Literary Love: Famous Fictional Couples We Adore

Ah, it's Valentine's Day and love is in the air - and on the pages of our favorite books. I bet we can all remember a book where we felt our hearts flutter or couldn't help but sigh as a couple came together. Many of those books we come back to because the love story is so perfect in our minds. We decided to take a look at all of our favorite couples and choose a favorite quote that exhibits the qualities of love in their relationship - qualities we want in our own love stories. Who is your favorite book couple?

Romeo & Juliet 

{Shakespeare}

"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

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Jane & Edward Rochester 

{Jane Eyre}

“I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”

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Scarlett O'Hara & Rhett Butler 

{Gone With the Wind}

"You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

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Anne Elliot & Frederick Wentworth 

{Persuasion}

“There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison”

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Margaret Hale & Mr. Thornton 

{North and South}

“It seemed as though he gave way all at once; he was so languid that he could not control his thoughts; they would wander to her; they would bring back the scene,- not of his repulse and rejection the day before but the looks, the actions of the day before that. He went along the crowded streets mechanically, winding in and out among the people, but never seeing them, -almost sick with longing for that one half-hour-that one brief space of time when she clung to him, and her heart beat against his-to come once again.”

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Katherine & Heathcliff 

{Wuthering Heights}

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

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Emma & Mr. Knightly 

{Emma}

“I cannot make speeches, Emma . . . If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”

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Marguerite & Percy

{The Scarlet Pimpernel}

“She would keep him, keep his love, deserve it and cherish it, for this much was certain, that there was no longer any happiness possible for her without that one man's love.”

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Anne & Gilbert 

{Anne of Green Gables}

"I don't want diamond sunbursts or marble halls . . . I just want you."

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Elisabeth Bennett & Mr. Darcy 

{Pride & Prejudice}

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

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Elinor Dashwood & Edward Ferrars 

{Sense and Sensibility}

“I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be yours.”

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Kate Worthington & Henry Delafield 

{Blackmoore}

“I think the most profound beauty is found in what our hearts love. And I love this, Kate, more than I love anything else. It is beyond beautiful to me. It is home. It is..." He paused, and squinted a little, as if looking into the sun, but his gaze stayed steady on me. "It is the sight I want to see every day, for the rest of my life.”

Marianne Daventry & Sir Philip 

{Edenbrooke}

“You stole my heart the night we met, when you sang that ridiculous song and dared me not to laugh. and every moment I have spent with you since then, you have stolen more and more of me until when you're not with me..." He drew in a breath. "When you are not with me, I am left with nothing but longing for you.”

Buttercup & Wesley

{The Princess Bride}

This is true love - you think this happens every day?

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Hermione & Ron 

{Harry Potter}

'Hang on a moment,' said Ron sharply. 'We've forgotten someone!'
'Who?' asked Hermione.
'The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?'
'You mean we ought to get them fighting?' asked Harry.
'No' said Ron seriously, 'I mean we should tell them to get out. We dont want anymore Dobbys, do we? We can't order them to die for us -'
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
'Is this the moment?' Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. 
'OI! There's a war going on here!'
Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still wrapped around each other. 'I know, mate,' said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of his head with a bludger, 'so it's now or never, isn't it?'

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Hazel & Augustus 

{The Fault in our Stars}

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

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Nick & Amy 

{Gone Girl}

“Because isn’t that the point of every relationship: to be known by someone else, to be understood? He gets me. She gets me. Isn’t that the simple magic phrase?”

or

I was told love should be unconditional. That's the rule, everyone says so. But if love has no boundaries, no limits, no conditions, why should anyone try to do the right thing ever? If I know I am loved no matter what, where is the challenge? I am supposed to love Nick despite all his shortcomings. And Nick is supposed to love me despite my quirks. But clearly, neither of us does. It makes me think that everyone is very wrong, that love should have many conditions. Love should require both partners to be their very best at all times.

Gatsby & Daisy 

{The Great Gatsby}

I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.

Tris & Four 

{Divergent}

“He turns toward me. I want to touch him, but I’m afraid of his bareness; afraid that he will make me bare too.

‘Is this scaring you, Tris?’

‘No,’ I croak. I clear my throat. ‘Not really. I’m only…afraid of what I want.’

‘What do you want?’ Then his face tightens. ‘Me?’

Slowly I nod.”

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Rose & Dimitri 

{Vampire Academy}

“She was right about something else too," Dimitri said after a long pause. My back was to him, but there was a strange quality to his voice that made me turn around.

"What's that?" I asked.

"That I do still love you."

With that one sentence, everything in the universe changed.”

Time slowed to one heartbeat. The world became his eyes, his voice. The wasn't happening. It wasn't real. None of it could be real. It felt like a spirit dream. I resisted the urge to close my eyes and see if I'd wake up moments later. No. No matter how unbelievab;e it all seemed, this was no dream. This was real.

This was life. This was flash and blood.

"Since . . . since when?" I finally managed to speak.

"Since . . . forever."

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Sydney & Adrian 

{Bloodlines}

"But when I’m around you, I want to be better because… well, because it feels right. Because I want to. You make me want to become something greater than myself. I want to excel. You inspire me in every act, every word, every glance. I look at you, and you’re like… like light made into flesh. […] You have no clue how beautiful you are or how brightly you shine.”

Clary & Jace 

{Mortal Instruments}

“There is no pretending,” Jace said with absolute clarity. “I love you, and I will love you until I die and if there’s a life after that, I’ll love you then.”

“I love you, Jace Wayland—Herondale—Lightwood—whatever you want to call yourself. I don’t care. I love you and I will always love you, and pretending it could be any other way is just a waste of time.”

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Tessa & Will 

{Infernal Devices}

"You are not the last dream of my soul.

You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime’s worth."

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Tessa & Jem 

{Clockwork Prince - Infernal Devices}

“You speak of sacrifice, but it is not my sacrifice I offer. It is yours I ask of you," he went on. "I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain. But I love you enough to hope that you will not care that I am being selfish in trying to make the rest of my life - whatever length - happy, by spending it with you. I want to be married to you, Tessa. I want it more than I have ever wanted anything else in my life." He looked up at her through the veil of silvery hair that fell over his eyes. "That is," he said shyly, "if you love me, too.”

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Bella & Edward

{Twilight}

If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?”

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Cath & Levi 

{Fangirl}

“I choose you over everyone.” 

Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont 

{A Discovery of Witches}

"My life now has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everything before was a preamble. Now I have you."

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Claire & Jamie 

{Outlander}

“No wonder he was so good with horses, I thought blearily, feeling his fingers rubbing gently behind my ears, listening to the soothing, incomprehensible speech. If I were a horse, I’d let him ride me anywhere.” 

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Will & Lou 

{Me Before You}

“All I can say is that you make me... you make me into someone I couldn't even imagine. You make me happy, even when you're awful. I would rather be with you - even the you that you seem to think is diminished - than with anyone else in the world.”

Henry Lee & Keiko Okabe 

{Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet}

"I love her. Henry paused at the thought. He didn't even know what that was, or what it meant, but he felt it, burning in his chest--feeling fuzzy inside. Nothing else seemed to matter. Not the somber crowd of camp workers drifting to the barbed-wire gate. Not the machine guns in the towers above.

Henry began to wave, then lowered his hand slowly as the words, "I love you" rolled off his tongue. She was too far away to hear it, or maybe he didn't make a sound, but she knew, and her mouth echoed the same statement as her hand touched her heart and pointed at Henry. He simply smiled and nodded, turning back to the gate."

Sarah & Captain Jack Elliot 

{These is My Words}

“Don't leave me, Jack, I said. 

Not ever, he whispered back.”

Katniss & Peeta 
{Hunger Games}

"You love me. Real or not real?" 

"Real.” 

XoXo,

Robin