LOVE STORIES! My favorite love stories in fiction span a variety of genres and authors. But there are some common threads. I like love stories that feature a heroine who has to shed her illusions to find love. Most of my favorites aren’t what we’d technically classify as romance novels. The stories are often broader.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Van Arnim
This swoon-worthy story of removing illusions about love was made into an exquisite film. It’s very faithful to the book, capturing some of its magic and poetry. It’s about the happiness and love that’s right in front of you, but veiled by your illusions about love. The author weaves a kind of magic made of the beauties of Italy and a simpler way of living. This magic transforms the chracters and their foibles. As they step into Italy’s magic, they become able to experience more love, which is reciprocated.
My favorite love stories aren’t just romantic ones. The love of long-married people, love within families, love between animals and people, carry much power too. These non-romantic love stories show how love develops over time and is tested to become stronger.
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald.
I also like love stories that include a magical element, and this one really does. On a morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite and an aspiring artist whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again—and again—will become the focus of his love and his life. Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of their freedom—and their love. What I like about this story is that it isn’t just about the time gap between them or the mystery of how it happens. It’s about the relationship’s limits and how each adapts, or can’t, to them.
Jane Austen‘s Emma
This novel is a perennial favorite love story, and one of my favorites for a flawed heroine who’s a slow learner when it comes to love. I reread Austen periodically and watch all of the film and TV dramas because of her insights into the illusions that keep us apart. Emma’s great illusion is that she’s the queen of her community and gifted with a talent for matchmaking – i.e., interfering in people’s lives because of her superior wisdom. What Emma doesn’t see is the love that’s right under her nose. As so often happens, she fails to see the most important things right there because of a fixation on preconceptions about love, fears of love or loss, or misunderstanding what happiness really is.
Happy Valentine’s Day — whether your beloved is your spouse, a family member, a dear friend, or a furry or feathered companion. Cherish all the ones you love on Valentine’s and every day. Remember — Love Always Wins.
