The Book of Love

by Diane Ackerman (Editor), Jeanne Mackin (Editor)

How do we define love? "It feels like hunger pains, and we use the same word. Pang. Perhaps this is why Cupid is depicted with a quiver of arrows, because love feels at times like being pierced in the chest. It is a wholesome violence. . . . People search for love as if it were a city lost beneath the desert dunes, where pleasure is the law, the streets are lined with brocade cushions, and the sun never sets." So writes Diane Ackerman in her insightful introduction.


Here is a panorama of fine writing about love's many moods and majesties, from all the veils of flirtation, seduction, and marriage to the tempests of suspicion, jealousy, and heartache. Here is a treasury of more than two hundred selections from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee?" There are excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Madame Bovary, Justine, The Odyssey, Lady Chatterley's Lover, as well as the letters from Baudelaire to Sabatier, George Eliot to Herbert Spencer, and Henry Miller to Anais Nin.


General readers and scholars alike will delight in this anthology's mix of the contemporary and the classic.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

864 pages, Hardcover

First published January 17, 1998

About the author

Diane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestsellers The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses.

The Zookeeper’s Wife, a little known true story of WWII, became a New York Times bestseller, and received the Orion Book Award, which honored it as, "a groundbreaking work of nonfiction." A movie of The Zookeeper’s Wife, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl, releases in theaters March 31st, 2017 from Focus Features.

She lives with her husband Paul West in Ithaca, New York.

Reviews

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a present from a boyfriend back in college. The boyfriend is long gone but I held onto the book, which compiles hundreds of poems, fiction, essays, and letters, ranging from ancient Egypt to modern times, on the topic that occupies pretty much every human on earth.

That's Love, btw, if you didn't guess.

By its nature, it's a bit uneven. Some pieces are great, others are blah. But worth having around if you're a quotehound or a sentimental type.

[Pablo Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado y eso que era una lectura obligatoria de la clase de inglés en mi instituto.

[ReaderB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchased this book in 1998, and it has stuck with me since! It was my go-to book on a gloomy, emo day. It was what I read under a tree on a beautiful, warm day. I remember bringing it to the beach often on those grey, Monterey days. YUP-- it's one of those touchy feely, makes you say "Awww", makes you amazed that people throughout history could LOVE that much, type of books.

It's a huge read, but it's a collection of poems, letters and short stories. You can read a few pages, close the book and think for a moment... Then come back and start a new story when you're ready.

I hate sappy cheezy love stories and movies, but this book, man it tugs at my heart strings and leaves me some heartache for days. I recommend you add this book (paperback, not e-book) to your collection!

[Anubis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to get this book for a class. Admittedly, it was nice to have the collection of poetry in one place, but the excerpts from novels spanning literary history were frustrating. Completely taken out of context, these excerpts are only useful if you want to get an idea of the writer's style, not if you want to get an idea how writing about love evolved over time.

[Nash Tysmans]

This was a surprise gift that I received on the first day of school from a former professor. It was providential for its timing and I should really stop denying how much I like reading these kinds of anthologies.

The pieces I've read so far are beautiful. I'm looking forward to finishing it.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and literary love stories, poems, and essays.