Home » Books, Poetry & Writing » Books » Romance

Love Letters of Great Men

Ranked #482 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #21,659 overall | Donates to Save the Children

Love Letters of Great Men - The perfect romantic gift!

Love Letters of Great Men started out as a film prop! There is a scene in the film Sex and the City, that sent its mostly female fans flocking into bookshops and desperately searching Amazon for a book that did not exist.

Carrie Bradshaw is lying in bed with her Mr Big and reading extracts from a book called: Love Letters of Great Men. Mr Big then copies bits of the book and emails them to Carrie in order to woo her back after leaving her at the altar.

Fans of the film, keen to buy the book, were disappointed to discover that it was just a figment of the Scriptwriters' imagination. Booksellers were frustrated that hundreds of would-be customers left their stores empty-handed and that they were denied the chance to make some sales. But not any longer!

British publishing house, Macmillan, have capitalised on the niche created in the book market and published a new book with the same title as the one that Carrie read in the film. It is edited by Ursula Doyle.

This book will make the perfect romantic gift for birthday, an anniversary, Christmas or Valentine's Day!

Contents at a Glance

Elvis Presley
Here's the book - Love Letters of Great...
What is Love Letters of Great Men all ab...
Sex and the City
Funeral Blues - W H Auden
Funeral Blues, recited by John Hannah in...

Love letters straight from the heart

Music to read a lens by!

Elvis Presley - Love Letters: by mountain824 | video info

122 ratings | 37,186 views

curated content from YouTube

Here's the book - Love Letters of Great Men

Looking for a perfect romantic gift?

You could not possibly go wrong with this book! Whether it be birthday, Valentine's Day or an anniversary!

What is Love Letters of Great Men all about?

Romance!

Although the book did not actually exist, all the letters referred to in the film are real.

The Publishers, Macmillan, say: "From the private papers of Mark Twain and Mozart to those of Robert Browning and Nelson, Love Letters of Great Men collects together some of the most romantic letters in history.

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."

Prince Ranier & Grace Kelly

This is all the more poignant when you remember how relatively young Grace Kelly was (53) when she died.

"My Darling,

This is to tell you in a very mild way how terribly much I love you, miss you, need you and want you near me always. Safe trip my love. Rest, relax and think of me burning myself out with this terrible longing for you. I love you so."

Prince Ranier III to Grace Kelly, April 1956

Wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco to American Actress Grace Kelly
Buy at AllPosters.com

Mozart & Constanze

Sugary or what!

"While I was writing the last page, tear after tear fell on the paper. But I must cheer up - catch! An astonishing number of kisses are flying about - the deuce! I see a whole crowd of them! Ha! Ha!... I have just caught three - they are delicious!"

Mozart to his wife Constanze

Mozart with His Wife Constanze on Their Honeymoon
Buy at AllPosters.com

Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn

Within a short space of time, the hand that wrote this was penning an order for the receiver's execution...

"Wishing myself (especially an evening) in my sweetheart's arms, whose pretty dukkys I trust sgortly to kiss. Written with the hand of him that was, is and shall be yours by his will."

Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

Buy at AllPosters.com

Sex and the City

The film that started the craze for Love Letters of Great Men

Wow! If only 10% of the people who viewed the trailer buy the book it will be a best seller in no time.

See Love Letters of Great Men featured in Sex and the City

More great Valentine's Day gifts

Sex and the City on eBay

Funeral Blues - W H Auden

A real poem that had everyone flocking to bookshops to buy it

In the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Matthew (played by John Hannah) reads a poem by W H Auden called "Funeral Blues" at the funeral of his partner Gareth (Simon Callow). It wasn't long before a collection of Auden's work was published under the title "Tell Me The Truth About Love".

In her review of the book an Amazon customer, Cherry Smyth, rather cynically and wittily says: "Had he been writing now, Auden might well have penned a poem entitled "Tell Me the Truth About Publishing", for the publication of this special, short collection was directly inspired by the runaway success of the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral in which one of Auden's poems was recited."

Funeral Blues, recited by John Hannah in Four Weddings and a Funeral

four weddings and a Funereal: by kopy12 | video info

316 ratings | 197,025 views

curated content from YouTube

Tell Me The Truth About Love on Amazon

Purple Ronnie on Amazon

Love and Laughter - the perfect romantic mix

In the UK it is humour that is the best way to ignite a relationshup (see below) so think about adding some humour to your Valentine's Day mix!

Is writing love letters a lost art?

Do some people think that the text mightier than the pen?

In an article titled "Can love blossom in a text message" on USAtoday.com Amanda Pressner discusses the pros and cons of conducting relationships via text. You can see the full article here.

However, think about avoiding "text takeover". Sending a quick note to say that you're running late is fine but I believe that replacing all phone and face-to-face contact with text sends a message that you're too busy for a committed relationship.

There's also the worry that one day you may send the wrong message to the wrong person......Oops!

So, what is the best way to ignite a relationship?

Hugh Grant can teach us a thing or two

Actually in the UK, it's humour!

Perhaps we have assumed for too long that a bunch of flowers, a poem or a love letter will do the trick? A psychological study into the role of humour in seduction reveals what history's greatest lovers have known all along: the way to a potential mate's heart is to make her laugh.

"Many studies show that a sense of humour is sexually attractive, especially to women, but we've found that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive of all" said Gil Greengross, an anthropologist whose report, 'Dissing Oneself: The Sexual Attractiveness of Self-Deprecating Humour', is published in the August 2008 edition of Evolutionary Psychology.

During a two-year study into the role of humour in human sexual selection, Greengross was surprised to see how often self-deprecating humour was used between potential mates during courtship, or between established mates to smooth troubled waters during an argument.

"The frequent use of self-deprecating humour in sexual contexts - with potential mates, established mates or sexual rivals - was astonishing" Gilgross said.

Anthropologist Kate Fox, author of Watching the English (which, according to reviews will "make you laugh out loud"), believes self-deprecation is uniquely vital when the English play the mating game: "For the English, the rules of humour are the cultural equivalent of natural laws - we obey them automatically, rather in the way that we obey the law of gravity."

Problems, however, arise when us "Brits" try to play the game with those from another culture. Fox says: "If you are trying to impress a potential mate who does not understand the rules, they fail to appreciate the irony and take our statements at face value. They inadvertently call our bluff by accepting our apparently low estimate of our achievements, and the whole thing backfires on us. Which, quite frankly, serves us right for being so silly."

Americans are said to love the uniquely British trait of self-deprecating humour and this brings us neatly back to Four Weddings and a Funeral and Hugh Grant, who is equally self-deprecating in the film Notting Hill.

However, Greengross warns of another pitfall in the use of self-deprecation. "If you are a low-status individual, using self-deprecating humour can be disastrous to you" he said.

"Think about the secondary-school (in USA it's High School) child whom nobody liked, who makes fun of his shortcomings in sports. His peers mocked him and he was considered more pathetic that he was previously. This is high-risk seduction. It is not for everyone."

Buy at AllPosters.com

So the advice from this author is: don't try it until you have read more of Purple Ronnie and made a detailed study of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill!

Essential reading and viewing

To help you in your "research"

Love

More pages about love

The Valentine's day page was the first where I featured some creative work from one of my four children. This lens has some lovely photos taken by my eldest daughter.

Love Letters of Great Men