Classic Romance Novels Worth Reading
The ’emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending’ comes with each great classic, but is this always the case? Some classic narratives explore the darker side of romance. The books listed here were written before 1980 and are thus classified as either a classic or a modern classic.
#1 Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Two young lovers fall in love and die as a result of their love in this story, which moves from love at first sight to the lovers’ deathbed union after their love is consummated.
#2 Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Many consider Great Expectations to be Dickens’ best novel, in which orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the filthy work of the forge but dreams of becoming a gentleman. It is a gripping story of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, and compelling characters.
#3 Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the most popular films of all time, with director Clint Eastwood immortalizing the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett in the novel.
#4 Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels of all time, and it is set in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Austen’s witty comedy of manners features splendidly civilized sparring between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
#5 Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
It tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw’s passionate, almost demonic love.
#6 Madame Bovary (Gustave Falubert)
When it was first published in 1857, the novel shocked readers, and it remains unrivaled in its portrayal of character and society to this day.
#7 Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak)
Dr. Yury Zhivago, the alter ego of author Boris Pasternak, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the Bolsheviks’ brutality and harshness. His poems are some of the most beautiful writing in the novel.
#8 Women in Love (D.H. Lawrence)
Women in Love, a novel about two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, who live in a Midland colliery town in the years leading up to the First World War, is a thinly disguised portrait of Lawrence Deadeye.
#9 The Graduate (Charles Webb)
Mrs. Robinson, the relentlessly seductive wife of his father’s business partner, falls haphazardly into an affair with Benjamin Braddock, and a wondrously fierce and absurd battle of wills ensues, with love and idealism triumphing over the forces of corruption.
#10 The French Lieutenant’s Woman (John Fowles)
Charles Smithson, 32, is hurled to the edge of the existential void by a moment of consummated lust; duty demands that he break his engagement to Tina and seek her out again.
#11 Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is one of the most admired novels in the world; Anna’s love for Count Vronsky causes her to be mocked and isolates her; the novel explores and illuminates the deepest questions about how to live a fulfilled life.
#12 Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
With a yearning heroine, dangerous secrets she encounters, and choices she makes, the author’s enduring romantic novel continues to engage and provoke readers.0Jane Eyre0is an enduring classic.
#13 Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
Maxim de Winter, a dashing widower who proposes to marry Rebecca, is swept off her feet by the dashing widower who proposes to marry her, but she soon discovers how large a shadow his late wife’s death will cast over their lives.
#14 The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
The Thorn Birds is the epic saga of a family rooted in Australian sheep country, with the love of Meggie Cleary at its heart, who can never possess the man she adores. Ralph de Bricassart is a priest who rises from parish priest to the Vatican’s inner circles.
#15 A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
The lives of Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a shady but brilliant English lawyer, are drawn against their will to the streets of Paris during the Reign of Terror.
#16 A Room with a View (E.M. Forster)
Lucy and Cecil Vyse fall in love while on vacation in Italy, and Lucy is torn between marrying Cecil, who is a more socially acceptable mate, and marrying George, who she knows will bring her true happiness. A Room With a View is a story about classic human struggles such as the choice between social acceptance and true love.
#17 The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo)
Victor Hugo’s sensational novel Quasimodo brings life to the medieval Paris he loved and mourns its passing, making it one of the greatest historical romances of the nineteenth century.
#18 Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Pierre Choderlos de Lacios)
The novel’s prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance, making Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature.
#19 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
There’s a handsome fairy king, a weaver who’s transformed into a half-donkey, wood sprites, and elves in this story about four young lovers and a group of amateur actors retelling their interactions with woodland fairies, which takes place in a mythical Athens and an enchanted forest.
What is a classic romance?
A “classic” novel is one that is widely regarded as the pinnacle of good writing and has been for a long time; classics can range widely in genre, such as horror (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) or romance (Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice).
What are the classic love stories?
VINTAGE LOVE STORIES: 8 GREAT STORIES
- Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Ernest Hemingway’s Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Toni Morrison’s Jazz. John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman. F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.
What is the best love story ever written?
The Top 10 Greatest Love Stories Ever Told
- Emily Bront’s “Wuthering Heights”
- Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”
- William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
- Murray Burnett’s “Casablanca”
- William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
- Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago”
- Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”
What does love mean in literature?
For millennia, philosophers have debated the meaning of love, but a look at literary history provides the beginnings of a definition: love can be a connection to something greater than ourselves, or it can be the thing that reveals who we truly are; it is the oldest feeling in the world, yet it always feels new.
What are the best love stories?
So, without further ado, sit back and relax as we take you through our list of the greatest love stories ever told.
- William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
- Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
- Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
- Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
- Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds
What is a good love book to read?
The Top 20 Romance Novels to Get You in the Feeling
- It Ends With Us. Atria Books.
- The Proposal. Berkley.
- The Hating Game. William Morrow.
- Vision In White. Berkley.
- Beautiful Disaster. Atria Books.
- Gone With the Wind. Scribner.
- A Long Petal of the Sea. Ballantine Books.
What is a good love story on Netflix?
Netflix’s Top Romantic Films That Will Make You Feel Like Love Isn’t Dead
- Memoirs of a Geisha.
- Twilight.
- Dance of the Forty One.
- Nights in Rodanthe.
- Holding the Man.
- The Time Traveler’s Wife.
- Brokeback Mountain.
Is Pride and Prejudice a good book?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is my all-time favorite book– and I don’t say that lightly! This book has it all– a wonderful romance, lovable characters, humor, and beautiful writing. Pride and Prejudice is the story of Elizabeth Bennet, a young woman in the 1800s.
What makes a good love story?
A great love story is unpredictable, surprising, touching, heartbreaking, traumatic, emotional, beautiful, and so much more – and a great twist at the end will delight your readers as well.
Who was the world’s most famous lover in history?
Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII are arguably the most famous lovers in history, and their story has been retold for over 2,000 years. Popularized by Shakespeare, the lovers were later portrayed in the 1963 film Cleopatra by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Who is the most romantic man in history?
Five Historical Romantic Men (Who Should Be Made Into A Miniseries)
- #1 E.M. Forster.
- #2 Shah Jahan. Payag, Shah Jahan on Horseback, Folio from the Shah Jahan Album ca.
- #3 Richard Wagner. Richard Wagner and Cosima Wagner by Fritz Luckhardt.
- #4 Peter Abelard. Abu00e9lard by Jules Cavelier.
Who is the best romance writer?
The Top 10 Romance Authors of All Time
- Jane Austen (1775-1817)
- Charlotte Bront (1816-1855)
- Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)
- Audrey Niffenegger (1963u2013 )
- Nicholas Sparks (1965u2013 )
- Nora Roberts (1950u2013 )
- Jude Deveraux (1947u2013 )
- Julie Garwood (1944u2013 )
What is the greatest definition of love?
He was just a lonely man looking for love. 1: a strong or constant affection for a person motherly/maternal love fatherly/paternal love See More Examples. Hide. 2: attraction that includes sexual desire: the strong affection felt by people who are in a romantic relationship a declaration of love
What is the best description of love?
Love is defined as “an intense feeling of deep affection” by the dictionary, while Urban Dictionary defines love as “the act of caring and giving to someone else. Having someone’s best interest and wellbeing as a priority in your life. To truly love is a very selfless act.”
How do you tell if you’re in love?
In short, while there is no one-size-fits-all approach to falling in love, there are a few key physical and emotional indicators to look for:
- Your thoughts are constantly drawn to them.
- You feel safe with them.
- Life feels more exciting.
- You want to spend a lot of time with them.
- You are envious of other people in their lives.