Every shade of love is here, from King Henry VIIl's passionate pursuit of Anne Boleyn to the simple devotion of the poet Robert Browning; from the exquisite eloquence of Oscar Wilde to the wonderfully modern misery of the Roman Pliny the Younger, losing himself in work to forget how much he misses his beloved wife, Calpurnia.Taken together, these love letters show that perhaps men haven't changed so very much over the last 2000 years.Romance, jealousy, hope and longing are all represented here - as is the simple pleasure of sending a letter to, and receiving one from, the person you love most.

Introduction

Pliny the Younger to his wife, Calpurnia

King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

William Congreve to Mrs Arabella Hunt

Richard Steele to Miss Mary Scurlock

George Farquhar to Anne Oldfield

Alexander Pope to Martha Blount

Alexander Pope to Teresa Blount

Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

David Hume to Madame de Boufflers

Laurence Sterne to Catherine Fourmantel

Laurence Sterne to Lady Percy

Denis Diderot to Sophie Volland

Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, to Lady Grosvenor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his wife, Constanze

Lord Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton

Robert Burns to Mrs Agnes Madehose

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller to

Charlotte von Lengefeld

Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife, Josephine

Daniel Webster to Josephine Seaton

Ludwig van Beethoven to his 'Immortal Beloved'

William Hazlitt to Sarah Walker

Lord Byron to Lady Caroline Lamb

Lord Byron to the Countess Guicdoli

John Keats to Fanny Brawne

Honore de Balzac to the Countess Ewelina Hanska

Victor Hugo to Addle Foucher

Nathaniel Hawthorne to his wife, Sophia

Benjamin Disraeli to Mary Anne Wyndham Lewis

Charles Darwin to Emma Wedgwood

Alfred de Musset to George Sand

Robert Scbumann to Clara Wieck

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett

Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet

Gustave Flaubert to George Sand

Walter Bagehot to Elizabeth Wilson

Mark Twain to Olivia Langdon

William F. Testerman to Miss Jane Davzs

Charles Stewart Parnell to Katharine O'Shea

Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas

Pierre Curie to Marie Sklodovska (Marie Curie)

G. K Chesterton to Frances Blogg

Captain Alfred Bland to his wife, Violet

Regimental Sergeant-Major James Milne to his wife, Meg

Second Lieutenant John Lindsay Rapoport to his fiance

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

A note on the type