Subtle but sweet love stories!

August 14, 2009 2:24 AM

Subtle but sweet love stories!

I need some romance to warm my cold, lonely heart. But I don’t like histrionics or bombast. Can I have recommendations for sweet, satisfying but very subtle romances? Things I like are:

- when Mr (or Miss Right) is there all along in the background but the hero/heroine can’t see it
- when lots of other stuff happens in the story and there just happens to be a v. cute love story in the middle of it

A couple of examples are Emma and When The Cat’s Away (Chacun Cherche son Chat).
(I don’t mean UST, or slow-burning relationships that turn into romance later, like Mulder and Scully – rather, love stories that are planned from the beginning but just happen to be played out subtly and cutely.)

Thanks!

posted by low_horrible_immoral to media & arts (34 comments total)

Time Traveller's Wife? New film looks like dreck, but the book's compelling and creative tendencies balance out the sweetness of the love story, and the ending is satisfying.
posted by Sifter at 3:08 AM on August 14

Seconding Time Traveller's Wife. As a fellow disdainer of bombastic, histrionic MagiPeen romances, I really enjoyed the development of the main characters. (Always good to read a romance between characters who, shock horror, enjoy a rich inner life!)
posted by psychostorm at 3:38 AM on August 14

Thanks for the replies!

TTW is a sweet story and I liked it a lot, but I would class it more as the story of a marriage - albeit a romantic, passionate one. what I'm actually looking for is even more subtle (if possible)! Also, ideally, one in which the 'getting together' bit it at the end.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 3:46 AM on August 14

Post Captain by Patrick O' Brian. Gorgeous!

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Beautiful, beautiful book. I usually forget books the minute I put them down, but this one has stayed with me.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:54 AM on August 14

Barbara Pym, "No Fond Return of Love." Mature romance, with only one fainting character.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:14 AM on August 14

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers.
posted by redfoxtail at 4:39 AM on August 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

I see so far the suggestions have been books - are you interested in films also? If so, I would suggest Linklater's Before Sunrise (and the sequel Before Sunset), and Broadcast News.
posted by jzed at 4:51 AM on August 14

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a must! There is even an movie (animation) by Hayao Miyazaki which is okay, but the book is one of my favourite books of all time.

And I guess Jane Eyre would fall in your definition.
posted by moiraine at 5:04 AM on August 14

Cold Mountain?
posted by oinopaponton at 5:07 AM on August 14

Oh, and Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters, which is a mystery set in the 1900s in Egypt.
posted by moiraine at 5:08 AM on August 14

Both films and books/comics etc are good! Great answers so far, thanks.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 5:24 AM on August 14

Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Ignore the movie though!
posted by indienial at 5:25 AM on August 14

Georgette Heyer?
posted by Sitegeist at 5:31 AM on August 14

Tehanu by Ursula LeGuin
posted by nax at 5:32 AM on August 14

Maurice Walsh?
He's famous for the book, that became the movie "The Quiet Man". I've read a few of his books, and the stories usually involve some unattainable beautiful woman (who usually becomes attainable), and a dark mysterious physically strong man. Quite formulaic, but enjoyable to read.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 5:44 AM on August 14

The Anne of Green Gables series, particularly books 1-3. Anne has a lot of adventures and experiences with and without Gilbert, but !!!SPOILER ALERT???!!! they end up together in the end.
posted by srah at 6:38 AM on August 14

The love stories in Adverbs by Daniel Handler are adorable.
posted by juliplease at 6:50 AM on August 14

Of Human Bondage
Love in the Time of Cholera
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights (sort of)
Jane Austen
posted by Wayman Tisdale at 7:25 AM on August 14

Perhaps completely off the target (I haven't read the books you recommend) but also completely free, I'd recommend you check out Dobbs' Wrestle the Fucking Future to the Ground. He sends out far too little these days but they're short and (bitter)sweet when they do come. There's archives there to scroll through as well.

And as full disclosure, I'm a friend and his (former) dog sitter. I'm in his apartment watering his plants right now! :)
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 7:26 AM on August 14

There's a very sweet, subtle love story at the heart of Paprika (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/). It's almost a spoiler to mention it, because it's so well hidden, but when the two characters involved reveal their love for each other, it feels completely believable (at least for me).
posted by GraceCathedral at 7:28 AM on August 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison has always been one of my favorite love stories, and it's hardly a "romance," per se, more of a war movie. But incredibly subtle, touching, well-acted. (Plus, Robert Mitchum.)
posted by Ladybug Parade at 7:29 AM on August 14

Just finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver which I think is in the line you're thinking of. Also try The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. I thought the movie was dreadful in comparison to the book. As for movies, I have a soft spot for Crossing Delancey.
posted by angiep at 7:43 AM on August 14

Elizabeth Goudge's "Green Dolphin Street" and "The Scent of Water" ... gentle and compelling.
posted by Allee Katze at 7:53 AM on August 14

Maybe some of the 19th century triple-decker novels we've just digitized at UIUC? So far I've read The Semi-Attached Couple and it's pretty much exactly what you're looking for. (Except, in Victorian fashion, they are married first and then fall in love.) Vol. 1, Vol. 2
posted by MsMolly at 8:13 AM on August 14

Clueless.

There's a more low-brow recommendation for you!
posted by No New Diamonds Please at 8:58 AM on August 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tim by Colleen McCoullough. Very warm, unexpectedly touching story of a middle-aged spinster and a handsome but somewhat child-like laborer.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:56 AM on August 14

Thankyou all - quite an eclectic range here which will no doubt lead me to good places!
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 11:37 AM on August 14

Backpack by Emily Barr - about a girl traveling through Asia
posted by soelo at 11:43 AM on August 14

The Enchanted, Inc books by Shanna Swenson have a love story in the back of the books, but they focus on magic in NYC.

I second Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.
posted by angelchrys at 1:29 PM on August 14

She's old school, but Mary Stewart's books are reliable for getting a romance fix.

Is historical fantasy ok? Paula Volsky's Illusion is based on the French Revolution from the perspective of a girl who becomes a Queen's attendant (and takes almost forever to realize both that the boy she grew up with pines for her, and that she feels that way about him too). The plot is dramatic, but the romance itself is shown in hints and suggestions.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 2:32 PM on August 14

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. So subtle the hero doesn't figure it out until the end :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:39 PM on August 14

The movie Paper Heart just came out. It's got a romance that is subtle, sweet, and awkward as heck.
posted by vespertine at 5:18 PM on August 15

Definitely Lisa Jensen's pirate novel, "The Witch From the Sea".
posted by of strange foe at 5:32 PM on August 15

The original version of The Office (which aired on BBC) and the subsequent Christmas Specials.
posted by getawaysticks at 9:47 AM on August 16