Fictional romantic heroes?

[SalmonMaki]

Just finished re-reading Jane Eyre again for the nth time. This time, I really tried to think about what appeals to me in the story. And I think my answer is the ardour and intensity of the attraction / love between Eyre and Rochester.

So not my real life (yes there's love, but not the fervour).

So what other romantic heroes / pairings do you guys like?

I read Anna Karenina a while back and did not like her at all, she made me quite cross.

Wimsey and Harriet Vane
Emma and Mr Knightley

Elizabeth and Darcy... And yes I know that is predictable but still my fave!

If you love the Jane Eyre have you read the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde? It is utterly bonkers but the love for the novel shines through.

Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth.

I'll take a look at the Jasper Fforde, thanks. Not that keen on Austen myself...

My 14 year old is reading Jane Eyre at the moment and while she is engrossed in the story she think Rochester is a creep who is way too old for Jane (and she hasn't even found out about the wife in the attic yet!)

I loved Margaret Hale and Mr. Thorton in North and South.

I always hate to mention it given my username (I do post about other fiction, I promise) but CB's other book, Villette, has another great love story and Paul Emanuel is an interesting romantic hero (bit more off the wall than Rochester :))

The Blue Castle (LM Montgomery) is a very cute love story and quite like Jane Eyre.

Trying to think of some really intense love stories - quite a lot of them seem to have an unhappy ending!

Rupert Campbell-Black and Taggie (lowers tone of thread!)

Francis Crawford of Lymond and ... well, I won't say, because it's not obvious from the start and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

With you HarrietVane, but I also like your namesake's relationship with LPW!

Oh I love The Blue Castle - it's really sweet.

I just bought The Blue Castle on my kindle for 99 cents. I love this forum.

cresset, I believe Dorothy Dunnett was a Sayers fan. Lymond and LPW have characteristics in common, and I could easily believe that the Wimseys are descended from the Crawfords. Or possibly the connection is on the Delagardie side.

I'm with Chessie. I loved Rupert Campbell Black and Taggie.

Harriet easy to credit. I also liked her Johnson Johnson detective stories, and there's whiff of Sayer in those too.

I'm going through a complete Bronte re-read at the moment ( it hits me every ten years or so), and I think I have to nominate Agnes Grey and Mr Weston - because I think it's the happy ending Anne would have liked for herself. And she's my favourite Bronte.

If the tone is able to be lowered I'd also say Ricky France Lynch and Daisy! Although I do love Taggie and RCB. Oh and Flora and George. And Pandora and Luke.

Elizabeth and Darcy are also two of my favourites.

I also love Lyra and Will from Pullman's Dark Lights Trilogy for the innocence and futility of their relationship, so not really a couple but a pairing that had so much promise.

I have eclectic reading taste!

HarrietVane99

Do you think someone who likes Sayers, Heyer and Austen would like Dorothy Dunnett? I have never heard of her until this thread, and would love something new to read. And her hero sounds like just my cup of tea... Is her stuff well-written?

(Waves back)

Well, I like Sayers, Heyer and Austen, and I like Dorothy Dunnett.

Her style is completely different from Heyer or Austen. Very densely written, packed with literary allusions, not necessarily in English. You need to persevere, because it's not obvious what's going on from the start and which are the good guys and which are the bad. There are plot threads that play out over the whole series. You might need to have a book on 16th century European history to hand to keep track of what's going on.

She really puts her hero through it; almost everything bad that could happen to him, does. There's loads of angst.

They are suberbly researched. She mixes fiction and and real life events and people so that you can't tell which is which. There are some wonderful characters - even the ones you want to slap, which includes Lymond himself at times. And some wonderfully funny moments to lighten the angst.

If you have a Kindle, I suggest you download a sample of Game of Kings and see how you get on. And report back!

Anne of Green Gables & Gilbert Blythe are probably my favourites

Thanks so much, Harriet - I did that period at A Level so it will be a much-needed refresher course for me. My only concern is that it might be too angsty; I usually stick to my security blanket of 'happy ever after' but I think this will be a helpful challenge. I will report back!

Do it LadyPeter. Dorothy Dunnett is wonderful, and if you did History A level you have a head start on the period politics. And after 4,000 plus pages...

on the Dorothy Dunnett theme - I loved King Hereafter, about Macbeth (Earl Thorfinn of Orkney). It is a fabulous book.

I love Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth- also I have a very soft spot for Henry Tilney and Catherine Morley- enjoyed the Val McDermid reimagining of Northanger Abbey as well

Peabody and Emerson from Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series.
Some of the lines in the first book are inspired "I happened to notice the bronzed muscles of his back rippling through his shirt, which was interesting for a student of anatomy"

Falco and Helena Justina too.

I loved the strange twisted relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, but I also loved the end of the book where Hareton and Cathy's daughter fall in love. Who could forget her sticking primroses in his bowl of porridge?!