Actually, I didn’t get tagged but I saw it on numerous blogs and decided to jump on the bandwagon. You’re supposed to name at least five of your favourite literary couples. I had a list with over twenty but decided to cut back because it really isn’t that easy to find great quotes in novels you haven’t read in the last couple of years. In some cases, I remembered what I wanted and where I could find it, in others I got lucky and just stumbled upon a great quote. So here are my twelve favourite literary couples in no particular order – well, except for the first one because Rhaegar and Lyanna are my absolute OTP.
Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and his Lady Lyanna Stark, both dead before their time, dead before the story of the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin even picks up. And yet, their story is epic and has completely enchanted me. I tend to have an OTP in every fandom but if I have to choose my absolute OTP, then it’s them. I’ve got this lovely image as my desktop background ever since I started reading the series in early 2011. I know that Rhaegar is said to have kidnapped Lyanna but I’m a firm believer that they truly loved each other. That said, I guess it’s almost superfluous to mention that I also believe in THE theory … you know what I’m talking about.
Due to Mordan and Lijanas, Der Kuss des Kjer by Lynn Raven [LT: The Kiss of the Kjer] is one of my all-time favourite high-fantasy novels. They are both strong and complex characters and for the most part, they are driving each other up the wall. Following their story is just so much fun – and heartbreak. The review I wrote is basically a love letter to these two and their epic love story.
Headstrong, curious and independent tomboy Alisa and stunning, powerful but awfully arrogant Franz Leopold are my favourite literary vampires and so damn cute! Right from the moment they met – and clashed – for the first time in Nosferas, the first installment of the Die Erben der Nacht series by Ulrike Schweikert [LT: The Heirs of the Night], I was totally shipping them. As the saying goes, teasing is a sign of affection and they can hardly spend a minute in each others company without picking a fight. So much fun!
If I have to pick my favourite Harry Potter couple, then it’s Tonks and Lupin. They are two of my favourite characters and I just loved them together. I’ll never get over how J.K. Rowling handled that scene. They deserved something far more epic.
I’m sitting here staring at my screen and don’t know what to say. I’m still aching just thinking about the Merle-Trilogie / Dark Reflections Trilogy, which has a very special place in my heart. It was my first encounter with Kai Meyer and he instantly became my favourite author. If I remember correctly, Serafin was my very first literary crush. I loved him and Merle together, I will love them forever.
I love Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen so so sooo much! Since these two are a classic couple, I don’t think they need further explanation.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern has completely enchanted me. Deep down I’m slightly obsessed with the world of this novel, the stunning, glamorous and magical Cirque des Rêves. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps – and all that although I had some issues with the novel. The love story of Celia and Marco was – naturally – magical. I just loved that the attractions of the circus were love letters to each other. So romantic!
I’m in love with the devil! Lycidas (= Lucifer) is definitely one of my all-time favourite characters. So far, I’ve only read Lycidas and Lilith, the first two installments of the Uralte Metropole series by Christoph Marzi [LT: Ancient Metropolis], and what can I say: I love the titular characters. Lycidas can pretty much charm the pants off you – so much that I still don’t know whether he’s actually evil or not. Lilith on the other hand is quite another character. She appears to be much more evil and yet she loves Lycidas so much that she is willing to give her life for his – in order to save the world.
Arkadien erwacht by Kai Meyer [ET: Arcadia Awakens] is still my favourite novel and I adore the trilogy. Rosa and Alessandro’s love story is wonderful and it shows that there does not have to be a forced love triangle to make a romance complicated and interesting. They both come with a lot of emotional baggage and have to figure out their relationship and responsibilities. They fight and disagree and yet always try to protect each other no matter the costs – without pledging undying love to each other all the freaking time.
The Libri Mortis trilogy is my all-time favourite trilogy. Rosalie’s story is intense, which makes the love story between her and Ambrose so much more sweet. It is refreshing that the romance never occupies centre stage although it is an integral part to the storyline. The developments just feel natural.
I only read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett because of Jack and Aliena. I saw a youtube video, fell in love with their story and decided to read the novel. Although I also liked many of the other characters, these two were definitely my favourites. Their story is so great and tragic.
The Heartland series by Lauren Brooke is one of my favourite horse novel series because it’s not all stars and butterflies – horses die and not every competition can be won. Besides, there are a lot of serious issues that are addressed and the characters have to live through a lot. Amy and Ty always seemed like a natural couple since they spent so much time together. However, their relationship also had many ups and downs. Still, the last two awful novels in the series (#21 and #22, which are published as specials in the English speaking world) pretty much messed everything up, which is why I don’t really count them as canon.
There are SPOILERS in the bibliography! Since many couples come from series, you probably don’t want to know from which novel (or page) I took the quotes. It’s basically just to make sure that I haven’t plagiarised anything.
[wpspoiler name=”Bibliography” closebtn=”close”]
Austen, Jane. “Pride and Prejudice.” The Complete Novels of Jane Austen. London: Wordsworth Editions, 2004. 465. Print.
Brooke, Lauren. Kleine Wunder, große Liebe. Ravensburg: Ravensburger, 2008. 164. Print.
Follett, Ken. The Pillars of the Earth. London: Pan Books, 2007. 770. Print.
Martin, George R.R. A Dance with Dragons. New York: Bantam Books, 2012. 958. Print.
Marzi, Christoph. Lycidas. München: Heyne, 2004. 482. Print.
Meyer, Kai. Arkadien fällt. Hamburg: Carlsen, 2011. 406. Print.
—. Das Gläserne Wort. München: Heyne, 2005. 255. Print.
Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus. London: Vintage, 2011. 466. Print.
Raven, Lynn. Der Kuss des Kjer. München: cbt, 2010. 367. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. London: Bloomsbury, 2005. 582. Print.
Schweikert, Ulrike. Dracas. München: cbt, 2010. 489. Print.
Schwindt, Peter. Lauernde Stille. Bindlach: Loewe, 2007. 376. Print.
[/wpspoiler]
I always wonder why you guys ship Rhaegar and Lyanna that hard, I’m almost finished now with “A Dance with Dragons” and remember close to nothing about these two 😀
But I have to admit there are a lot of things in these books that I didn’t notice because I tend to read passages very roughly when I get the feeling that there are too many names in it… – I even missed the “Catelyn thing” at the end of the third book xD
Of the other couples on your list there are only two that I’ve heard of: Tonks/Lupin and Celia/Marco. Tonks & Lupin of course are amazing but I couldn’t quite understand the hype about “The Night Circus”. I really liked its atmosphere but I was rather bored by the story and annoyed by all these leaps in time…
Btw: Every time I see a tag like this about favourite literary couples the first thing I do is check if the blogger chose Tris and Four from the Divergent series (which is imo by far the most annoying couple I’ve ever read of). So as long as these two aren’t mentioned, I’m fine with almost every choice 😀
Well, there’s actually not much about them in the novels. They are mentioned only a couple of times and then it’s mostly only one or two sentences. I think it’s not really hard to miss out on their story, but if you read between the lines, then there’s so much more going on!
I don’t know what’s with me and The Night Circus. I mostly agree with you – the time leaps confused me so much that I had to go back and forth between the chapters all the time and the story left me disappointed. Yet, I’m a sucker for a great atmosphere and a magical setting and the circus has completely enchanted me.
Hahaha, I’ve only read Divergent so far so I cannot really comment on that issue. I kinda liked Divergent but what I’ve heard about the other two has made me a little uneasy about continuing the series. But since I already own the novels I’ll give it a try. I just hope I won’t be as annoyed as you are.
Gerade über deinen Blog gestolpert und du bist mir schon sympathisch xD Rhaegar und Lyanna <3 Ich glaube auch ganz fest an DIE Theorie und dass sie sich geliebt haben und hoffe, George Martin wird das Ganze auch zur Zufriedenheit seiner Fans auflösen (wo er doch eigentlich so gut darin ist, uns das Herz zu brechen…)
Oh, vielen Dank 😀 ! Also ich habe mittlerweile ja schon Angst, dass er sich – auch wenn das vielleicht seine ursprüngliche Idee war – einfach irgendwas ganz anderes ausdenkt, nur weil die Theorie so beliebt ist. Aber das wird am Ende dann fast schon egal sein. Wenn der so weiter macht, dann ist sowieso niemand mehr übrig, den das interessieren würde. Wer weiß also, ob das überhaupt jemals enthüllt werden wird.
Wie cool, dass du extra Stellen aus den Büchern fotografiert hast 😀
Dein OTP finde ich echt krass. Ich könnte mich gar nicht so dafür begeistern, wenn man die Figuren nicht wirklich kennen lernt sondern immer nur von ihnen erzählt wird.
Zu meiner Schande muss ich gestehen, dass ich mich an Merles Love Interest überhaupt nicht mehr erinnern kann D: Wird echt Zeit die Trilogie mal zu rereaden.
Ja, das kam mir so spontan als Idee, auch wenn es nicht ganz einfach war. Erstmal musste ich ein Zitat finden und dann auch noch irgendwie zusehen, dass das Buch aufbleibt, während ich fotografiere.
Es ist eben auch gerade das Mysterium ihrer Beziehung und die Konsequenzen, was mich so sehr an ihnen fasziniert. Gerade weil man so wenig weiß, kann man sich das ja einfach so zurechtbiegen, wie man es gerne hätte – und hofft dann natürlich, dass es auch so war.
Whuuuut?! Das geht ja gaaar nicht! (Ok, an die Details kann ich mich auch nicht mehr so wirklich erinnern xD ! Aber das Ende werde ich wohl nie vergessen können.)
Rhaegar and Lyanna. <3 I don't think I ship them as hard as you do but I get always sad when I think of them. I do believe in THE theory as well (as you know …) and it's just so tragic. :'( For everybody involved.
Love your bibliography, btw. xD
Is there anyone who knows about THE theory and does not believe in it 😀 ?
Haha, I know. That’s the side effect of studying literature. There’s just no way you can write anything without a bibliography.
Seeing that this world is crazy, there probably are people like that. xD
And nothing wrong with that. I actually really like bibliographies; I’d only like it more if there was ONE comprehensive system that everybody used. Even in our faculty they use different systems according to the chair and everybody’s preference – and some systems include modern sources such as tweets while others don’t, inviting you to wonder how they want you to cite it. Which is annoying. But the look of a finished bibliography … fabulous! 😀
Oaarrr, tell me about it! I’m so glad that at least our literature department agrees on the MLA style – and that’s what I’ve been using mostly. However, I also had to use APA, Harvard, and Chicago. It’s a mess. I was so glad that I found a section on kindle books on the MLA page, otherwise I really don’t know what I would have done. Getting the bibliography right always takes ages!
Yeah, for my thesis I had a big overview provided by the chair, but it didn’t include everything but said it was quite similat to Harvard. So, I cited everything they did not describe as they would do it with Harvard … but me. Generelly, we are told it doesn’t really matter what kind of system you use as long as you stick to it, but it’s still annoying. We have other things to worry about.