Great Couples in Fiction

Happy Valentine’s Day out there to all you couples and singles who are still searching for that special someone. Since I wrote a couple of posts last year, one called This Modern Love and another called Strange Love, I thought this year’s post would center on my favorite couples in literature. Some of these characters may be unfamiliar to you, while some will be old favorites. Here is my personal list of dynamic duos:

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

It should come as no surprise that I put this couple on the top of my list. When it comes to romance, Jane Austen is the name among names. If you pull up any list of fictional couples, these two are always going to be close to the top. Headstrong and independent Elizabeth Bennet and the snobbish Fitzwilliam Darcy did not start out on a high note. However, their romance would become legendary and the archetype of what is known as the power couple.

Catherine and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

One of the greatest classics of all time stars one the most destructive couples in all of literature. The mutual obsession between these two lovers is out of control, and their passion basically burns down anyone between them. When he loses her, Heathcliff becomes quite evil taking down anyone who even looks at him the wrong way. It probably doesn’t help that Catherine haunts Heathcliff throughout his remaining days. While this may not be the most stable relationship in literature, these two definitely understand the term passion.

Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell, Widdershins

Charles de Lint is a master of urban fantasy and most known for his series of stories set in the fictional town of Newford. Jilly is an artist who is blessed with several magical gifts. Her best friend Geordie is a musician who initially struggles to believe in the world of magic, despite the fact that it is in his face on a daily basis. Although this couple has been circling around each other for a long time, Widdershins is the novel where they finally realized that they are meant to be together. We could have told them several stories back, but they were fearful that romance would ruin their friendship. If you have not taken the time to read these incredible fantasy stories (or anything by de Lint), do yourself a favor and check them out as soon as you can. They are pure magic.

Rhiannon and A, Every Day

This is the story of a being who simply goes by the name “A.” Every day, A wakes up in a new body, and it has been this way for his entire life. While in the body of a boy named Justin, A begins to develop feelings for Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. Although A has always done his best not to interfere with the lives of his many hosts, meeting Rhiannon has sparked a longing for something long-term. Thus begins, a rather unconventional romance. This book proves that it’s what’s underneath the skin that counts.

Jacqueline and the narrator, Written on the Body

Perhaps the body does matter. This is a rather unique love story written by one of the literature’s best contemporary authors. The twist to this story is that the gender of the narrator is never revealed. After a series of failed love affairs, the narrator falls in love with Louise who is married to an ambitious yet unfeeling man. Further complications arise when the narrator learns that Louise has cancer. Louise’s husband gives the narrator an ultimatum to leave in exchange for the best possible medical care. Although the road to happiness is not always smooth, this novel flies by due to the exquisite prose of the author. Winterson is definitely worth reading.

Craig and Noelle, It’s Kind of a Funny Story 

Although not exactly a love story, more a humorous look at depression, I loved the romance that develops during the characters’ stay in the hospital. After trying to commit suicide, Craig is sent to stay in a psychiatric ward where he meets several “dysfunctional” characters including Noelle, a free-spirited girl for whom he develops feelings. This is a powerful story about mental illness and being able to truly be yourself.

Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter Series

Most fans would give the couple award to Ron and Hermione, but personally I think these two were meant for each other. It takes a strong woman to be with a man who brings death and destruction everywhere he goes. It was nice to see them together as a married couple in the end.

Henry DeTamble and Clare Anne Abshire, The Time Traveler’s Wife

Speaking of strong women, it takes one to stay in love with a man who is constantly disappearing. Henry has a disorder that makes him time-travel involuntarily. He has no control over where he goes and when he goes and for how long. This means that Clare has to spend long periods of time waiting for him to come back, and often meets him out of sequence. It’s a doomed love that is so compelling to watch.

Pip and Estella, Great Expectations

Throughout my favorite work by Dickens, Estella swears she does not love Pip. However, several of her actions speak differently. Although she is often cold as ice, Pip refuses to give up on her. Estella is unable to return the affections he shows due to her harsh upbringing resulting in her emotional suppression. She also serves as a turning point in Pip’s life as he makes the harsh transition into adulthood.

Ishamael and Queequeg, Moby-Dick

Alright so I might be stretching the definition of “couple” with this one, but I think it’s fair to say there was more going on beneath the surface of this friendship. These two characters from completely opposite cultures meet early in the novel and quickly warm up to each other. Make no mistake, there’s subtext here (as with most of Melville’s works).

Anne and Captain Wentworth, Persuasion

It seems fitting that I would end this post the same way it started. This is another great Austen novel and for completely different reasons that P&P. This is the story of a love lost as Anne decided to reject Wentworth on the advice of her friends. She would spend several years regretting this decision when her love came back into her life. Can true love find a way? Well, it’s Jane Austen so you all know the answer. I loved the relationship between these two characters, the culmination of Austen’s growing maturity as a writer.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! I would love to hear about some of your favorite couples in fiction. Leave me a comment below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. ‘Every Day’ by David Levithan

Whenever a writer takes on the trials of penning a romance, you can be sure that there will be obstacles in the path to love. Maybe the families don’t get along or perhaps one of the pair is dying of some incurable disease. However, nothing comes close to the challenges between the two title characters in David Levithan’s novel Every Day. The premise on the cover sounded too intriguing to pass up, plus the book has received a lot of favorable reviews over the past few years. After reading the first page in the bookstore, I knew I had to get it. I finished Every Day fairly quickly, and I’m pleased to say that I really liked it for the most part. For a work of young adult fiction, Levithan manages to make the book intriguing enough to keep going. He also raises some good questions in regards to gender and the value we place on outside appearances.

Here’s the beginning that got me hooked:

I wake up.

Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It’s not just the body-opening my eyes and  discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I’m fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you’re used to waking up in a new one each morning. It’s the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp. 

Every day I am someone else. I am myself-I know I am myself-but I am also someone else. 

It has always been like this. 

This is the story of a being who simply goes by the name “A.” Every day, A wakes up in a new body, and it has been this way for his entire life. While in the body of a boy named Justin, A begins to develop feelings for Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. Although A has always done his best not to interfere with the lives of his many hosts, meeting Rhiannon has sparked a longing for something long-term. Thus begins, a rather unconventional romance.

Levithan does a great job of establishing the rules to A’s very unconventional life. Since A has been alive for sixteen years, all the hosts have to be approximately that age. Also, A can only travel short distances between bodies, so the only way to end up in a different part of the world would be for the host to have traveled that particular day. A is able to access memories in order to get around that day and also to implant a general set of memories to the hosts to account for the missing day. He prefers to be asleep at midnight because otherwise, there is the painful feeling of being ripped from the body. So every morning A wakes up as someone else only to be that someone for the day. Although I’m referring to A with the masculine pronoun, the truth is that A does not identify himself as either gender as he can inhabit the bodies of a male or female host.

“In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don’t understand why it’s so hard, when it’s so obvious.”

What I liked best about this story was the exploration into the ideas of gender and outside appearances. Rhiannon struggles due to the fact that every time she sees A it’s a different body. I mean wouldn’t you? There’s one day where A is the body of a very obese person, and Rhiannon struggles with hiding her disgust. Also, Rhiannon is more uncomfortable when A is in the body of a girl. A doesn’t see love that way. Over the years, A has had feelings for both boys and girls and sees the person rather than the gender. I loved this idea of just seeing the inner person free of labels. If you woke up one morning to find the person you loved had changed bodies, could you still feel the same way?

I also loved how living so many lives has affected A’s perception of life, particularly in appreciating the little details.

“It’s so hard when you’re in one body to get a sense of what life is really like. You’re so grounded in who you are. But when who you are changes every day-you get to touch the universal more. Even the most mundane details. You see how cherries taste different to different people. Blue looks different. You see all the strange rituals boys have to show affection without admitting it. You learn that if a parent reads to you at the end of the day, it’s a good sign that it’s a good parent, because you’ve seen so many other parents who don’t make the time. You learn how much a day is truly worth, because they’re all so different. If you ask most people what the difference was between Monday and Tuesday, they might tell you what they had for dinner each night. Not me. By seeing the world from so many angles, I get more of a sense of its dimensionality.”

I love that quote! How often do the days just bleed together? Do we always remember to stop and appreciate all the little joys of life? It just really felt good to see that point-of-view. However, can love really work when the person you love can never be the same person on the outside? Rhiannon can never tell anyone about A, or introduce him to her friends, or even wake up next to him the next morning. I really liked the character of Rhiannon. She’s a kind-hearted girl with a boyfriend who ignores her. Meeting A has opening her eyes to the possibilities of so much more. Can there be a happy ending for these two? Well, I’ll never tell. I will say the ending is very emotional, and I’m excited to see how this translates in the upcoming film version.

Rhiannon impacts A in several ways. At the beginning of the book, he makes it a policy to never interfere with his hosts. However, A realizes that sometimes action is necessary. One day, he inhabits the body of a girl suffering from depression and planning to kill herself. A manages to convince the girl’s father to get her help. Another interesting chapter involves A having to spend the day inside a body of someone addicted to drugs. I really liked how the character started to realize that some good can come out of this torturous life. Levithan also does a great job of allowing us to share in A’s suffering. He doesn’t get to have family or loved ones. As he describes it, he is visible yet invisible because nobody knows that he exists inside.

There’s a side story in Every Day where A learns there may be others. Unfortunately, this is just a small part of the book, but I think it would be interesting to see this explored more in a follow-up if that ever happens. For a young adult novel, Every Day had a lot of depth. It’s simple to read, but has some important messages there at its heart.

“I want love to conquer all. But love can’t conquer anything. It can’t do anything on it’s own. It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf.”

Have you read this book or are you planning to? I’d love to know your thoughts!

Strange Love

Last week, I shared some of my favorite modern love stories. For this week, I thought I would go in a completely different direction. Let’s face it, love makes us do dumb things. I mean really dumb head-shaking things. But did you know that some of the most insane acts in the name of love have occurred in books?

So allow me to share some of the most insane ways to declare those three little words. Perhaps flowers and chocolates aren’t getting the job done. In that case, try some of these less conventional methods. Hey, they all won the girl in the end!

Insult her mercilessly-Pride and Prejudice

Although he is one of the biggest heart throbs in classic literature, Darcy’s first impression on Elizabeth did not go so well. Here’s what she overhears him say to his best friend Mr. Bingley:

“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

Damn Darcy! You came to play! Back then, that would be the equivalent of telling a girl “hey you’re ugly get out of my face.” Guess there’s something to be said about taking the asshole approach.

“Just give me a reason!”

Perfect that creepy stare-Twilight

If the “I don’t care for you” card isn’t working, you can always try the opposite approach. Edward Cullen was comfortable enough with himself to basically stalk and stare his way into Bella’s affections. I’ve watched most of these movies. Seriously, those damn films would be 15 minutes each if they cut out all the staring scenes.

Edward Cullen laughs at your futile restraining orders!

Hide your first wife in the attic-Jane Eyre

Edward Rochester was madly in love with Jane, but he had one little problem. He neglected to let her know that he was already married, and that his first wife was quite insane. Rochester decided to take the simple approach-just lock the first wife up in the attic and hope wife number two never finds out. His elegant solution would not be successful. Things work out in the end, and Rochester does have some karma bite him on the butt. For another interesting take on Edward Rochester and his first wife, read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

“One more word, and I’m locking you up there too!”

….or just go insane-Wuthering Heights

Has there truly been a more insane character than Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights? I actually feel for this one as he had a pretty rough go of it. Plus despite his madness, you have to admire the man’s passion. He definitely had style.

I think the couple of Heathcliff and Catherine is intriguing because of their mutual obsession with each other. They really are male and female versions of each other. When Heathcliff loses Catherine, he really goes off the rails, punishing everyone in his path.

“Edward Cullen has nothing on my ability to stare down.”

Fuel a blood feud then off yourself-Romeo and Juliet

Young love. This is one of the few Shakespeare plays that I could actually quote verbatim back in the day (thanks to the Leonardo DiCaprio film). It’s too bad things couldn’t have been resolved. Maybe if they had therapists back then, the families could have resolved their differences. I guess it wouldn’t be a classic though had everything worked out in the end.

Make her the town pariah-The Scarlet Letter

After getting Hester Prynne knocked up, Arthur Dimmesdale finds he doesn’t have the courage to take a stand and admit his actions. The unconfessed guilt comes to haunt him in some major ways. Hester Prynne is definitely one of the strongest women I’ve encountered in literature. If you weren’t forced to read it in high school, you should do so now.

Take her captive-The Phantom of the Opera

This one should work no matter how hideous you look. Just lock her up, profess your love, and tell her that if she doesn’t marry you, you’re going to blow everyone up. The best part is that while you are doing it, you get to wear a cool mask!

Well I hope this post brought a few smiles if nothing else. I will be reviewing the love story Every Day this weekend. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Have you read any of these books? What other insane romances would you include on this list. I’d love to know your thoughts!

 

This Modern Love

Valentine’s Day is almost here, and you know what that means. It’s time to go support commercialism by purchasing flowers, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, and other love-related items. It’s also time for me to dedicate a post to the day of romance. Honestly, is there a better way to support love than with a book? I decided to focus on modern works rather than the classics this year. Rather than watch Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy once again do the dance of love or see Heathcliff demonstrate the role of tortured lover, let’s look at some of my favorite contemporary love stories from the past three years. For the ones I’ve read since starting this blog, you may click on the titles for the full reviews.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

One of the author’s earlier works, the narrator Toru remembers while listening to the famous Beatles song the romance he had with the mentally unstable Naoko who committed suicide as a teenager. I never said these were all happy books! This haunting tale is beautifully told in a style that is in a league all its own. Norwegian Wood is also a great place to start if you’ve never read any Murakami as it is a straightforward story free from all the magical realism and bizarre happenings that have become his trademarks.

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Speaking of unconventional love stories, you have to read this one by the extraordinary Jeanette Winterson. The narrator recounts falling in love with Louise, a woman who is married and later finds out she has cancer (alright just realized a theme here). The most unique aspect of this novel is that we never learn the gender of the narrator. Would your perception of this romance change depending on if the narrator is a man or a woman? Read it for yourself and be the judge. It is easy to lose yourself in Winterson’s prose. She definitely has style. While Written on the Body appears as your typical romance novel, Winterson’s playfulness with the text helps make this a very original work. The novel is extremely philosophical in parts, intense in others, with generous amounts of humor laced throughout. There were moments that had me laughing out loud while crying in others.

Blankets by Craig Thompson

This graphic novel is about Christianity-obsessed Craig and Raina, a free spirit he meets at church camp. Not only is this the story of first love, but also about healing from trauma and finding your place in the world. It’s beautifully written with wonderful illustrations.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Although not your conventional love story (are any of these), I loved the romance that developed between the main character and a girl he meets while in the hospital. After trying to commit suicide, Craig is sent to stay in a psychiatric ward where he meets several “dysfunctional” characters including Noelle, a free-spirited girl whom he develops feelings. This is a powerful story about mental illness and being able to truly be yourself. At some point, I will probably check out the movie.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Interestingly, my first experience with Ishiguro is also the most famous of his works. The Remains of the Day is the story of Stevens, an English butler in the service of a wealthy American who prides himself on his dedication and work ethic. Steven looks back on his life under his previous employer Lord Darlington and remembers his relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Despite stressful situations occurring both in the world and within himself, Stevens holds a strong sense of calm dignity which actually interferes with other aspects of his life such as having interpersonal relationships. Written in the calm and detached style typical of Ishiguro, the scene where Stevens has his “break” and confesses his heart is masterfully written. This is a role that could only be achieved by the great Sir Anthony Hopkins. The Remains of the Day is a great introductory novel to the works of Ishiguro.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

This novel is about a lost love across several decades. This is a beautifully written story where Krauss manages to balance heavy emotions with a calm and lightness you don’t find with many modern authors. I also liked the surprises as the characters don’t find what they are looking for in the ways they expect. This novel also should win an award for one the greatest love quotes I’ve ever found in modern literature. I dare you not to cry.

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

This contemporary version of The Taming of the Shrew is part of the Hogarth range of modernized Shakespeare adaptations. The “shrew” in Tyler’s version is being coerced by her father to marry his assistant who has been threatened with deportation. For the most part, I enjoyed this little tale that approached the character of Kate with a lot of emotion and humor. I love Hogarth Shakespeare! I’ve read two in the series so far, and they prove why the lessons of the Bard are timeless.

Those are my picks for modernized tales of the heart. If anyone would like to add their selections, please comment below. Later this month, I will be reviewing another unconventional love story, Every Day by David Levithan. Until then, Happy Valentine’s Day!

“I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it — to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once. ” Norwegian Wood

 

What books would you recommend during February? Do you have a favorite modern love story? I’d love to know your thoughts!