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Love Letters of Great Men

By Ursula Doyle

(14)

| Others | 9780312567446

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Book Description

Remember the wonderfully romantic book of love letters that Carrie reads aloud to Big inthe recent blockbuster film, Sex and the City?

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This collection of Love Letters of Great Men was compiled and released after a book of the same name appeared in the movie "Sex & the City". Yes, that's the one from which Carrie Bradshaw read the love letter of Ludwig van Beethoven to Mr. Big ("You - my Life - my All - farewell. Oh, go on loving ... (continue)

This collection of Love Letters of Great Men was compiled and released after a book of the same name appeared in the movie "Sex & the City". Yes, that's the one from which Carrie Bradshaw read the love letter of Ludwig van Beethoven to Mr. Big ("You - my Life - my All - farewell. Oh, go on loving me - never doubt the faithfullest heart Of your beloved L Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.")
Apart from Beethoven's letter to his unnamed immortal beloved, the book contains over 40 love letters of great men, most of them being English/ French/ German poets, playwrights, writers, novelists, diplomats or kings of the 18th - 19th centuries, e.g. King Henry VIII, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde (with his notorious love letters to Lord Alfred Douglas), and Gustave Flaubert etc.
Who wouldn't want to receive letters of adoration and worship that abound with enchanting words of admiration, sweetness and most of all, eternal love? In this era of emails and text messages, love letters have been extinct for a long time. If there is still a man out there who writes love letters, he is either married or gay. So for those ladies who are looking for love, please don't have the illusion that Mr. Big writing love letters (emails, to be exact) to Carrie would happen in reality.
And then after reading this collection, I don't very much look forward to receiving love letters because the most well-written and touching letters were written by adulterers. Most of the "great men" featured in this collection were unfaithful and they wrote beautiful love letters to woo the wives or mistresses of other men, many of whom were their acquaintances. For example, the following extracts from the love letters tug my heart-strings, but the context in which they were written leaves much to be desired:
"It is the hardest thing in the world to be in love and yet attend to business." - Richard Steele to his mistress, Mary Scurlock
"There is not a day in which your figure does not appear before me; your conversations return to my thoughts, and every scene, place or occasion where I have enjoyed them, are as livelily painted as an imagination equally warm and tender can be capable to represent them." - Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of a diplomat
However, there are still a few faithful ones, and I am so moved by this one from Mozart to his wife:
"Do catch them in the air - those 2999 1/2 little kisses from me which are flying about, waiting for someone to snap them up." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Constanze
Of course, men like Mozart are hard to come by ...
The one I like most in this collection is not so much a love letter. It was written by Daniel Webster, American orator and statesman, to a dinner guest who had left her bonnet at his house. Webster wrote like he was talking to the bonnet but in fact was heaping praise after praise on the beauty of Josephine:
"I gave it my parting good wishes; hoping that it might never cover an aching head, and that the eyes which it protects from the rays of the sun, may know no tears but those of joy and affection." - Daniel Webster to Josephine Seaton
This is really charming.
Readers (female readers - I don't expect men would read it) may find it a bit fed-up half-way through the book as reading too many love letters may make one sentimental. But it's still a lovely collection that is most suitable for flicking through from time to time.
My verdict: history has proved that most men (and women as well) are unfaithful - people just don't find it too crowded to have more than two persons in a relationship. Good men like Mr. Darcy only exist in fiction ...
It's so depressing.

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Tracy W said on Jan 31, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | 1 feedback