Ursula Doyle

This was a book club pick. (I wasn't at the meeting where they picked it.) I decided to listen to the audiobook and was disappointed to find that all the letters were read by the same narrator. That made them run together for me and now I have difficulty remembering which I liked and which I thought were crap. As other reviewers have said, the editors' choice of men certainly leaves you wondering how she defines the word "great." A more honest title would have been "Love Letters of Famous and Semi-Famous Men." Also, unless your not the monogamous type, it's hard not to disturbed by how many of these men were all up in extramarital affairs.

Here's what I recall:

I think I liked how whiney and insecure Napoleon's letter was. It screamed, "You don't love me as much as I love you!"

My favorite was the letter Marie Curie's husband wrote to her before they were married. He was clearly in love with her, but, not wanting to scare her away, he just tried to talk her into not moving away for professional and friendly reasons. Adorable.

I expected to like John Keats' letter the best because I loved the movie Bright Star about his relationship with Fanny Brawne, but the audiobook narrator just didn't have the dreamy qualities of the actor Ben Whishaw.

Maybe the thing that disappointed me most about this collection is that most of the letters were from the 19th century, which, if you ask me, is certainly leaving out a lot potential great men and great love letters. I know that it's probably hard to get the rights to publish private romantic letters written much later than 1900, but maybe add a time span to the title to limit expectations.… (plus d'informations)

Love Letters of Great Men by Ursula Doyle is a collection that includes personal and private letters from some great names in history and literature, including:

- King Henry VIII (writing to Anne Boleyn)
- Mozart (writing to his wife)
- Napoleon writing to his wife Josephine
- Beethoven (writing to his Immortal Beloved)
- Mark Twain (writing to Olivia Langdon)
- Oscar Wilde (writing to Lord Alfred Douglas)
and more!

A short introduction is given to each letter which was concise and welcome background setting the scene.

Some of the letters were beautifully written, some poorly written (but all reproduced in type font, so don't worry, you don't have to read their handwriting) and some just down right possessive. I'm talking about you Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Page 37):
But I should not like you to take long walks without me. I entreat you to follow my advice exactly, for it comes from my heart.

So, it turns out Mozart was possessive, jealous and just a tad bossy. Who knew?

For more insights into the love lives of 41 men from history, check out Love Letters of Great Men by Ursula Doyle.… (plus d'informations)

Mostly from British women, this small book includes short biographical notes and sampling of letters from 1399 to 1917. We know most of their names, but the biographies made me want to investigate all 11 of these lives in much greater detail. The letters were incredibly fawning and saccharine. Perhaps we need a bit of relief from our e-mail culture - who knows. I do wish some of the men's responses were included.
A fun read.
As well as some lesser known women, the letter writers include: Anne Boleyn, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, Mary Wordsworth, Nell Gwyn,Claire Clairmont, Queen Victoria, Empress Josephine, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand, & Katherine Mansfield… (plus d'informations)

I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed this. I really almost want to go through it with a highlighter and marking passages and quotes. I'm a hopeless romantic, it's true so it was always going to appeal but in the collection we have letters from authors, leaders, politicians, composers, scientists and monarchs. We have Henry the VIII sending a portrait of himself as a sign of his affection to Anne Boleyn, and Anne Boleyn sending a letter back to him years later as she's imprisoned. We have Queen Victoria writing to Prince Albert making sure he was aware of his place in life before they were married, and then another where she wrote to King Leopold utterly heartbroken after Albert died. There is Beethoven's famous letters to his 'Immortal Beloved' and letters from famous womanisers like Lord Byron and Robert Burns.

Not all the stories are about happily ever after and a shocking number of letters are addressed to mistresses and bit's on the side, but some of the most beautiful moments comes from guys like Nathaniel Hawthorne (this entries title is from the beginning and end of his letter to his wife), or Robert Browning (who refused to marry for the remainder of his life and spent the last 28 years of his life alone because 'his heart was buried in Florence'), or Mozart who spent his letters teasing and joking with his wife.

It's just a beautiful book that I'm already trying to resist re-reading just because I need to get back on track in terms of churning out the books a little quicker.… (plus d'informations)