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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.

Taken together, these Love Letters of Great Men show that perhaps men haven't changed so very much over the last 2,000 years; passion, jealousy, hope and longing are all represented here - as is the simple pleasure of sending a letter to, and receiving one from, the person you love most.

Love Letters of Great Men

Introduction - i: Introduction Chapter - 1: Pliny the Younger to his wife, Calpurnia Chapter - 2: King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn Chapter - 3: William Congreve to Mrs Arabella Hunt Chapter - 4: Richard Steele to Miss Mary Scurlock Chapter - 5: George Farquhar to Anne Oldfield Chapter - 6: Alexander Pope to Martha Blount Chapter - 7: Alexander Pope to Teresa Blount Chapter - 8: Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Chapter - 9: David Hume to Madame de Boufflers Chapter - 10: Laurence Sterne to Catherine Fourmantel Chapter - 11: Laurence Sterne to Lady Percy Chapter - 12: Denis Diderot to Sophie Volland Chapter - 13: Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, to Lady Grosvenor Chapter - 14: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his wife, Constanze Chapter - 15: Lord Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton Chapter - 16: Robert Burns to Mrs Agnes Maclehose Chapter - 17: Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller to Charlotte von Lengefeld Chapter - 18: Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife, Josephine Chapter - 19: Daniel Webster to Josephine Seaton Chapter - 20: Ludwig van Beethoven to his 'Immortal Beloved' Chapter - 21: William Hazlitt to Sarah Walker Chapter - 22: Lord Byron to Lady Caroline Lamb Chapter - 23: Lord Byron to the Countess Guiccioli Chapter - 24: John Keats to Fanny Brawne Chapter - 25: Honore de Balzac to the Countess Ewelina Hanska Chapter - 26: Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher Chapter - 27: Nathaniel Hawthorne to his wife, Sophia Chapter - 28: Benjamin Disraeli to Mary Ann Wyndham Lewis Chapter - 29: Charles Darwin to Emma Wedgwood Chapter - 30: Alfred de Musset to George Sand Chapter - 31: Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck Chapter - 32: Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett Chapter - 33: Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet Chapter - 34: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand Chapter - 35: Walter Bagehot to Elizabeth Wilson Chapter - 36: Mark Twain to Olivia Langdon Chapter - 37: William F. Testerman to Miss Jane Davis Chapter - 38: Charles Stewart Parnell to Katherine O'Shea Chapter - 39: Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas Chapter - 40: Pierre Curie to Marie Sklodovska (Marie Curie) Chapter - 41: G. K. Chesterton to Frances Blogg Chapter - 42: Captain Alfred Bland to his wife, Violet Chapter - 43: Regimental Sergeant-Major James Milne to his wife, Meg Chapter - 44: Second Lieutenant John Lindsay Rapoport to his fiancee Acknowledgements - ii: Acknowledgements