Isn't it funny how everyone has their own idea for the perfect life? I am such a sucker for romantic ideals that I am always daydreaming about times past; times that seem perfect. Perfectly exciting, perfectly romantic, perfectly adventurous and perfectly perfect!
My favorite books contain adventure, true love (which I can't help saying like "twoo wuv" after watching The Princess Bride), happily ever afters and most importantly, antiquity. My favorites are as follows:
1.) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
If I ever had to choose a hero to fall in love with or a heroine to meet it would be the ones from this book! Sir Percy Blakeney is such a dashing hero, carrying on his work for God, country and the "poor French wretches" even as it costs him the passion of his true love and very near costs him his life! Marguerite is a brilliant woman who loves her husband and desires only to reach him as the lover of old. The dedication each character presents for the other is almost enough to make me swoon!
2.) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe makes my list second only because I read this book after The Scarlet Pimpernel and because Ivanhoe does not love Rowena as deeply or singly as Percy loves Marguerite! Even so, Ivanhoe is a decadent story that portrays the values of ancient days and demonstrates the vast chivalry of an outcast knight. One of the elements that adds greatly to this story is the "hidden" characters which accompany you through most of the story, only revealing their true identity near the end of the book. Throughout the tale you ride along with Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, King Richard and Ivanhoe himself, seeing a different take on their personalities that causes you to wonder their significance to the story!
3.) Persuasion by Jane Austen
The main reason this book is listed before my other favorite Austen work is that I hate how "commonly favorite" Pride and Prejudice has become since the onset of the modern movie! I hate sharing an awesome book with so many people who have no idea what it is really like!
Anyway, this book makes my heart jump at the prospect of marrying a sea captain! Captain Wentworth is an intense man who loved one woman very deeply. Unfortunately they have been separated by the pride of her family, a pride that has PERSUADED her to turn down Wentworth's proposal of marriage! Several years later (7 or 8 I think), Wentworth is back, and the tension is high! The love that these two characters feel for each other can be felt throughout most of the book, whether you are aware of it or not! The letter that Captain Wentworth writes to Anne is the most beautiful thing ever! I read it sometimes just to make myself tear up at its sweetness and desperation!
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.
"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."
Even now it is almost enough to make me cry!
4.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Ahhhh...On to my absolute favorite Jane Austen work! To be honest, one of the reasons that it is my favorite has nothing to do with the work itself! When I was a teen, my best friend and I always talked about meeting handsome young men and one day marrying them! We each took on our Austen persona, based on the man from Pride and Prejudice we wanted to marry (for had we our choice we could have easily married most if not all the male characters from Jane Austen's work!). As it were, she has the more lighthearted personality and thought that she would much prefer Mr. Bingley (who I considered a pathetic scrap of a map with a goofy sounding face) to the more intense and deeply touching Mr. Darcy (who would, I might add, fit me perfectly should he ever choose to materialize...).
To this day (she is married...to one I often consider more of a Mr. Collins) we still label cards and e-mails to each other to Mrs. Darcy or Mrs. Bingley. Some days I think she has her Bingley, and others I don't. I have gone through periods of viewing the relationship as Jane and Bingley and times when I feel more strongly that they are like Charlotte and Collins, together because they could find no other...which makes me long all the more for a true Mr. Darcy!!!
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All in all I'm a hopeless romantic, and I long to meet someone who can love and appreciate me to at least some of the credit the great classic authors gave men...
