Here are just a few books to read this Valentine’s Day. I know some of you may be holed up alone tonight, and I hope these give you the hope to find happiness and love in the near and distant future. The novels are not all above the professorial brow of high literature, but they will all hopefully do what literature does best–give you perspective on one of life’s most difficult mysteries.
Thomas Hardy – Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The love story of two English ruralites captures is both idyllic and tragic, but Hardy paints two genuine characters who find love in spite of a number of social and geographical obstacles. Think Austen with far less dinner parties.
Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
A novel that brings out the best and worst of Hemingway’s stoic prose is also, admittedly, a great love story. Fred, an ambulance driver fighting in Italy during the First World War, falls in love with Catherine, a nurse who tends his wounds after a battlefield injury. Great for a relaxing Saturday.
John Green – Looking for Alaska
John Green is arguably the king of the YA genre, but that doesn’t stop him from depicting young love at its best and worst. A young man called Miles who seeks adventure at a rural boarding school and finds Alaska Young, a manic teenage girl who will change his life forever.
Roland Barthes – A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments
In Barthes typical meta style, A Lover’s Discourse breaks down the mysteries of love into a set of terms, invoking enough literature and theory to be a grad student’s wet dream. Recommended for the kind of partner who will analyze your love poems to death.
Nicole Krauss – The History of Love
Love comes all shapes and sizes, but for bibliophiles, the line between person-love and book-love can sometimes blur. Krauss’ novel is about the devotion for an imperfect book that was once thought lost. The History of Love resurfaces the magic of being a young, stalwart poet in love
Michael Chabon – Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Before HBO’s Looking brought the queer romance to the mainstream, Michael Chabon wrote Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a novel that combines Chabon’s sharp plotting with a tale of young love set around a family of Jewish criminals.
Jane Austen – Emma
They didn’t need to remake this novel into Clueless to remind us that it’s one of the great love stories of the English language. Over two hundred years ago, Austen wrote what most self-indulgent romances these days lack. Sharp, witty, and hilarious, Emma uses the lofty English countryside to teach us all about the universal rules of love.
Susan Sontag – The Volcano Lover
When Sontag wasn’t adding to her prolific repertoire of critical essays, she dabbled in romance, notably, the historical romance. Set in Naples during the 18th century, the novel is about the wife of a British diplomat and her relationship with Admiral Lord Nelson, hero of the Napoleonic wars. A smart a detailed entry into a distant past.
John Fowles – The French Lieutenant’s Woman
What word better describes the pains and pleasures of love than ‘postmodernism’? Fowles novel about the forbidden relationship between a Darwinian intellectual and a woman exiled by adultery. Unlike most love stories, Fowles does not spoonfeed us a simple plot, but rather leaves us guess to the end and beyond.
Francoise Sagan – Bonjour Tristesse
If anyone is looking for an ideal French romance, skip over your pharmacy’s Parisian section of Harlequin paperbacks and read this, a short but punchy foray into young love in coastal French. Sagan, who wrote this when she was only 18, remains true to the blueprints of her youth.
Michael Ondaatje – In The Skin of a Lion
Set in Toronto during its bloom into a major city, Ondaatje captures the poetic mystique of the town with fluid and lyrical descriptions of a bygone era. It’s also a love story, as Patrick Lewis, the main character, falls in love while searching for the infamous Ambrose Small.
Ravinder Singh – I Too Had a Love Story
A modern love story about falling in love and losing it, Singh’s novel is an easy read but a rather emotional work. Like Sagan’s novel, it captures young love in all its simplicity and complexity.
Yasunari Kawabata – Snow Country
A love story between an older man and a Geisha in a small town in Northern Japan is great for those who like to reflect deeply on the nature of love. Filled with uncertainty and a rich, detailed landscape, Kawabata’s novel is the love story for the all-too serious thinkers.
Ha Jin – Waiting
“Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu” , begins Jin’s story about love within the Chinese military. Richly crafted, the novel’s alluring sentences draw us in as intently as love itself.
Amor Towles – Rules of Civility
About the daughter of a Russian immigrant who falls in love with a man named Tinker Grey (no relation, we hope), Rules of Civility is a fresh take on the classic, Manhattan love story. Towles combines the zeitgeist of the late 30’s with a keen eye for romance and nostalgia.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera
Marquez’s floral prose and magical realist style emerge in this historical take on the challenges of falling in love in Colombia’s gorgeous but disease-ridden port cities. The novel takes a really good look at the heroism of loving beyond all circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be.
Margaret Mitchell – Gone With the Wind
The great love story of the Antebellum south is as gripping a read as it is on the big screen. The love story of Scarlett and Rhett during the Civil War is a story about the conflicts between love and ambition, and how one may so easily fail the other. Great for a long winter break.
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Have a Happy Valentine’s Day. Please share and post your favorite love stories in our comments section.
Phil James is the founder of qwikit, and is currently a Master’s Candidate the Berkeley School of Journalism
