Persuasion (1818), Jane AustenForget the limelight lovers Elizabeth and Darcy and spare a thought for the more realistic couple at the heart of Austen’s final novel, Persuasion.
Nineteen-year-old Anne Elliot happily accepts the proposal of a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, only to be talked out of it by a well-meaning mentor. Eight years later, with spinsterhood looming, Anne meets her former beau again and is haunted by the life she might have had.
Whether the two can reconcile is expertly spun out by Austen in a tale that comprises pride, prejudice and a whole lot more.
Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily BronteNothing says romance like the wild and windy Yorkshire moors, the backdrop for Emily Bronte’s novel about the doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy.
Jealousies, passion and misjudgements reign in this thrilling story which sees an impenetrable bond develop between the pair from childhood. At the centre of the novel is the headstrong and unruly Cathy, who marries one man as she loves another.
The Lady of the Camellias (1852), Alexandre DumasAdapted for stage a few years after publication, the French author’s novel, better known as Camille, is also the basis for Verdi’s La Traviata. In the book, the title character is Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan suffering from tuberculosis.
The love story that develops between her and a young provincial bourgeois, Armand Duval, causes her to reconsider her life’s choices. As Duval, the book’s narrator, tries to persuade her to leave her position as courtesan, external forces connive to prevent the lovers from being together.
Love in a Cold Climate (1949), Nancy MitfordThe second book in Mitford’s trilogy about an upper middle-class English family in the interwar period.
Following The Pursuit of Love (1945), it is a sharp and funny novel that sees the narrator Fanny Wincham relate the story of her cousin Polly Hampton. Polly, a distant and beautiful young woman, returns from India to declare to her horrified family that she wants to marry her lecherous uncle.
Mitford finished the trilogy with Don’t Tell Alfred (1960).
The End of the Affair (1951), Graham GreeneSet in London, Greene’s novel follows writer Maurice Bendrix in the closing months of the second World War as his passionate affair with Sarah Miles comes to an end.
An egocentric writer, Bendrix is used to having control over his characters and allows his jealousy of Sarah’s husband to destroy the love affair.
He is an intriguing antihero, loosely based on Greene himself. The character of Sarah is drawn from Greene’s real-life mistress at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.
37”2’ le matin (1985), Philippe DjianThe French author’s third novel is better known by the English name of its film adaptation – Betty Blue. The tempestuous relationship of Betty and Zorg is a classic of French cinema, an anti-establishment favourite on college campuses.
In the book, Betty, at 30, is older than Beatrice Dalle’s iconic characterisation. Muse, lover and idealist, her perception of Zorg as a genius author and her refusal to accept an ordinary life ultimately destroy her.
Norwegian Wood (1987), Haruki MurakamiSet against a backdrop of civil unrest, Toru Watanabe looks back on his life as a college student in sixties Tokyo and the relationships he formed with two very different women.
The title refers to The Beatles’ song of the same name, a chance hearing of which unearths overwhelming feelings of loss in the narrator.
As Toru remembers his time at college, the beautiful, fragile Naoko and the self-confident, outgoing Midori are foremost in his recollections.
The Remains of the Day (1989), Kazuo IshiguroIshiguro’s new novel, The Buried Giant, is out next month, but it was his third book that made the author a household name. The Remains of the Day won the Booker, among other awards, for its restrained and poignant tale about a repressed butler named Stevens.
Priding his job above all else, including his friendship with the housekeeper Miss Kenton that develops in the years before the second World War, Stevens spends most of the book unaware of what he has missed out on. In a quiet and clever piece of writing, it is the reader who experiences the loss.
Atonement (2001), Ian McEwanGuilt, lies, war and violence are central to McEwan’s Booker nominated novel, but each of these themes hinges on a love story.
On an English country estate, the summer before the second World War breaks out, the family’s eldest daughter Cecelia Tallis is surprised by her romantic feelings for her long-term friend, the housekeeper’s son Robbie. Watching closely is younger sister Briony, a precocious 13-year-old eager to learn the ways of the world, but unable to process or understand them.
Her meddling ways will affect the lovers forever and McEwan leaves the reader dangling until the end to discover their fortunes.
A Spool of Blue Thread (2015), Anne TylerAt the heart of Tyler’s excellent new novel, her 20th and final book according to the author, is the enduring love of Abby and Redcliffe Whitshank. Baltimore-based, in their early seventies, Abby and Red are an ordinary couple, whose love for each other and for their children is relayed with extraordinary skill by Tyler.
Famed for her realistic portrayals of family life, the Pulitzer Prize winning Minnesotan author takes a marriage, holds it up and looks at what happens when it starts to disappear.
