The Best Romance Novels of All Time

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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