Looking for Quality Sappy Fiction
February 12, 2016 2:48 PM   Subscribe

I thoroughly enjoyed this post on the blue -- which explored how characters fall in love in novels. I would like to find new to me fiction that uses this technique in developing love stories.

For a while now, I've found that I've been craving romantic stories, but really unsatisfied with the ones that I'm reading. And then I read those two articles in that post and it was like a light bulb went off -- all the books that I'm getting annoyed with are not using adaptation for two characters falling in love.

In general, I like to read historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. I also read some mysteries, but I like to have the focus be more on the characters solving the mystery than the mystery itself. I'm open to any genre except horror.

The love story doesn't have to be the main focus of the book, but it should be a focus and it should follow the principle of adaptation as outlined in Nichol's essay.
posted by JustKeepSwimming to Media & Arts (5 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey mysteries? The Peter/Harriet romance kicks in in Strong Poison, and carries forward from there, with the slowly growing romance getting a strong focus in Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon.
posted by yasaman at 3:26 PM on February 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda is like this, but with both of the main characters behaving this way.
posted by jabes at 3:39 PM on February 12, 2016


The Republic of Love, by Carol Shields. Half the novel is from the man's point of view; half from the woman's. They don't even meet till halfway through the book. It's beautifully written and very much what you're looking for, I think.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:16 AM on February 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


it's possible a s byatt's possession is like this. i read it so long ago that i cannot honestly remember the details, but it's a well written love story from a respected female author and i thought it was awesome when i read it (likely at just the right age - i wonder if i should try reading it again, now, or whether it's better to let the memory lie). (happy valentines....)
posted by andrewcooke at 1:12 PM on February 14, 2016


Villette, The Blue Castle - both extremely sappy and/but adaptive, I think.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 9:53 AM on February 15, 2016


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