Our Top 10 romance books for Valentine’s Day
What could be better than being immersed in a beautiful love story to bring you sweet emotions? In these days of long evenings, we’ve put together a selection of books that talk a little, a lot, or a lot about this strange, miraculous, sometimes unmanageable… but delicious feeling we call LOVE.
A selection by Marie-Laure Vallée.
THE MOST GLAMOROUS
Carole et Clark, Vincent Duluc, published by Stock.
Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, legendary stars of American cinema, married in 1939. While the actor was a great seducer, the determined and jealous actress watched over her husband like a she-wolf. A love story tinged with glamour and humour at the heart of the golden age of Hollywood studios.
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THE MOST INTENSE
Diary, Richard Burton, éditions Séguier.
Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were too much alike not to fall madly in love.
The actor’s turbulent memoirs reveal their passionate love story. Between break-ups and reconciliations, these two giants of Hollywood cinema burned with a devastating love.
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THE SOFTEST
Virginia et Vita, Christine Orban, published by Le Livre de Poche.
Virginia Woolf, then married to the publisher Leonard Woolf, met the eccentric Vita Sackville-West in 1927. The two women fell in love at first sight, despite their opposite temperaments. Their complicity would nourish Virginia’s literary creation. The result was Orlando, one of the writer’s major works.
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THE MOST LYRICAL
Mon cœur qui est maître de moi…, poems by Charles d’Orléans and Christine de Pisan, illuminations by Diane Calvert, published by Alternatives.
Christine de Pisan and Charles d’Orléans, two of the great names in 15th-century courtly poetry, have come together in this refined collection to sing the praises of love. The former dared to express her feelings at a time when intellectual women were feared; the latter, prince and captive of the English for twenty years, found solace in writing fiery verses to his Douce.
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THE MOST FASCINATING
Le Voleur d’amour, Richard Malka, published by Grasset.
Adrian has just one day to live. For the young man is a vampire whose immortality is his greatest despair. If he wants to spare the beautiful Anna, with whom he is madly in love, he must choose to die. But will he?
This dark, vampiric novel is guaranteed to thrill, taking readers down the centuries from Venice to New York, via Paris and Constantinople.
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THE MOST MYSTERIOUS
Il suffit d’une nuit, Somerset Maugham, published by 10/18.
A young, beautiful widow; a magnificent, disturbing violinist; desire; an eventful night; suicide. What really happened that night in this opulent villa in Florence?
Somerset Maugham knows how to create suspense in this breathtaking novel from cover to cover.
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THE MOST BEWITCHING
Muse, Joseph O’Connor, published by Phébus.
Dublin 1917. The passionate relationship between the pretty actress Molly Allgood and the Irish playwright John Millington Synge. Twenty years his senior, he modelled her in his own image. She became his muse and followed him to Broadway. She devoted her youth to him. A moving work sublimated by the fidelity of feelings.
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THE MOST HISTORIC
Henri IV et Corisande, by Françoise Kermina, published by Atlantica.
Françoise Kermina’s story focuses on the youth of King Henry IV, a conquering and generous sovereign. A passionate man who loved women too much to be faithful to just one. Yet it was with them, and with Diane d’Andoins – known as Corisande – in particular, that he became a man. Their romance was one of the longest and most sincere.
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THE MOST INCREDIBLE
The story of my life, Giacomo Casanova, published by Robert Laffont.
Casanova, famous for his endless female conquests, never tying himself down, broke many hearts. However, in his Memoirs, this libertine Don Juan admits to having been madly in love with Henrietta, his most beautiful love. She was French. They were young. Although their affair was fleeting, it left an unforgettable impression on Giacomo.
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THE MOST ENCHANTING
Le dictionnaire amoureux de Venise, Philippe Sollers, published by Flammarion.
The author, under the spell of the city of the great romantics, guides the reader through its landscape and history. He evokes the fascination of many artists with the Serenissima. A captivating journey through Venice, with its vast iconography.
Thank you to Marie-Laure Vallée for these valuable reading tips www.litteratureandcie.over-blog.com / livrissime_m.laure
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