Bibliotherapy provides healing through books. Feeling a bit cynical? A bit jaded? A lover has let you down? Have faith. There are books which will make you feel better: I promise. I have loads of books to deal with this particular problem, but here are three.
Persuasion by Jane Austen / Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer / Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella.
Persuasion by Jane Austen. First published, 1817.
If you were forced to read Mansfield Park at school and didn’t like it, hear me out. If you’re an Austen fan and think Emma or Pride and Prejudice is top dog, then you and I need to have some serious words.
Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last complete novel, and it was published after her death. Everyone focuses on Pride and Prejudice, and I understand that. It’s wonderful, it’s funny, it’s great; plus, we’ve all got Bridget Jones and Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen inextricably linked to it in our minds (nothing wrong with that). But. I think Persuasion is Austen’s best book. I’m not recommending that you read it because of that. I’m recommending it because it’s about someone having a broken heart, who has learned to accept its brokenness, and then has it mended again. And there is nothing more moving than that.
The heroine is Anne Elliot, a kind and endlessly patient person who is woefully unappreciated by her snobbish family. Years before she was persuaded by a friend to reject Captain Wentworth, a man she was in love with. The years have passed, Anne is still unmarried and is put-upon by her family. And Wentworth returns, having made his fortune. He shows very little sign of having any interest in Anne, but as the book progresses the reader begins to realise that the Captain is not as immune to his former love as we might think.
It’s not a mawkish book. Austen turns her sharp, observant gaze on marriages, good and bad; on snobbery; and on the fecklessness of youth. But it is also a deeply compassionate book about being given a second chance in life. And it’s about – ahem – real love, not idealised first love. There’s a scene early on in the book when everyone is going on a walk. Anne is tired, and falling behind. Suddenly, she is offered a place in a carriage, arranged by Captain Wentworth. At this point in the book, he has hardly looked at or spoken to her. But his concern for her, and its simple expression, moves me every time I read it. And as for the ending? I’m not going to spoil it for you.
I’m wiping away my tears now. Just give it a read.
Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer. First published, 1944
If you haven’t read any of Georgette Heyer’s romances, I recommend that you buy a good handful of them immediately, because they are wonderful. I was introduced to them by my mother when I was a child, and I rediscovered them when I was going through a difficult time in my twenties. I remember reading one on the tube one day, and I suddenly realised I was smiling. Quite simply, when I read one of her books, I feel as though the sun has come out.
These are not steamy romances; they are chaste, and witty, and although sex is mentioned if you read between the lines, these are not Jilly Cooper style romps, although they are very ‘rompy’ in their bright cheerfulness.
Let’s stop for a minute to appreciate the word ‘romp’, which according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as ‘high-spirited, carefree, and boisterous play’ or something suggestive of that. It describes Heyer’s work precisely.
Friday’s Child is the story of Kitten and Sherry. Viscount Sheringham (Sherry) has just been rejected by the beautiful heiress Isabella. After a family argument over money Sherry leaves for London, vowing to marry the first woman he meets. And the first woman he meets is Hero Wantage (Kitten), who he has known since childhood, and who has secretly loved him since then too. The novel charts their unlikely marriage and their transition from bickering childhood friends to a love match, with many twists and turns on the way. Heyer is always fantastic at period detail, and these really are a delight if you love history. She is also very funny.
If you don’t like the sound of this Heyer novel, do choose another one and have a go (my other favourites include The Grand Sophy and The Convenient Marriage). Most people I know who love Heyer, love Arabella, and Backlisted did a wonderful podcast on that novel, in which men and women read it. Spoiler: they all loved it.
Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. First published, 2004
My third choice is the story of Emma Corrigan, whose life appears to be going really well until she confides her innermost secrets to the passenger sitting next to her on a turbulent flight. That passenger turns out to be her new CEO, Jack Harper….
I completely love this book. It makes me laugh out loud, and it’s beautifully romantic. True-to-life escapism, the perfect kind. I once lent it to a loved one who was going through a really difficult time in hospital, and when I saw her the next morning she said it had transported her. I could see the relief on her face that this book had taken her out of the moment into somewhere funny and relatable. It does it in a way which seems effortless, the sure sign that you’re in the presence of a master of their art. Writers like Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes are often downplayed (just like writers in other ‘genres’ – Lee Child, anyone?), and it drives me up the wall. The surest way to take power away from a book is to stick a label on it, and I cannot bear it when people sneer about such books – because you can bet they probably haven’t even read one.
This is something I’ll return to, because the whole genre/literary debate is a topic in its own right. In an interview last week in The Guardian, Marian Keyes spoke about the damage the label of ‘chick-lit’ creates: ‘When you shame people for what they read, you take away their confidence in other areas as well.’ Millions of people love these books, and they love them for a reason: because they’re good.
So, here are three books to make you believe in true love. But there are hundreds of others out there. I’ve chosen these books because when I think of them they give me a warm glow and they make me happy. I hope they bring you happiness too.
And…please do let me know what your favourite ‘true love’ books are on Twitter.
