From slow-burn romances to fierce friendships and all-consuming obsession, classic novels have been exploring love in all its forms for centuries. These timeless stories remind us that matters of the heart never go out of fashion.
Romance, Reason and Wit
Jane Austen
Across Pride and Prejudice , Sense and Sensibility Emma
The Vintage Collector’s Classics editions celebrate Austen’s enduring insight into relationships, marriage and women’s independence — witty, romantic and endlessly relevant.
Hardy’s novel presents love as choice rather than fantasy.
Bathsheba Everdene navigates three very different suitors, each representing a different future. Romantic, tragic and pragmatic all at once, the novel asks whether love should be passionate, steady or sensible, and what it costs to choose incorrectly.
Addressing devotion, jealousy, desire and time itself, these poems shaped how love was articulated long before the novel took centre stage. Love is idealised, doubted and immortalised through the stanzas on these pages.
Passion, Obsession and Dangerous Desire
Few novels portray love as ferociously as Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff and Catherine’s bond is elemental, obsessive and destructive, a love that defies social boundaries and even death.
With Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation reigniting interest, Brontë’s exploration of toxic devotion and emotional extremity feels as gripping as ever.
Gatsby’s love for Daisy is idealised, nostalgic and ultimately unattainable.
Set against the glittering excess of the Jazz Age, the novel shows how longing can curdle into illusion. This is love filtered through ambition and memory: beautiful, doomed and heartbreakingly human.
Lawrence’s controversial novel explores physical intimacy as emotional and spiritual awakening.
Connie Chatterley’s affair challenges class divides and social repression, presenting love as bodily truth and personal liberation. It remains a bold examination of desire and authenticity.
Plus after you read, you can watch the adaptation starring Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell on Netflix.
Love Beyond Romance
A perfect Galentine’s Day classic, Little Women celebrates sisterhood above all else. The March sisters’ relationships — loving, fraught and fiercely loyal — show how family and female friendship shape identity.
Love is presented as hopeful, awkward and formative in Cassandra Mortmain’s diary. The novel captures first crushes, artistic longing and devotion to family, all wrapped in a voice that feels intimate and modern. It’s a love story about growing up rather than settling down.
Scandal and Society
Jane and Rochester’s relationship is built on equality of spirit rather than wealth or status. Jane’s insistence on self-respect makes this a radical love story, where independence is non-negotiable. Love, here, must align with moral integrity.
Emma Bovary’s pursuit of romantic fulfilment becomes a cautionary tale about expectation and dissatisfaction. Flaubert dissects how fantasy, boredom and social pressure distort love, making this one of literature’s most incisive portraits of emotional self-deception.
Modern Classics: love in a changing world
This modern classic asks how love survives instability. Clare and Henry’s relationship unfolds out of sequence, shaped by absence and anticipation. It’s a poignant exploration of commitment, patience and loving someone you can’t always hold onto.
What happens after your Great Love?
Bridget reutnrs older, wiser and faving life after loss. This modern classic explores romance alongside grief, motherhood and reinvention, proving that love doesn't always follow a neat timeline.
The novel reframes the classic love story for midlife, where starting again can be just as brave as falling in love for the first time.
