Love Letters: Intimate Correspondence Between Famous Lovers

Description

In an age of emails, tweets and emojis, this beautiful selection of original love letters invites us into a privileged realm and reminds us why the written word is so expressive and revealing. The 30 handwritten notes included in this book span centuries, cultures and continents. They contain expressions of every shade of love, from the joy of falling in love to the pain of unrequited passion. They include amorous declarations, pain and grief, the final separation of loved ones and philosophical reflections on the end of a love affair. The reproduction of the letters on the page adds another dimension to our appreciation of the lovers' relationships. Together they remind us that there is simply nothing quite like receiving a personal handwritten note from the one you love.

Andrea Clarke is Lead Curator of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library. She co-curated the Library exhibitions 'Henry VIII: Man and Monarch' with David Starkey in 2009 and 'Leonardo da Vinci: A Mind in Motion' in 2019. She is author of Tudor Monarchs: Lives in Letters (British Library, 2017).