Dear Juliet: Letters from the Lovestruck and Lovelorn to Shakespeare's Juliet in Verona

By Giulio Tamassia

Real letters sent to the Shakespearean heroine in Verona, Italy—seeking guidance and sharing tales of the passion, pain, humor, and heartbreak of love.
 
Every year, over ten thousand letters addressed to Juliet Capulet arrive in Verona, Italy, the famous hometown of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. These handwritten letters come from people all over the world, seeking guidance and support from Juliet herself.
 
Capturing the pain, joy, humor, and confusion of love, the sixty letters in this book offer encouragement, comfort, hope—and a nod to the human condition. Including responses from Juliet herself (in the form of a group known as Juliet’s Secretaries), this romantic and relatable collection proves that love is the universal language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781452171098

Book preview

Introduction

Letters have always been an important form of connection, used for both correspondence and documentation. In Latin, littera meant a writing, document, record, and its plural litteræ means a letter, epistle, missive, and also literature. We have traditionally used letters as a way to share thoughts, express feelings, and deliver news. Letters can tell us about love, friendship, and gratitude. They can be hopeful or full of surprise.

Today, apart from gas bills or junk mail, writing and receiving letters is an unusual occurrence. According the Universal Postal Union, there are 663,000 postal offices, which deliver 368 billion letter-post items a year. However, postal workers calculate that out of one hundred pieces of mail, only two or three contain personal correspondence.

But there is a place where people still handwrite and receive thousands of letters every year. In Verona, more than ten thousand letters arrive annually from every corner of the world—all written to Juliet Capulet, the famous Shakespearean heroine who has become the worldwide confidant of happy and heartbroken lovers alike. The letters are received by the Juliet Club (Club di Giulietta), the very special office where Juliet’s Secretaries collect, read, and respond to countless messages of love, all in the voice of Juliet.

In addition to the content’s richness, the aesthetic expression and style of each letter to Juliet is also wonderfully varied. No letter is like another. Sometimes accompanied by drawings, photographs, or poems, they are written on refined, colored stationary, simple notebook pages, or, in the case of messages left at Juliet’s House, on the back of a table cover or train ticket.

We owe Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE) for giving us the first Greek–Latin love letters. In Heroides, he interprets the female soul by assuming the roles of some of mythology’s greatest heroines. In imaginative letters written from Penelope, Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Dido, and Phaedra, Ovid captures these women’s strengths and their often misunderstood feelings. With this work, Ovid gave life to a new literary genre—poetic letters of love.

Nowadays, we send texts and emails through our phones and computers rather than letters. Yet, there are still thousands of people who pick up a pen and write to Juliet. Perhaps when you want to reach a mythical character, you prefer paper and pen.

Writing a letter is therapeutic, and, by confiding in someone you don’t know, it is even easier to open up and discuss deep, intimate sorrows. In these letters to Juliet, there is a magical, mythical, and literary element, which lets us reveal our inner romantic and passionate sides.

A letter also has the allure of uncertainty. Historically, letters were hand carried by often unreliable messengers and tired horses, prevailing against Mother Nature and treacherous roads. Many great works of literature are filled with letters that were never delivered or received too late. Often these letters determined the fate of the characters. A famous example is the failed delivery of Romeo’s letter, which causes the final tragedy in Shakespeare’s famous love story. A letter sent today by snail mail (a word that captures this perfectly!) is heightened by the unpredictability of its arrival.

The letter itself is a magical object. You can touch it. You can hold on to it. You can sense the hand that wrote it. From the handwriting to the little details on the page—a flower drawing, a lipstick kiss, or a fingerprint—every letter is different, a surprise. Letters can be kept as precious memories of your life and relationships.

The letters sent to Juliet tell about dreams and hopes, but also heartbreak and pain. They ask for wisdom, courage, and strength. Like your best and wisest friend, she listens and understands like nobody else. She is someone to whom you can confide your most personal troubles.

Today, Juliet is a symbol of pure love. Her spirit is still alive in every heart. She inspires people everywhere to speak and write from the heart, just as we have done for centuries. Although the existence of Juliet is not certain, her story is more real than the surrounding myth; she is more than just a character in a play. Her myth is real. Like Juliet, Verona has transcended its geographical boundaries. Verona is a place of love and romance, a place of yearning for the ones you have and the ones you cannot have. It is a place that