F for Forbidden Love
Forbidden love is my topic for today’s blog post linked to the A to Z Challenge.
I’m fascinated with this topic because it’s featuring so prominently in current bestsellers as well as all-time popular books and movies. There are so many works revolving around forbidden desire / attraction / love, that this is just a short list (Goodreads has an extensive collection of almost 800 books for the search term, go figure!):
- Lolita by Vladminir Nabokov
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
- The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
What all these books have in common is that they portray why the love is forbidden, and that they allow a glimpse of what the illicit love affair can do to the protagonists. They show the craving, the added thrill, the rules and obligations that bind people and sometimes even prevent true love. Often they also shed light on the consequences of an affair, and how far its influence stretches.
There are countless reasons why a relationship is forbidden:
- teacher and student (very popular)
- two people from different races / religions / social strata / financial backgrounds
- a big age difference
- already committed
- social norms, expectations, arranged marriages
- the lovers are related to each other
- the relationship would endanger (one of) them
I’m fascinated with this topic because it’s featuring so prominently in current bestsellers as well as all-time popular books and movies. There are so many works revolving around forbidden desire / attraction / love, that this is just a short list (Goodreads has an extensive collection of almost 800 books for the search term, go figure!):
- Lolita by Vladminir Nabokov
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
- The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
What all these books have in common is that they portray why the love is forbidden, and that they allow a glimpse of what the illicit love affair can do to the protagonists. They show the craving, the added thrill, the rules and obligations that bind people and sometimes even prevent true love. Often they also shed light on the consequences of an affair, and how far its influence stretches.
There are countless reasons why a relationship is forbidden:
- teacher and student (very popular)
- two people from different races / religions / social strata / financial backgrounds
- a big age difference
- already committed
- social norms, expectations, arranged marriages
- the lovers are related to each other
- the relationship would endanger (one of) them
And now let me conclude my post with shameless self-promotion for the romantic suspense novel I coauthored with Mike Wells, which is titled FORBIDDEN. Here’s the synopsis of the Amazon bestselling book:
One woman caught in a dark web of deceit, domination and greed. One man she's forbidden to love.
When Lady Eleanor Sotheby unexpectedly enters the life of Jayne Clark, a 23-year old waitress from Wichita, Kansas, Jayne's world is turned upside down. Not only is she welcomed into a family that she never knew, but she is thrust headlong into the highest strata of European society. Nothing is too grand in the fairy tale lives of the uber-rich--the spectacular seaside villas, the sleek, chauffeured limousines, the outrageously expensive designer clothes.
When Jayne plays her part and learns to fit into this new world, she meets Robert Astor, the man of her dreams. But her feelings for Robert are forbidden. Jayne's heady new life begins to unravel into a dark web of deceit, domination and greed...and she ultimately finds herself confronting an evil that truly has no limits.
You can find all the download links here.
One woman caught in a dark web of deceit, domination and greed. One man she's forbidden to love.
When Lady Eleanor Sotheby unexpectedly enters the life of Jayne Clark, a 23-year old waitress from Wichita, Kansas, Jayne's world is turned upside down. Not only is she welcomed into a family that she never knew, but she is thrust headlong into the highest strata of European society. Nothing is too grand in the fairy tale lives of the uber-rich--the spectacular seaside villas, the sleek, chauffeured limousines, the outrageously expensive designer clothes.
When Jayne plays her part and learns to fit into this new world, she meets Robert Astor, the man of her dreams. But her feelings for Robert are forbidden. Jayne's heady new life begins to unravel into a dark web of deceit, domination and greed...and she ultimately finds herself confronting an evil that truly has no limits.
You can find all the download links here.
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