BTT: Coupling

[fourzoas]

A bit late to the party today, but I'll bite.

This week's Booking Through Thursday:

“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

Hands down it's Austen's Captain Frederick Wentworth and Anne Eliot on the strength of this letter he writes to her alone:

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W."

"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never." Persuasion, Chapter 23

Your fave couples?

Comments

[theoriginalspy.livejournal.com]

Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester. He gives this brilliant "your mind broken would be my treasure still" (not an exact quote, obviously as I'm too lazy to get the book from upstairs) speech that gets me every time.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are a haunting pair! Good call!

[voicegrl.livejournal.com]

My favorite literary couple is Helena and Demetrius. (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Always have been.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Interesting choice. I love Helena--she gets the best lines--but Demetrius never feels fully fleshed out for me. Titania & Oberon? That's my Midsummer OTP! :-)

Eta: I hope that didn't come off as me cracking on your couple! I think I've seen a few too many wooden Demetriuses in performance!

[voicegrl.livejournal.com]

I remember them wanting me to audition for Titania and I wanted to play Helena SO badly. To this day, I would kill to play Helena. Poor thing.

I really am a sucker for unrequited love.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to play Titania, but my body made me a much better Hippolyta. Sigh. I need to get in touch with my inner Amazon.

I really am a sucker for unrequited love.

And this is why Martha is so awesome!

[voicegrl.livejournal.com]

No no no! I didn't think that at all. I think the two people I saw play Demetrius was a guy I knew and then Christian Bale. Both incredibly talented actors. And that's what did it for me.

And Helena is just adorable!

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Every production I was involved in had a fairly wooden, beefcake Demetrius. Didn't really help me love the character, but I'll have to give him a second look next time I assign the play to students. It's one of my faves, although I've been more inclined to have them read The Tempest of late.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

It's probably predictable, but Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

Though I do love Ann and Frederick an awful lot, especially for this line in that letter:

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Darcy & Elizabeth are a dollop of sweet, rich cream; I love them like puppies and sunshine!

Anne & Frederick just feel like comfort on a rainy day, which makes me love them more!

And that line melts me every time I read it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

And that line melts me every time I read it.

Would it surprise you to know that it put an idea in my head...

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I've been trying to ignore that line for about 12 hours now...

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well that doesn't surprise me!!

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Sort of thankfully, voicegrl's picture inspired a different naughty bunny, so I've been off on another tangent and have been able to keep Frederick at bay.

Now that you've taken up that torch, I can let it rest. For now...

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I saw your comment about the photo she'd snapped!

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Yeah--it's kinda sketchy right now, but it's morphing into this 1913-in-the-alt!verse thing...

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Intriguing!