It’s Valentine’s Day, so this post seems appropriate. After conducting loads of research, walking down memory lane reminiscing, and donning my thinking cap, I’ve come up with my list of the 50 most romantic novels of all time. Depending upon your age and tastes, your list may look very different. You’ll notice very few contemporary books here—I’m shooting for romance more than sex (hence no 50 shades happening here). How many of these have you read? What should I add to the list?
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Bride by Julia Garwood
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Duke and I by Julie Quinn
Emma by Jane Austen
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
It Ends with us by Colleen Hoover
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Katherine by Anya Seton
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Lynda Chase
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love Story by Erich Segal
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Normal People by Sally Rooney
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Serpent Garden by Judith Merkle Riley
Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Venetia by Georgette Heyer
Virgin River by Robyn Carr
Vision in White by Nora Roberts
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte