Since we're celebrating historical romance this week, I imagine everyone here enjoys stories set in the past! But what about stories actually written in the past? After all, you can't get much more authentic than a voice from the time!Have you read - and did you like - classic stories of romance like Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights? Pride and Prejudice? Or any of Jane Austen's other novesls - Persuasion, Emma and Northangar Abbey are favourites of mine too.
I regard Charles Dickens's novels as a bit of a treat too, and although not romances as such, I find some of the unusual love stories in his books very touching, eg Our Mutual Friend and The Old Curiosity Shop. And, of course, A Tale of Two Cities (which he actually wrote as a historical novel set in the French Revolution), where if I'd have been the heroine, I'd have married Sydney rather than his more conventional double :).
George Eliot is another classical favourite of mine. Again, her books are not regarded as romances as such, but I love the romances in them, especially Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. She also wrote a historical novel set in Renaissance Italy, Romola. And talking of classic authors who wrote historical novels, I have to mention Tolstoy's "War and Peace". This is obviously a huge and daunting work, and I confess there are passages I skimmed! But it's also mesmerizing and thought provoking, and I found the romantic elements very moving.
So what are your favourite classics? Or do they not interest you?
Marie
