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Most extraordinary love stories

The literary kind, The romantic kind, The psychological kind, The political kind, The one-sided unhappy kind, The gay kind

We are used to think of Romeo and Juliet, but love comes in all kinds of shapes. Here are some of my favorite classic love books and love stories.

The literary kind
I am starting with this because it was the love of my parents: based on telling poems to each other, reading books, discussing all kind of subjects. I thought it was unique. It is not. The first time a love like this was described was in medieval China, I found the story in Sexual Life in Ancient China by R. H. Van Gulik. In the book, the author quotes the poetess Li Ching Chao (early 12th century) describing how her husband and herself spent time buying manuscripts and correcting them, discussing in their library, and challenging each other with quotations, drinking tea and having fun....until he was called to war and never came back. You can read some of her poems here.
There was a similar love between Alfred North Whitehead and his wife. I find Whitehead a little pompous, but the love is there, and the very serious book where I found it is as cheap as one dollar: Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead as Recorded By Lucien Price .
Though the word "love" is not pronounced, union over books comes as a delight in Helen Hanff's, 84 Charing Cross Road (1970)(essential book) This small book is a collection of letters between Helen in New York and a bookstore in London, where she buys classic books. She gets answers from a very British clerk in the shop.The charm of the book comes from Helen Hanff's passion for books, her wits, and the contrast with the well bred, well tempered Englishman. The story made a great movie starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. You got to see that: how actors make you feel this deep connection without words.

The romantic kind
If you like violent and unrestrained feelings of love and revenge and handsome men full of despair, you got it all in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Her sister Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre. As you probably know, divorce was very difficult for a long time in many European countries, but if your spouse happened to be demented, you could never divorce: the reason is that your spouse was then deemed unable to consent. I had a friend in France in the 1970ies whose husband had been hospitalized for over twenty years, and she could not divorce him. The law has been changed since. So, in the novel, Rochester has a mentally sick spouse and hides her from everybody. He falls in love with Jane and wants to marry her, but Jane discovers the truth: she flees. Then....you will have to read the book. I do like another book by Charlotte which is less read, but very interesting, describing Charlotte's own love interest in Brussels in the mid of the 19th century: Villette. The novel has lots of French sentences (everybody knew French at the time) but the Signet edition has them translated in an appendix.
The period 1850-1950 is full of love stories where the girl dies from tuberculosis, You tell me it is normal: tuberculosis was widespread and there was no cure. I am asking you: why is it always the girl who dies at the end, never the guy? It all started with a novel and a play written by the son of Alexandre Dumas about a poor young girl reduced to prostitution who meets real love. The Lady of the camellias (also known as Camille or La dame aux camelias). You might prefer the opera to the book: Verdi La Traviata(essential music). A more modern bestseller on the subject dying young and full of love was Love story (and guess who dies at the end: the girl or the guy?). One of the most readable books in the sentimental genre is still Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca and her husband are in love, so what is the secret holding them back?
I think that Pride and Prejudice (essential book) is in a class of itself, probably the best of Jane Austen. Enjoy the movie or this more recent version after you have read the book.

The psychological kind
What is going on inside your mind, inside your soul, when you are in love? Two French books initiated the genre: Madame Bovary by Flaubert (it is about provincial adultery) and The Red and the Black (essential book) by Stendhal (it is about ambition as much as love).

The political kind
There is, to start it all, Helen, who caused a catastrophic war in the time of Homer. As the Iliad is all about epic and not about love and you are due for a break, I am going to suggest that you listen to the slightly naughty Offenbach, who made fun of the story. Some of the music is really beautiful "Dis-moi Venus..." (Tell me Venus, what pleasure do you find in making my virtue trip and trip like this?)
Then of course there is the Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. If you prefer the story as a big book of memoirs, the best known is still The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. There is much more of course, I remember reading some erotic letters from Catherine II to General Potemkine, but it must have been in another life: I cannot recall in what book, who was the author or in what language I read them!

The one-sided unhappy kind
The model of all unhappy, proud, secretive men in love is Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, who would sacrifice his life for the woman he loves, but she barely knows that he exists, because he is not handsome. There is the play, and a series of great movies (no Cyrano is as good as Jose Ferrer -in black and white as I recall-, but modern ones are acceptable).
The model of unhappy women comes to me in a short story by Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog.(essential book) It made a beautiful movie in the sixties , and I remember crying all the way back home.
Unhappy love with an exotic flair is better expressed in operas. If you like music, you might enjoy comparing Madame Butterfly by Puccini (essential music) also as a movie ) and Madame Chrysantheme, by Messager (I could not find the opera, but there is a nice song from it in French Coloratura Arias here).

The gay kind
I cannot help you with this, not that I am against it, but I lack the interest. One thing I can tell you: there was no greater love on earth than the love of the musician Benjamen Britten for the singer Peter Pears. When he was close to death (and whatever his love sins might have been) Britten said that keeping Pears as happy as possible was more important than his music. Not many of us have been loved like that. The book where I found this is Benjamen Britten by H. Carpenter. If you are curious about Britten and Pears, here is a short example of their talent les Illuminations and here is a long one: The turn of the screw (essential music)is I think the best of Britten's operas.