Love Letters

In honor of the day, here is what must be one of the most romantic letters in fiction, Captain Wentworth's to Anne Elliott near the end of Jane Austen's Persuasion --

"I can listen no longer in silence.  I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach.  You pierce my soul.  I am half agony, half hope.  Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.  I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago.  Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death.  I have loved none but you.  Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.  You alone have brought me to Bath.  For you alone I think and plan.  -- Have you not seen this?  Can you fail to have understood my wishes? -- I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine.  I can hardly write.  I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me.  You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice, when they would be lost on others. -- Too good, too excellent creature!  You do us justice indeed.  You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men.  Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating in

F. W.

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible.  A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening, or never."

Sigh!

"You pierce my soul.  I am half agony, half hope.  Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.  I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago --"

Comments

[Judy B]

Thanks for reminding me how great Jane Austen is. There couldn't be a more romantic love letter. I love the picture on your header of Virginia Woolf Knitting.

[kelli ann]

"you pierce my soul." large sigh!

[secrethandshake]

Jane Austen.
I love her always.

[PICAdrienne]

Good luck with Cookie Sales.

[Nancy]

My favorite Austin book!

Didn't like this new production as well as the one from a few years back. Interesting to me how in the movie they seem to resolve so much with long, silent looks when in the book it's all about the written or spoken words between them. The looks may hold the questions, but the words are the answers.

[bernie]

That is such beautiful prose!!! Now, some modern lyrics and prose will make you cringe in comparison (Fergalicious definition make them boys go loco
They want my treasure so they get their pleasures from my photo
You could see you, you can't squeeze me
I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy
I got reasons why I tease 'em ....Fergie from Black-eyed Peas)