This is an enchanting collection of art, verse and prose. It is a delightful celebration of the power, agony and ecstasy of love, including poignant and evocative works of art, poetry and prose. It includes the immortal verse of classical poets such as Sappho, Shakespeare, Dante and Marlowe as well as the great romantics: John Keats, Lord Bryon, William Blake, Christina Rossetti, Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson. It works of art by Frank Dicksee, Holman Hunt, Alma-Tadema, JW Waterhouse, Jean-Honore Fragonard, and many more, capture the yearning and rapture of love. With chapters on discovery and rapture, loves lost and unrequited, love's stratagems, and undying love, this little book covers all the great aspects of love. Using the familiar and poignant words of Shakespeare's famous sonnets as well as less well-known passages such as the witty and cajoling "To Celia" by Ben Jonson, all the moods and expressions of falling in love are portrayed.
Wise words from Ovid, a passionate appeal from Andrew Marvell, the coldhearted observations of Choderlos de Laclos from Les Liasons Dangereuses, the haunting verses of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by John Keats, all bear witness to the exquisite symptoms of being transported by love, while sumptuous, poignant or joyous fine art paintings perfectly illustrate the extracts. It is a delightful tribute to this very human emotion.