Romance Week, Part 1

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Happy Valentine's Week! Boy, there are a lot of 'bah humbug' attitudes towards Valentine's Day out here on the Internet! Some people complain it's just a painful reminder of being single. Others call it a Hallmark holiday. Well, I guess it's those things too, but I've always thought of February 14 as "hearts and flowers day" and enjoyed the reminder to put romance at the top of my list at least once every year.

I think my favorite Valentine's gift of all time was this one, which my husband gave me for Valentine's Day 1995: it's a book called Love Letters: An Anthology of Passion


I can't improve upon the words of the publisher: "My weary mind turns for refreshment to the thought of you as a dusty traveller might sink onto a soft and grassy bank."

These tender words, written by Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet in 1853, offer just a hint of the rich collection of lovers' correspondence preserved in Michelle Lovric's Love Letters: An Anthology of Passion. This slim volume is overflowing with excerpted quotations that are artfully arranged around paintings and line drawings with a Victorian flair, and every passionate word is carefully attributed with names, dates, and details.


But the excerpted quotations are only a fraction of the book's appeal: the real draw is the letters that Lovric tracked down and photographed in museums and libraries all over the world. In the tradition of Griffin and Sabine, these reproductions are tucked into envelopes and must be removed in order to be read."


Don't forget that my One World, One Heart giveaway ends this week -- comments must be posted by clicking on the blog entry you'll find here only - and no later than 11:59 p.m. MST (GM-7) on February 11, 2009.

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