Love Letters of Great Men

By Ursula Doyle

Remember the wonderfully romantic book of love letters that Carrie reads aloud to Big in the recent blockbuster film, Sex and the City? Fans raced to buy copies of their own, only to find out that the beautiful book didn't actually exist. However, since all of the letters referenced in the film did exist, we decided to publish this gorgeous keepsake ourselves.

Love Letters of Great Men follows hot on the heels of the film and collects together some of history's most romantic letters from the private papers of Beethoven, Mark Twain, Mozart, and Lord Byron. For some of these great men, love is "a delicious poison" (William Congreve); for others, "a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music" (Charles Darwin). Love can scorch like the heat of the sun (Henry VIII), or penetrate the depths of one's heart like a cooling rain (Flaubert). Every shade of love is here, from the exquisite eloquence of Oscar Wilde and the simple devotion of Robert Browning, to the wonderfully modern misery of the Roman Pliny the Younger, losing himself in work to forget how much he misses his beloved wife, Calpurnia.

Taken together, these letters show that perhaps men haven't changed all that much over the last 2,000 years--passion, jealousy, hope and longing still rule their hearts and minds. In an age of e-mail and texted "i luv u"s, this timeless and unique collection reminds us that nothing can compare to the simple joy of sitting down to read a letter from the one you love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 25, 2008
• ISBN: 9781429920087

Book preview

Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) was the son of a landowner in northern Italy. After the death of his father, he was brought up by his uncle, Pliny the Elder, the author of a famous encyclopaedia on natural history. In AD 79, Pliny the Elder was killed during the eruption of Vesuvius.

Pliny had a career in law and government, first as a consul, and then as governor of a Roman province. He left behind ten books of letters: nine to friends and colleagues, the tenth to the emperor Trajan.

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To Calpurnia, his wife

You will not believe what a longing for you possesses me. The chief cause of this is my love; and then we have not grown used to be apart. So it comes to pass that I lie awake a great part of the night, thinking of you; and that by day, when the hours return at which I was wont to visit you, my feet take me, as it is so truly said, to your chamber, but not finding you there I return, sick and sad at heart, like an excluded lover. The only time that is free from these torments is when I am being worn out at the bar, and in the suits of my friends. Judge you what must be my life when I find my repose in toil, my solace in wretchedness and anxiety. Farewell.

Henry VIII first encountered Anne Boleyn in 1526, when he was married to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. The Roman Catholic Church did not allow divorce, and so Henry, obsessed with Anne, who refused to become his mistress, moved heaven and earth to persuade the Pope to grant him an annulment. The Pope refused, which led to Henry’s break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England with Henry as its Supreme Head (Henry did not have problems with self-esteem: see the kind gift to Anne he mentions in the letter below). The couple were finally married, after seven years of turmoil, in January 1533, and Anne gave birth to her daughter Elizabeth (who became Elizabeth I) that September. In May 1536, Queen Anne was arrested and charged with adultery with several men including her own brother, George, Viscount Rochford. She was found guilty, and beheaded at the Tower of London. On the same day, her marriage to Henry was declared null and void. Eleven days later, Henry married Jane Seymour, the only one of the lucky six wives to bear him a son who survived him, Edward VI.

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To Anne Boleyn

My Mistress and my Friend:

My heart and I surrender themselves into your hands, and we supplicate to be commended to your good graces, and that by absence your affections may not be diminished to us, for that would be to augment our pain, which would be a great pity, since absence gives enough, and more than I ever thought could be felt. This brings to my mind a fact in astronomy, which is, that the further the poles are from the sun, notwithstanding, the more scorching is the heat. Thus is it with our love; absence has placed distance between us, nevertheless fervor increases – at least on my part. I hope the same from you, assuring you that in my case the anguish of absence is so great that it would be intolerable were it not for the firm hope I have of your indissoluble affection towards me. In order to remind you of it, and because I cannot in person be in your presence, I send you the thing which comes nearest that is possible, that is to say, my picture, and the whole device, which you already know of, set in bracelets, wishing myself in their place when it pleases you. This is from the hand of

Your servant and friend,

H.R.

William Congreve was a celebrated dramatist, best known for his play The Way of the World; Arabella Hunt was a musician at Court and a favourite of Queen Mary. Arabella was married in 1680 to one James Howard; she filed for an annulment six months later on the not-unreasonable grounds that James was actually a cross-dressing widow called Amy Poulter. Unsurprisingly, Arabella never married again (‘Mrs’ was at this time an honorary form of address for a woman out of her teens). Congreve also remained unmarried, but had longstanding love affairs with Anna Bracegirdle, an actress for whom he wrote a number of parts, and Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, with whom he had a daughter in

Reviews for Love Letters of Great Men

[carpe_librum · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Love Letters of Great Men by Ursula Doyle is a collection that includes personal and private letters from some great names in history and literature, including: - King Henry VIII (writing to Anne Boleyn)- Mozart (writing to his wife)- Napoleon writing to his wife Josephine- Beethoven (writing to his Immortal Beloved)- Mark Twain (writing to Olivia Langdon)- Oscar Wilde (writing to Lord Alfred Douglas)and more!A short introduction is given to each letter which was concise and welcome background setting the scene.Some of the letters were beautifully written, some poorly written (but all reproduced in type font, so don't worry, you don't have to read their handwriting) and some just down right possessive. I'm talking about you Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Page 37):But I should not like you to take long walks without me. I entreat you to follow my advice exactly, for it comes from my heart.So, it turns out Mozart was possessive, jealous and just a tad bossy. Who knew?For more insights into the love lives of 41 men from history, check out Love Letters of Great Men by Ursula Doyle.

[dotholden · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My lovely sister bought me this beautiful book after receiving it as a gift herself; we had both seen it on the Sex and the City movie. Doyle has created a collection of love letters from some of history's most prominent men. There are politicians, writers, composers, poets, lords and kings. The letters are all very different in style but the sentiment of running through all of them is unmistakably love. Some men wrote of their love to one woman over a length of time and some men had many women to correspond with.I really, really enjoyed reading these letters, mainly due to the fact that they are letters. Today, messages are too often conveyed in abbreviated text messages; instant chat conversations or speedily written emails. Maybe I am old-fashioned but I still write letters to those closest to me and pop them in the post. You can take your time with a letter and really make the effort to get your feelings down in words.The letters in this collection are all well before email and telephones and that makes them even more poignant. You have Nelson writing from on board HMS Victory to Lady Emma Hamilton; they had probably not seen each other for months and his only comfort were the handwritten words that he could send her and those he would hope to receive in return.This book is a brilliant idea and a lovely present to receive. I am off to look for the love letters of great women; I am sure there is a book of those out there somewhere.