & Juliet would have to be included though I always thought they were stupid, young & annoyingly stupid.

Osso -- I loved the Virginian. Never thought of it as a love story, but I loved the character himself, what a man! It was written, strangely enough, in Eastern Washington.

Piffka, to me the greatest Shakesperean love story of them all is Antony And Cleopratra--it has his most beautiful poetry and tells his most passionate love story. "The world well lost for love..."

My gosh, I don't know it well at all. I'll have to set about reading that very soon. Thanks.

On the recommendation of you folks, I gave LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA a second chance and am enjoying it very much. I still doubt whether Marquez is truly a great novelist--he seems facile rather than deep to me--but it is a fun read.

I'd have to say that one about Al & Tipper Gore.

Let's leave the Gores out of this. I want to digest my breakfeast.

I finished reading the Marquez last night and was quite disappointed. It is not a great love story or a great anything. In fact, it is a fairly ridiculous novel which can't make up its mind whether it is comic or serious, and so is neither. The characters are puppetrs, never achieving imaginative life. I didn't care whethere the elderly couple was reunited or not in the end; I just wanted the endlessly glib, empty narrative to come to an end. It is a sad commentary on contemporary literature that Marquez is hailed as a master.

Well, I'm glad you aren't censor of all, Larry, because I'm glad to have read it. Since when does literature have to be either comic or serious?

Gone With The Wind
Wuthering Heights

Both capture the passion and irrationality of romantic love.

(Antony and Cleopatra--also a favorite of mine)

Hello Larry

There are so many! And it's late & hard to think, but here's two love stories of the "unrequited" variety by Vikram Seth that I really enjoyed:

A Suitable Boy
An Equal Music.

Why? Well, I liked the depth of understanding I gained about the main characters in both stories. I became very involved all all sorts of aspects of their lives. I also like the strong sense of PLACE in his writing. (I'll include The Golden Gate here, too.).
I wanted both these novels to end differently, but not to be!

Many good ones mentioned. I recall loving Green Mansions, by Hudson, when very young. Also Cyrano de Bergerac, by Rostand.