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Which fictional romantic couple did you get most invested in

78 replies

DilysPrice · 16/06/2012 09:28

Reading the "Who was your earliest literary crush?" thread has made me think about the fictional couples I have been most emotionally involved with.

I wouldn't personally touch Peter Wimsey with a bargepole, but I really felt Harriet falling in love with him, and the sudden shock at the picnic where she realises she lusts after him.
Aragorn and Arwen, who we never really see together, are give emotional heft by seeing Eowyn hopelessly in love with him.
And I cry buckets over Genly Ai and Estraven falling in love as they trek across the ice in The Left Hand of Darkness.

Which literary couples made you cheer on a crowded train when they got together, or weep when they didn't?

OP posts:
notnowImreading · 16/06/2012 18:47

Mr and Mrs de Winter. I primed my husband for years to propose by saying "I'm asking you to marry mr, you little fool!" and the bastard let me down. Reader, I married him anyway.

33goingon64 · 16/06/2012 18:37

I think the story of Anne and captain Wentworth just captures our hearts because besides being two likeable people surrounded by idiots, they had it, lost it and then it looked like they would have to live with that forever... His letter to her at the end just takes my breath away every time: you pierce my soul, for you only do I think and plan. Who wouldn't want to be told that by the man they are in love with and thought they had lost forever?

PoppadumPreach · 16/06/2012 18:04

Kevin and Sadie in Across the Barricades (catholic boy meets protestant girl in belfast) - loved this series when i was a teenager.

when i was a bit older, Anna Karenina and Vronsky were fairly captiviating, yet fundamentally flawed, characters.

yellowraincoat · 16/06/2012 18:00

Also Heathcliff and Cathy/Scarlett and Rhett.

And, er, Mulder and Scully. Except when they did, it was a bit rubbish.

Alurkatsoftplay · 16/06/2012 17:58

True enough!

NoraHelmer · 16/06/2012 17:46

Ah but if he really did look like Gabriel Byrne, then I'd completely understand why she chose him :o

Alurkatsoftplay · 16/06/2012 17:36

I thought Prof Bhaer was so weird and past it, Jo might just as well have gone off with Laurie's Grandfather.

Thumbwitch · 16/06/2012 15:46

Elephants, me too! And I don't care how lovely Prof Bhaer was, it just didn't work for me.

LOTR I actually got far more hooked up with Eowyn's romance with Faramir. Really really did. I even drew pictures of it Blush

Catsmamma · 16/06/2012 15:43

Ross Poldark and Demelza

with the added bonus of the tv series and Robin Ellis looking mean and moody in Georgian clothes. Yum!

LeQueen · 16/06/2012 15:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hackmum · 16/06/2012 15:36

I agree about Laurie and Jo - that was a travesty! I'm afraid I couldn't imagine what she saw in Professor Bhaer.

Also Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, Darcy and Elizabeth, Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliott - I'm a bit predictable, I'm afraid!

WriggleandFidget · 16/06/2012 13:00

And me for Francis & Phillipa - makes me want to reread them (again) but once I pick them up I can't stop until I've finished all six so nothing else gets done!

LapsedPacifist · 16/06/2012 12:55

YYY Francis Crawford and Phillipa Somerville

ReportMeNow · 16/06/2012 12:39

Yes, Heathcliff was a bit primitive wasn't he? Grin

realhousewifeofdevoncounty · 16/06/2012 12:33

I meant to say I never managed to get him back either! That last post of mine read completely wrong!

MooncupGoddess · 16/06/2012 12:31

Laurie was a charming wastrel, though, Jo was much better off with kind thoughtful Professor Bhaer who was really committed to improving the world rather than pratting around being rich and arty.

realhousewifeofdevoncounty · 16/06/2012 12:30

Scarlett o hara and Rhett Butler without a shadow of a doubt. They remind me of me and an ex, but I never managed to get him back. Sad

MooncupGoddess · 16/06/2012 12:29

Dorothea and Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch, from their very first conversation just when she's realising she's made a massive mistake with Casaubon.

Still cross that Walter Hartright in The Woman in White fell for drippy Laura rather than brave clever Marian.

peeriebear · 16/06/2012 12:21

Rupert and Taggie!

Alurkatsoftplay · 16/06/2012 12:07

YY, ReportmeNow, my poor boyfriend at time of reading was a mild-mannered 17 year old, don't think he really liked being my Heathcliff much.

ReportMeNow · 16/06/2012 11:28

"I am Heathcliff"

ReportMeNow · 16/06/2012 11:27

Yep, Austen for me - Anne Elliot and Cpt Wentworth and Elizabeth Bennett & Darcy. Couldn't give a monkeys though about the minx Emma.

Beatrice & Benedict, Much Ado

Amelia Peabody and Radcliff Emerson, although not sure that counts as literary!

GetOrfMoiiLand · 16/06/2012 11:23

Veronica Weston and Sebastian Scott was the earliest - I read the Lorna Hill books when I was about 10. I had such a stonking crush on Sebastian.

Then Taggie and Rupert Campbell-Black. Blush

Then Elizabeth and Darcy, and Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth.

I think though since I was in my late teens a romantic couple hasn't engaged me in teh same way as when I was younger.

Alurkatsoftplay · 16/06/2012 11:22

Catherine and heathcliff - I thought I was catherine and so got very cross when she/I went off with that wussy fella.

DamnDeDoubtance · 16/06/2012 11:18

Francis Crawford and Phillipa Somerville.

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