Tuesday 1 December 2015

Top 5: Favourite Couples from Books | Blogmas #1


Emily from The Book Geek did a really fun video talking about her favourite fictional couples; and I really wanted to do a similar thing here. However, when I began to think about couples that I really liked, it did lead me to realise that a lot of the books I read don’t exactly feature positive relationships. There may be some some spoilers ahead.

Beatrice & Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
The ultimate fictional couple in my opinion; starring in basically the world’s first rom-com. They have some kind of history and now hate each other, so their friends and family decide that they’d actually be a perfect couple. Hilarity and a fake death ensue. Beatrice is a fabulous character, especially when you consider just how old this play is and her sparring with Benedick is just perfect. The Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branagh film is pure fun (also ft Denzel Washington! Keanu Reeves! The guy from Dead Poets Society), and so is the recorded stage version starring Catherine Tate and David Tennant. Just a fab play with a fab central couple.

Max & Fang from the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
So slight disclaimer, I haven’t actually read all the books in this series as by Book 3 I felt that it was 
pretty well wrapped up, but Patterson decided to drag the series on probably a lot longer than it really needed to go. However, I read these books as a teenager and was totally enamoured with the relationship between Max and Fang. This is a Young Adult series focusing on children who were genetically modified and are attempting to live a normal life away from the clutches of the evil organisation that imprisoned them. Max is kind of a Katniss Everdeen mark1 and Fang is the standard broody YA male that I really dug when I was younger. Part of me is tempted to read the next six (6!?) books in the series but I’m scared that I’ll hate them (Goodreads seems to).

Emma & Dexter from One Day by David Nicholls
This book broke my heart into many tiny pieces. Whilst Dexter is definitely bit of a tool, he’s a tool with his heart in the right place and Emma is just such a lovely character and I have never wanted a couple to get together and just be happy more. Even the film, with Anne Hathaway’s dubious accent, gets to me. Such a great story.


Christabel La Motte & Randolph Henry Ash from Possession by AS Byatt
Okay, so this is a definite spoiler for Possession but I had such a ridiculous crush on a fictional poet when I was reading this that I had to include it. The novel focuses on two academics one a specialist in La Motte and one on Ash who realise that these two Victorian (I think) poets; one a suspected lesbian, the other who was long believed to be a family man had in fact had an intense love affair. Their part of the novel is told in gorgeous love letters and poetry and I think I would die if I was sent a letter like those in this novel.

Petrocles & Achilles from The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This falls into a couple whose story doesn’t end particularly well, which you would know if you’re familiar with Greek mythology. However, Miller writes a really beautiful story between the two of them and this was another which really got me too. I really recommend checking this out, both for the love story which kills me, and the really interesting take on the familiar myth of Troy.


Do you have any particular favourite couple?

Also, I am going to attempt to give this Blogmas thing ago, because why not? 


Amy

1 comment:

  1. Ahhhh I've only read One Day so I had to skip over the rest (sexual tension is THE BEST so I need to not see whether they actually get together or not)! But I totally agree, I love how they experience their highs and lows at opposite times but always come together. I'm bookmarking this post and adding the books on my To Read list so I can come back and agree, it may certainly take a while! xxx

    Jesska - Opal Soul

    ReplyDelete