From Shakespeare to Victor Hugo, to even unexpected contenders such as J. R. R. Tolkien, we learn a lesson in romance from the top wordsmiths of all time.
Take a look our top 100 literary 'I love you's'...
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
‘And you'll always love me won't you? Yes. And the rain won't make any difference? No.’
A Little Princess, Frances Hodges Burnett
‘I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.’
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare
‘I'll follow thee and make a heaven out of hell,To die by your hand which I love so well.’
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
‘I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul...A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.’
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
‘I will follow you to the ends of the world.’
About Alice, Calvin Trillin
‘I never stopped trying to match that evening - not just trying to entertain her but trying to impress her. Decades later - after we had been married for more than thirty-five years, after our girls were grown—I still wanted to impress her.’
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
‘I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.'
Anne of the Island, Lucy Maud Montgomery
‘I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want you.’
Ariel, Sylvia Plath
‘If the moon smiled, she would resemble you. You leave the same impression of something beautiful, but annihilating.’
Atonement, Ian McEwan
‘I've never had a moment's doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.’
Beloved, Toni Morrison
‘Jump, if you want to, ‘cause I’ll catch you, girl. I’ll catch you ‘fore you fall. Go as far inside as you need to, I’ll hold your ankles. Make sure you get back out…We can make a life, girl. A life.’
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
‘You're wonderful. Unique. I love you.’
Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx
‘I wish I knew how to quit you.’
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières
‘After the war I'll love you, after the war, I'll love you, I'll love you forever, after the war.’
Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand
‘Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She instills grace in every common thing and divinity in every careless gesture. Venus in her shell was never so lovely, and Diana in the forest never so graceful as my Lady when she strides through Paris!’
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
‘She was more than human to me. She was a Fairy, a Sylph, I don't know what she was…I was swallowed up in an abyss of love in an instant. There was no pausing on the brink; no looking down, or looking back; I was gone, headlong, before I had sense to say a word to her.’
Delirium, Lauren Oliver
‘I love you. Remember. They cannot take it’
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
‘I can't say it more clearly. I love you madly, irrationally, infinitely.’
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens
‘If you will take me for your wife, Walter, I will love you dearly. If you will let me go with you, Walter, I will go to the world's end without fear. I can give up nothing for you - I have nothing to resign, and no one to forsake; but all my love and life shall be devoted to you.’
Emma, Jane Austen
‘I cannot make speeches, Emma...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me.’
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