The Greatest Love Stories Of All Time

The New York Public Library shared their top ten picks for the greatest love stories of all time. They can melt your heart, make you laugh and leave you longing for a tissue. Whether you are looking for that special someone or blissfully in love, these ageless classics know just how to pull on those heartstrings. So, jump under the covers, turn down the lights and tuck into the most sought-after romantic novels of all time.

1. Wuthering Heights: A total eclipse of the heart.
In one of the oldest heart-wrenching classics in the "lost love can turn a good man evil" scenario, Emily Brontë's novel takes us back to 1802 at the Wuthering Heights estate. In this timeless love story, our leading man Heathcliff grows to become best friends with his adopted sister, Catherine, his life-long crush. But an offhand comment, overheard at the Heights, changes the course of both of their lives.
"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

2. Anna Karenina: Love can be a train wreck.
Frequently a top author's choice, this Tolstoy novel is a literary soap opera. Set in the highest circles of Russian society, Anna Karenina visits her brother Stiva in Moscow to help him save his marriage. While there, she falls in love with Count Vronsky. A married woman, Karenina fights off her desires until they overwhelm her and she leaves her husband, Alexei. Denied a divorce, Anna spends her life looking for acceptance in her relationship. When the strain of their love life becomes too much, Anna leaves Vronsky in a rage and well, if you haven't read it, do! We won't give away a heart-wrenching ending.
"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."

3. Romeo and Juliet: Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
In one of William Shakespeare's most celebrated works, this tale of "star-crossed loves" has been told and interpreted time and time again (from film classic West Side Story to teen flick Romeo + Juliet). A story all lovers can relate to, Romeo and Juliet focuses on the tragedies that accompany the loss of true love. Lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two of the most famed clans in literature, come from opposite sides of the Verona tracks and their family's disapproval of their love eventually leads to their demise.
"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet."

4. Casablanca: Play it again, Sam.
Made famous by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, this love story was originally a play by Murray Burnett. The play was turned into a script by writers (and brothers) Julius and Philip Epstein and their friend Howard Koch. In the story, American Rick Blaine is the owner of a gambling club "Rick's Cafe Americain" in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. Set during World War II, Rick is a bitter man having been scorned by ex-lover Ilsa Lund. When she walks back into his life suddenly, now married, with her husband in tow, Rick is forced to come face-to-face with well-aged heartache.
"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

5. Midsummer Night's Dream: Dream a little dream.
A romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, this play takes place in Athens as Duke Theseus plans a large festival around his marriage. During this time, Theseus' daughter, Hermia, is refusing to marry her fiancé. Due to a true-love-in-the-wings named Lysander. Against her father's wishes, she flees the nuptials for the woods. And guess who? While there, they befriend fairies who cause a bit of mischief. Cue a new love triangle and surprise ending!
"The course of true love never did run smooth."

6. Doctor Zhivago: Boy meets girl meets girl.
This Noble Prize-winning Russian novel by Boris Pasternak is the ageless classic of one man torn between two women. Yuri Zhivago is a medical doctor and poet during the 1917 Russian Revolution. While married to aristocratic Tonya, he falls in love with nurse Lara. Set during a war time, Zhivago's love triangle falls prey to a twist of fate, and becomes a tale of protagonist versus an achy, breaking heart.
 "Oh, what a love it was, utterly free, unique, like nothing else on earth! Their thoughts were like other people's songs."

7. Sense and Sensibility: Sisters and soul mates.
Another Jane Austen classic from 1811, this love story focuses around the Dashwood sisters – Elinor and Marianne. When their father dies, they lose their family estate and are reduced to a life of poverty. The story follows the sisters as they move in with a distant relative, leading them to equal parts heartache and romance.
"I wish as well as everybody else to be perfectly happy, but like everybody else it must be in my own way."

8. Dangerous Liaisons: A novel composed of letters.
The classic eighteenth-century novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos is the ultimate dark tale of lust, greed, deception and romance, featuring the Marquise de Merteuil, who requests that her partner, the Vicomte de Valmont, seduce the young daughter of her cousin. Meanwhile, young Cecile has the hots for her teacher, Chevalier Danceny. Love affairs, deception and lies aplenty unfold.
"How characteristic of your perverse heart that longs only for what happens to be out of reach."

9. Pride and Prejudice: A literary game of cat and mouse.
Charles Bingley is new to town and has leased an estate with his sisters and close friend Fitzwilliam Darcy. Named a "catch" by all the single ladies in town, Darcy is also known as snob. Neighbor Elizabeth Bennet finds herself repulsed by Darcy's ego. The resulting pas de deux between the feisty twosome makes for a quite a page-turner.
"We are all fools in love."

10. Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame: Oh Quasimodo!
Victor Hugo's story, set in Paris in 1482, centers around Norte Dame cathedral. In this "true love comes from within" story, Gypsy dancer Esmeralda is longed for by Quasimodo, Notre Dame's kind-hearted but deformed bellringer. Upon order of Archdeacon Frollo, Quasimodo attempts to kidnap Esmeralda, but is caught. Standing trial, Quasimodo is humiliated by the public and his victim Esmeralda has pity on him. Soon after Esmeralda is blackmailed and sentenced to death for the murder of her crush Phoebus. On her sentencing day, Esmeralda is saved from death by her dear Quasimodo. But can true love overcome her distaste for his looks?
"Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and continues to flourish over a heart in ruin."

Edited from: www.yourtango.com