Five top literary romance books

Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.

At Book Riot she tagged five top literary romance novels, including:

Possession by A.S. Byatt

A.S. Byatt subtitles this book “a romance,” but while it is very romantic, it is not a romance novel. I’ve seen it described as literary, historical, postmodern, mystery, and even historiographic metafiction, but I included it on the list. While it’s longer and experiments with format more than most genre romances, I think the prominence of the love story will still satisfy romance novel readers. There are two love stories in this big doorstop of a book. The first is between rival scholars researching a pair of Victorian poets. When they uncover a link between the poets, letters, diary entries, and poetry is used to tell a hidden tale of longing, lust, and literary influence.

Read about another entry on the list.

Possession also appears on Molly O’Sullivan's list of seven works that push narrative boundaries, Ceillie Clark-Keane's list of nine literary mysteries with a big winter mood, Emily Temple's list of the twelve best descriptions of flowers in literature, Jae-Yeon Yoo's list of ten books about the importance of the post office, Paraic O’Donnell's top ten list of modern Victorian novels, a list of four books that changed Charlie Lovett, Michelle Dean's list of the six best books about university life, Kelly Anderson's top five list of books for newlyweds, Rebecca Mead's list of six favorite books that illuminate the Victorian era, Marina Warner's ten top list of fairytales, Ester Bloom's top ten list of fictional feminists, Niall Williams's list of ten of the best books that manage to make heroes out of readers, Kyle Minor's list of fifteen of the hottest affairs in literature, Emily Temple's list of the fifty greatest campus novels ever written, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best fossils in literature, ten of the most memorable libraries in literature, ten of the best fictional poets, ten of the best locks of hair in fiction, ten of the best graveyard scenes in fiction, and ten of the best lawyers in literature, and on Rachel Syme's list of the ten most attractive men in literature, Christina Koning's critic's chart of six top romances, and Elizabeth Kostova's top ten list of books for winter nights.

--Marshal Zeringue