Books about unrequited love - recommendations wanted

[Bookridden]

I want glorious romance, longing looks, sexual tension, nobly repressed emotion etc! What should I be reading? I'm not averse to chick lit, but prefer a more literary read on the whole. Something like the scenes between Jane Eyre and Rochester. Thank you!

Oscar and Lucinda - gorgeous unrequited love story
Villette and Persuasion - definitely

Poldark!

Oscar and Lucinda is under 3 quid on Kindle at the moment.

Thank you for the recommendations

Definitely don't mean creepy. More yearning and sexual tension.

In that case, Brookner is your woman - Hotel du Lac is the epitome of yearning and unfulfilled love. Another good one of hers is Incidents in the Rue Laugier, steeped in unrequited love.

Flaubert's Madame Bovary has lots tension.

The best yearning, unrequited love story I've ever read is Eugenie Grandet by Balzac.

I found Hotel Du Lac rather bloodless though. It's more sad unrequited, rather than unrequited for the time being until we overcome the obstacles to our passion ifyswim? That was the distinction I was trying to get at I suppose.

Ah, you're wanting unrequited love, obstacles to overcome, leading to a happy ending? Not quite unrequited then?

I like those stories too, but yes, a different kettle of fish from Brookner.

Yes, sorry paws - not me - that's what I was trying to get at to see what what kind of stories the Op wanted, but think I'm coming across as a hopeless pedant so might bow out

Hope you find something suitable bookridden

Orhan Pamuk- The Museum of Innocence is a really good one.
At Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart, about limerance. I'll think of more..

The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaefer (sp?).

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is unrequited for most of it and seen from both sides too.

Nah, you're alright Satsuki It's interesting reading everyone's suggestions (for me at least, thanks OP for starting the thread!)

An Equal Music - Vikram Seth.

I leant my copy to someone and have ever got it back. I have just realised this and now need to get another ASAP.

If you're looking for yearning, definitely try 'The Signature of All Things' by Elizabeth Gilbert, some very definite unrequited yearnings in that one!

The Madness of a Seduced Woman- Susan Fromberg Schaefer (sp?) one of the few books I have read more than twice.

glorious romance, longing looks, sexual tension, nobly repressed emotion -

Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig, a novella from 1922, has everything you asked for. It’s the ultimate story of unrequited love. Set between 1900 and 1918, it’s the story of a young girl’s undying love for a famous man, who barely notices her, except for three fateful nights. It’ s tragic and romantic, in the 1940s it was made into a wonderful ‘weepy’ starring Joan Fontaine (who played the wife in Hitchcock’s version of Rebecca) which is best watched with a box of chocolates and a bundle of tissues.

Turgenev's Liza (also known as Home Of The Gentry) is a classic of unrequited love.

Not exactly unrequited love but love that has been lost - An Equal Music by Vikram Seth.
I love it and re-read and re-read.

God - old thread that I posted the same thing on twice, because I only read page 1. Must be good - I have indeed bought a new copy since posting the first time and re-read that copy, just to check it!

I think ‘the newlyweds’ by nell fredenberger (?) fits the bill - I really enjoyed this, and also the Paris wife by Paula McLean, they’re not exactly unrequited but great love stories (gone wrong).

If you can find it, Diana Norman's The Pirate Queen.