Thursday, October 23, 2008

Booking Through Thursday: Coupling


Two from Austen:

Monica suggested this one:

Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest:

“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

I love a good literary couple. Literary relationships are almost always so much neater than real life relationships. Or if they're messy, it's in a good, literary way.

My answers are fairly obvious and upon reading other BTT answers, I find they are completely unoriginal, but here they are:

Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy
Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth

From the Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery:
Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe

From The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Miland Kundera:
Tereza and Tomas

From Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing:
Beatrice and Benedick

From Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier:
Ada and Inman

Do you have a favorite literary couple?

9 comments:

J.L. Danger said...

I love Cold Mountain, and Ana and Inman are a total yes. My favorite would be Jane and Rochester, though I may be biased.

Anonymous said...

Great answers! Now I have to re-read The Unbearble Lightness of being. I totally forgot about Tereza and Tomas!

Gentle Reader said...

j. danger--Yes, Jane and Rochester! Forgot them, and they are a wonderfully messy literary couple...love them!

matt--thanks, and I have to re-read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, too...a wonderful book :)

Bybee said...

Cora and Frank from The Postman Always Rings Twice?

Anonymous said...

This is one of those questions where my mind goes completely blank. But after a while of dredging, I guess it would be Larry and Sally Morgan in Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety. Best book on marriage I ever read.

Gentle Reader said...

bybee--lol! I love that suggestion! Love James M. Cain, too, but my favorite is Double Indemnity. The characters in that one are a pretty frightening literary couple, too :)

litlove--Crossing to Safety is my favorite novel about marriage, too! In fact, one of the reasons I was attracted to my husband was that it was one of his favorite books. I'm sorry I didn't think of it, but I'm so glad you love it too :)

Ilsa Setziol said...

I vote for (Arnold Lobel's) Frog and Toad--that amphibious Odd Couple. Not a romantic couple, but just good froggy friends.

Gentle Reader said...

ilsa--lol! I love Frog and Toad, too :)

Anonymous said...

Catherine and Heatcliff, in Wuthering Heights by Bronte