Alone. Together. Fact. Fiction.

Top Ten Favourite Romances

(And yes, I'm putting all the ladies before men)

1) Kathy & Heathcliffe ♡ Wuthering Heights

"If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day."

2) Elizabeth Bennett & Mr. Darcy ♡ Pride and Prejudice

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

3) Julia & Winston ♡ 1984

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness."

4) Dolores & Humbert ♡ Lolita

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

5) Brett & Jake ♡ The Sun Also Rises

"Oh Jake," Brett said, "We could have had such a damned good time together."Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly, pressing Brett against me.Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

6) Anais Nin & Henry Miller ♡ (As authors not characters) 

"Henry to Anais on March 21, 1932Anais, I don't know how to tell you what I feel. I live in perpetual expectancy. You come and the time slips away in a dream. It is only when you go that I realize completely your presence. And then it is too late. You numb me. [...] This is a little drunken, Anais. I am saying to myself "here is the first woman with whom I can be absolutely sincere." I remember your saying -"you could fool me. I wouldn't know it." When I walk along the boulevards and think of that. I can't fool you - and yet I would like to. I mean that I can never be absolutely loyal - it's not in me. I love women, or life, too much - which it is, I don't know. But laugh, Anais, I love to hear you laugh. You are the only woman who has a sense of gaiety, a wise tolerance - no more, you seem to urge me to betray you. I love you for that. [...] I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me. 

Anais to Henry on March 26, 1932This is strange, Henry. Before, as soon as I came home from all sorts of places I would sit down and write in my journal. Now I want to write you, talk with you. [...]I love when you say all that happens is good, it is good. I say all that happens is wonderful. For me it is all symphonic., and I am so aroused by living - god, Henry, in you alone I have found the same swelling of enthusiasm, the same quick rising of the blood, the fullness, the the fullness ...Before, i almost used to think there was something wrong. Everybody else seemed to have the brakes on. [...] I never feel the brakes. I overflow. And when I feel your excitement about life flaring, next to mine, then it makes me dizzy."

7) Juliet & Romeo ♡ Romeo and Juliet

"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!"

8) Scarlett & Rhett ♡ Gone With The Wind. 

"I want to make you faint. I will make you faint. You've had this coming to you for years. None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this-have they? Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley". 

9) Ygritte & Jon ♡ ASOIAF. 

"I know I want you," he heard himself say, all his vows and his honour all forgotten."

10) Isolde & Tristan ♡ The Romance of Tristan and Isolde. 

"Fold your arms round me close and strain me so that our hearts may break and our souls go free at last. Take me to that happy place of which you told me long ago. The fields whence none return, but where great singers sing their songs forever."