Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Fickle Twists Of Love.

By Kathaleen Throop


Great love stories can touch your heart, make you laugh and move you to tears. Regardless if you are with the love of your life or still looking for your soul mate, a great love story pulls on the heartstrings. Here are a few of the most popular love stories of all time, plus a few new ones you may have missed.

Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' tops most great love story lists. It's a classic story of how love can turn a man evil. Set in the early 1800's on the Wuthering Heights estate, the story focuses on the love of Heathcliff and his adopted sister Catherine. They are best friends and, by all accounts meant for each other. Unfortunately, an overheard, off-hand remark destroys their chance of happiness together.

Another novel that has consistently topped the list of the greatest love stories is 'Anna Karenina' by Tolstoy. In every way, this story is a soap opera. Anna is married and privileged to enjoy the highest levels of Russian aristocracy, but when she visits her brother in Moscow, she falls in love with Count Vronsky.

She struggles with her desires but ultimately is overcome by them and leaves her husband, but she is denied a divorce and spends the rest of her life seeking acceptance for her relationship. The stress proves too much for her.

Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is the classic tale of star-crossed lovers if there ever was such a thing. The story of two young loves desperate for each other but unable to be together because of family feuds and, dare I saw, family dysfunction. I'm sure many teenagers can relate. A tragic ending is inevitable as it's all in the timing when it comes to matters of the heart.

As you may have noticed, the greatest love stories mentioned so far are a bit dated. However, Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain' is one of the few literary love stories to make the bestseller lists in recent memory. It's essentially a retelling of 'Romeo and Juliet' set in the desperate Civil War south. It too does not end well for the lovers.

A more recent novel, 'Some Glad Morning' by Gary C. Horton is now climbing the bestseller charts and has a similar plot, but with several surprising twists. The lovers are kept apart by social status and the leading man must first establish himself.

However, Ransom is a destitute sharecropper's son and Elizabeth is the daughter of a wealthy Charleston planter. The author skillfully entertains as the story weaves through several unforeseen twists to ultimately arrive at a brilliant and heartwarming ending.




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