SBD -- Love letters

[jmc_bks]

It is a momentous occasion: the first Smart Bitches Day of 2007, so I need something really interesting to say. Except, really, uh, blanking. I haven't done much romance reading so far this year, or really thought about it much. But then I flipped through my eBookwise reader on the way home and read a trust favorite, which flipped a switch in my mind.

The lightbulb: love letters. In romance novels, lovers send letters all the time. In contemporaries, most letters are reduced to emails and IM's. Which, frankly, aren't as romantic, IMO. Yes, it's nice to see the little window pop up on the laptop screen, especially when it's that guy you've been flirting with. But there's something about pen being set to paper and the thought that goes into the act of writing. Ahem, love letters. They seem to work best in historicals. Love notes given to the wrong person, discarded notes that give the wrong impression when discovered later Whitney, My Love, notes left on pillows for lovers (The Masque of the Black Tulip). My very favorite fictional love letter and the best part of Persuasion? Wentworth's letter to Anne.

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

Who could resist a man who can write a letter like that? Oh, the pent up passion!

The other fictional love letter that melts me? That of Miles Vorkosigan to his lady love in A Civil Campaign:

I'm sorry.

This is the eleventh draft of this letter. They've all started with those three words, even the horrible version in rhyme, so I guess they stay....

I tried to be the thief of you, to ambush and take prisoner what I thought I could never earn or be given. You were not a ship to be hijacked, but I couldn't think of any other plan but subterfuge and surprise. Though not as much of a surprise as what happened at dinner. The revolution started prematurely becuse the idiot conspirator blew up his secret ammo dump and lit the sky with his intentions. Sometimes those accidents end in new nations, but more often they end in hangings and beheadings. And people running into the night. I can't be sorry I asked you to marry me, because that was the one true part in all the smoke and rubble, but I'm sick as hell I asked you so badly.

There's more, but that slays me every time I read it. :sigh:

I wonder if it is hard for authors to draft love letters for their characters. I can't think of many that are truly memorable, other than the two I've posted above. Do you have any favorites? Or any that you read and think, "This won the hero/heroine?"

Comments

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

Most people think the beginning of Laura Kinsale's "My Sweet Folly" is worth the price of admission and yet the best part of the novel.

Kinsale

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

The only Kinsale book I've read is Uncertain Magic. I have two or three others TBR, but have never managed to sink my teeth into them. I don't think My Sweet Folly is one of them though. The description sounds interesting, though.

Re: Kinsale

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

It's a really strange book. Kinsale was struggling severely with her muse and her deadlines and it's after this book that she took six years off. I've read it once, and want to reread it. But then, I want to reread all her books. They take a lot of sinking into, though, and I just don't have the time or mental energy to do it.

[(Anonymous)]

Totally agree. The letter in Persuasion is genius and I'd forgotten about the letter in Civil Campaign but now that you remind me, it was really good. It's too bad that no one really writes true letters anymore!

I'm racking my brain but can't thing of any other love letters. There is Anne of Windy Poplars, which is made up entirely of letters from Anne to Gilbert, which are not exactly love letters, but still lovely.

BTW, I like your penguins!

--jennie

Anne of Windy Poplars

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Windy Poplars is the only Anne book that I don't re-read regularly. Something about it just seems melancholy to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Peter Wimsey's in Gaudy Night?

Dear Harriet,

I send in my demand notes with the brutal regularity of the income-tax commissiners; and probably you say when you see the envelopes 'Oh God! I know what this is.' The only difference is that, some time or other, one has to take notice of the income-tax.

Will you marry me? -It's beginning to look like one of those lines in farce- merely boring till it's said often enough; and after that, you get a bigger laugh every time it comes.

I should like to write you the kind of words that burn the paper they are written on - but words like that have a way of being not only unforgettable but unforgivable. You will burn the paper in any case; and I would rather there should be nothing in it that you cannot forget if you want to.
Well, that's over. Don't worry about it.


There's more to that letter as well, but that's the part that makes me sigh. The Miles letter always reminds me of the Wimsey letter somehow. (From memory, I think Bujold dedicates that book to several authors by their first names. I'm nearly sure she includes a Dorothy, and I've always taken that to be Sayers.)

Marianne McA

Sayers

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I have Gaudy Night in the TBR pile. That is an excellent opening paragraph to a love letter.

Re: Sayers

[(Anonymous)]

Have you read the others? Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon are the two romance-y books, but it is worth reading the entire story arc. He meets Harriet in Strong Poison - which is pretty much a straight detective story, and quite short, and then they solve another murder together in Have His Carcase. I happened to buy Strong Poison first, and I'm glad I did. The characters gain insights into their relationship over the course of the books, so it's richer if you read them all.
But Gaudy Night is a terrific book. Better to read it alone than not read it at all.

And, to comment on another comment, having never read Kinsale, I asked SarahF to recommend one a couple of days ago. She suggested Midsummer Moon, and it was a lovely book. Really clever, because the characters stayed true to themselves throughout the whole book - the author never let their differences dissolve in a puddle of love. I'm going to try more Kinsale.

Re: Sayers

[(Anonymous)]

Forgot to sign that. Sorry.

Marianne McA

Re: Sayers

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. I'm a Sayers virgin. Would you suggest starting at Strong Poison? I think Gaudy Night is the only one in the TBR pile, but I could hunt down the rest of her books, if they should be read in order.

Re: Sayers

[(Anonymous)]

Hate to say this, but if you enjoy detective fiction at all, yes, I really would. And if not, be warned - there's a lot of detective story in there. I've just looked at my copy of Gaudy Night, and Peter only shows up properly on page 264.
For all that, whenever favourite romantic couples are mentioned, they come to mind. (Funnily enough, after posting here last night I went over to the AAR After Hours Blog, and Saturday's(?) blog is a follow-up to an earlier request for romantic detective series - I'd been one of several posters who'd suggested Sayers, and she says she has enjoyed the books.)

As for the Kinsale, I think I was halfway through Midsummer Moon before I realised how much I was enjoying it. The set-up seemed very conventional, and even silly, but once the author started confounding my romance reader expectations, it was a fun read.

Marianne McA

Re: Sayers

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

And I forgot -- I have Kinsale's Midsummer Moon TBR. I started it and then put it aside, don't remember why.

Letters and such

[(Anonymous)]

As a Lord Peter fan, I'd also say that starting from Strong poison is a good idea. On the other hand, I usually read the last chapter of any book first (weird quirk), so I'd say that Gaudy Night is strong enough that you really can dive in there if you're intrigued and then go back to the beginning and get more layers.

If you like letters, you must, oh please do, you must read the beginning of My Sweet Folly. I've read all of Kinsale's books, and I have other favorites which I can discuss ad nauseam, but the letters are just great and should be read.

And the story later isn't terrible, necessarily. It just kind of drags or doesn't live up to the wit of the letters. You can read the letters and then just make up your own story for the characters--then there's no disappointment.

Suisan