"Cry When You Say That": The Saddest Love Stories Ever
Love stories don’t always have happy endings.
I’ve seen most of the movie versions of Wuthering Heights, of which I believe there are at least fourteen, starting in 1939 with Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon, with her wild, upside-down eyes, as Cathy.
The most recent one was, I think, in 2011, but my favorite of all is the 1970 version starring Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall. I think it's because of the beautiful theme music but also because the actors look the way I imagine small-hold farm people would have looked some 200 years ago in a remote corner of England.
Several times, visiting Yorkshire, I have been one of those pilgrims who walked several miles up to the windswept ruin that inspired the place where Cathy and Heathcliff lived. It is a desolate spot, overlooking a smudgy, bustling manufacturing town on one side and, on the other, a moonscape of rock and sky, untamed by puny human efforts.
As a girl, I thought Wuthering Heights was the most romantic story ever. Cathy and Heathcliff’s attraction, though it laid waste to everything in its path—including the lovers themselves—was the apex of human passion. “I don’t just love Heathcliff,” Cathy cries. “I am Heathcliff.” They are two souls welded together.
In fact, it was ridiculous. They were ridiculous. They were virtually cartoon figures, their expressions and actions over the top, just like Romeo and Juliet. Which is probably why we love them. (Hint: fourteen movie versions? I’m not the only one.)
It never fails to amaze me that this crazy tale was written by a 30-year-old English “spinster” who had never been kissed. The daughter of a widowed minister and one of a triumvirate of remarkable writers, Emily Brontë imagined her way into a life she not only hadn’t lived but hadn’t even glimpsed. (Her sister, Charlotte, was the author of Jane Eyre, and her sister Anne wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.) She imagines, and we are taken along with her, knowing all the while that the couple will never be happy—until they are ghosts.
Here are other very sad love stories, for the flip side of your Valentine.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A young woman accidentally awakens an ancient Mayan god in 1920s Mexico—a handsome god of death who seeks her help for revenge and vindication. The pair set out on a mission across Mexico to achieve lofty goals, and the journey leads to a connection neither of them wanted or expected. But if they succeed in reaching their destination, the growing love between them can never be. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an expert storyteller, and the setting itself becomes an amazing third character in this story.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
When we’re introduced to lovers Tish and Fonny, Fonny has been arrested for a terrible crime he didn’t commit. The story follows both of them during this difficult time—especially as Tish navigates becoming a single mother—while also flashing back to their young courtship and love. It’s a heartbreaking story for multiple reasons, particularly in its portrayal of racism, classism, and sexism in ways that remain, unfortunately, timeless. It’s a beautiful book, as all Baldwin novels are—and also rage-inducing, as all Baldwin novels are.
One Day by David Nicholls
Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation on July 15, 1988, and they can't forget each other. Though they part ways after that day, they meet up annually every July 15 for the next twenty years. The story checks in on the couple each year, letting readers follow their aching love story from heart-fluttering highs to tragic lows.
Fans of the Netflix adaptation can revisit Emma and Dexter and appreciate the little changes made for the screen—though the story ends no more happily ever after here than on TV.
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Love doesn’t always work out. No one knows this better than Evie Thomas. One afternoon, Evie witnesses a couple kissing and is immediately overcome by visions of their entire love story—from beginning to end. Now, anytime she sees a couple kiss, she sees the whole relationship flash before her eyes, and she knows that most love stories end in heartbreak. And yet, despite knowing how love ends, she still finds herself falling for X, her partner in a ballroom dance competition.
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks's name is synonymous with sad romance stories, but A Walk to Remember is one of his saddest, especially because it was inspired by his own sister, Danielle Sparks Lewis, who died of cancer in 2000. In this novel, Landon Carter looks fondly back on 1958, his last year at Beaufort High and the year he fell in love. Shy, sweet Jamie, the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister, wasn’t the type of girl Landon thought he would fall for, but his love for Jamie remains with him so many years later.
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
From the short story collection Close Range, this is the story of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands who spend the summer together—apart from their wives and children—and discover an undeniable connection between them. But they don’t live in a world that will let that kind of love exist.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Will Traynor is used to getting his way—until an accident shatters his sense of self, leaving him a wheelchair user for the foreseeable future. Louisa Clark, meanwhile, has never sought or experienced major change in her life. When Will hires her as his assistant, the mismatched pair gradually form a bond. In the end, they teach each other what it really means to love.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Long-distance relationships are hard, but what about romances torn apart by time? Clare and Henry live on completely different timelines—Clare first meets Henry when she’s 6 and he’s 36, and they marry when Clare is 23 and Henry is 31. Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder, meaning he shifts unpredictably through time. Their love is enough to overcome these obstacles, but for how long?
HOT LIFE TIP:
In keeping with the tragic (and British) theme of this post: When your heart is broken, cry yourself to sleep. My best friend taught me this. Crying does a world of good, and after a good cry and a long sleep, you can’t help but feel a little better.
HOT WRITING TIP:
Learn to reverse things for fresh energy. Make the one who inherits the ramshackle inn a man instead of a woman, from his father’s best friend instead of a distant great-aunt. Make the protagonist a minister instead of a pastry chef. Look for lessons in intelligence from crows instead of coyotes. Make the town bully a woman. Flip everything and see how it fits.
I thought of this the other night when Kanye West and his equally eccentric wife, Australian architect and all-purpose performance artist Bianca Censori (who is often seen naked for no reason), showed up at the Grammys. She wore a long black fur coat, which she removed to reveal all her parts clad in the equivalent of a dress-sized transparent silk stocking.
It would have been more interesting if Censori had worn jeans and a Ye shirt, and West had worn a transparent shirt and trousers.
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This is exactly the reason the most 'realistic' writing is tragedy. Life ends. Stories end. Love stories end. It's also the reason, in 'Silver Linings Playbook,' just about everyone who has ever read it knows exactly when Bradley Cooper's character has finished reading "A Farewell to Arms," because all you hear is "F*ck!" and the window crashing as he throws the book through it.