lthough the bounty of
romance-related poet-
ry, prose and essays
vailable cannot be
counted, these are some to be
aware of Please excuse us if your
own favorites were omitted;
doubtless, we could have written
a book. Enjoy!

This 1774 classic novel by the
German poet, playwright, nov-
elist, scientist and diplomat,
though not confined to the
bounds of love, wreaks of ro-
mance, and in fact, caused a
wave of suicides among the
young European romantics of
the time, causing the book to be
banned in Germany. In Goethe's
own wor6, this is the sto-
ry of a young man "gifted
with deep, pure sentiment
and penetrating intelli-
gence who loses himself
in fantastic dreams ... and
infinite love."

- The Song of $ongs
Shalom Aleichem

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NONFICTION

Love: A Celebration
In Art And Literature

Edited by Jane Lahr
and Lena Tabori; Stew-
art, Tabori & Chang;
$45.

Sholem Aleichem adapts the biblical
story into his own Song of Songs.

FICTION

The Song Of Songs

By Sholem Aleichem, illustrat-
ed by Devis Grebu; Simon &
Schuster; $22.

Here is presented — by the
author of "Tevye the Milkman"
— his only love story: With
echoes of its biblical ancestor,
Aleichem adapts The Song
of Songs into an elliptical
story of a 19th-century
man and woman, raised as
brother and sister, who fall
in love. This edition is deli-
cately illustrated by Devis
Grebu.

Wonder Tales: Six
French Stories Of En-
chantment

Edited by Marina Warner;
Farrar, Straus, Giroux; $22.

The poetry of Shake-
speare, Percy Bysshe Shelley
and Walt Whitman, the prose of
D.H. Lawrence, Colette and
Vladimir Nabakov, the profun-
dity of Martin Buber, the lyrics
of Cole Porter, and the art of
Marc Chagall, Odilon Redon,
Gustav Klimt and Constantin
Brancusi: This is just a small
sampling of the wonders lushly
illustrated in this coffee-table
collection of quotes, poems, es-
says and more.

be used for years (unlike an en-
gagement calendar).

A Natural History Of Love

By Diane Ackerman; Vintage;
$12 (paper).

Poet and naturalist Ackerman
— author of A Natural History
of the Senses and The Moon by
Whalelight — combs through
history, literature, biology and
pop culture in search of "the
great intangible": that is, love.
From Plato, Ovid and Stendhal
to an aphrodisiac made from rot-
ting fish entrails, the author ex-
plores love's history in her
insightful — if eccentric —
manner.

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"Prince, if you take one
step nearer me, I shall raise
this axe and slice your head
into two neat hemispheres."
So speaks "The Subtle
Princess," in the fairy tale of
the same name, by Marie-
Wonder Tales, Marina Warner has
Jeanne L'Heritier de Villan- In
collected six French stories of enchantment.
don. This is just one of a
handful of fairy tales that are
quite often just as biting and sar- Love: A Book Of Days
castic as romantic. Alas, what-
ever else it may be, a fairy tale Edited by Roy Finamore and
is nothing if not romantic, and Sarah Longacre; Stewart, Ta-
bori & Chang; $16.95.
this is a collection of classics.
Here is the affordable version
The Sorrows Of Young of the above book: A condensed
collection of all the splendors of
Werther
poetry, prose and art that is
By Johann Wolfgang von neatly put together in a book of
Goethe; Signet Classics; $4.95 days, in which you can record all
important dates for posterity to
(paper).

may i feel said he

Poem by e.e. cummings, paintings
by Marc Chagall; Stewart, Tabori
& Chang; $17.95.
"Is it not true that painting

and color are inspired by love?"
wrote the Russian/French Jew-
ish artist Marc Chagall, at the
age of 85. Twenty-three of his
lyrical paintings of floating lovers
and violin-playing horses are
here in this book, complemented
by poet e.e. cummings' sensual-
ly ecstatic — and humorous —
tribute to love and such.

power of evil. Even if you're not
interested in poetry, it is worth
your while just to bask in Blake's
illuminations. Volume II of the
Illuminated Books series.

Love Poems

By Anne Sexton; Houghton Mif-
flin; $11.95.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Sexton here introduces a sensu-
ous heroine along the lines of The
Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynne.
Beginning her "love story" after
the fairy tale ending of "happily
ever after," this was innovative
and new in 1969 when it was
originally published, and still
holds strongly now, in 1997.

Love Letters

Selected Poems

Selected and edited by Pe-
ter Washington; Knopf;
$12.50.

By Edna St. Vincent Millay;
HarperCollins; $12.

Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn, Franz Kafka and
Felice, Eloise and Abelard,
Virginia Woolf and Vita
Sackville-West: From the
historical to the fictional,
these are but some of the
lovers whose enchanting,
tragic and comic letters
and declarations of love
have been exchanged and
are captured here in this
volume for all voyeurs to
Be here at 1:50 and bring with you the love
relish.

object." — Newt Gingrich's press secretary,

The Love Book

from The LOVE Book.

By Robert Rosenheck;
MacMillan; $17.95.

ON,

POETRY

Aspiring filmmaker and coun-
try singer Rosenheck found a
hand-cut plywood relic of the
'60s: a "love" sign. He hopped in
his car and crisscrossed the
country asking hundreds of
everyday people if they would
"hold my love sign." In addition
to the plainfolk, celebrities such
as Joan Rivers, Mikhail Gor-
bachev, Gloria Steinem, David
Byrne, Spike Lee and John Wa-
ters agreed to pose. Also includ-
ed is a list of "Those who denied
love," and their responses. Safe
sex fun!

Love, Loss, And What I Wore

Written and illustrated by Ilene
Beckerman; Algonquin; $14.95.

Although this book does not
specifically have a theme of love,
this is a quirky little book, one
which you may not have stum
bled across but should. Gingy,
as Beckerman is called in this
book, tells the story of her life
through the clothes she wore,
from her Brownie uniform to her
Diane Von Furstenberg wrap
dress. She remembers her di-
vorce, the death of a child, heart-
break and joy — all bound up in
the clothes she wore.

Treasury Of Jewish Love: Po-
ems, Quotations & Proverbs
In Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino
And English

Edited and transliterated by
David C. Gross; Hippocrene; $9.

This compact volume is divid-
ed into four sections: poems of
love frwri Hebrew sources, from
Yiddish sources, from Ladino
sources and Proverbs from He-
brew and Yiddish sources, all
translated into English. Selec-
tions from Proverbs, the Song of
Songs, Judah Halevi, Chaim
Nachman Bialik and many oth-
ers provide a romantic way of be-
coming more acquainted with our
history.

Songs Of Innocence And Of
Experience

Written and illustrated by
William Blake; Princeton Uni-
versity Press; $59.50.

Collected in one volume, these
are two series of poems, written
in 1794. Subtitled Showing the

Two Contrary States of the Hu-
man Soul, Blake first presents

and exults in the omnipresence
of divine love, even in the face of
sorrow. The latter collection op-
poses the first, dealing with the

Although this collection is not
solely dedicated to the theme of
love, when read aloud, almost
anything that Millay wrote
sounds — and feels — romantic.
When she does turn to the topic
of love, she can't be beaten: "I can-
not say what loves have come and
gone, I only know that summer
sang in me/A little while, that in
me sings no more." Sigh.

Rossetti

By Christina Rossetti; Knopf;
$10.95.

Sister of pre-Raphaelite
painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
poet Christina Rossetti was
known for the exquisitely turned
lyrical beauty of her poetry, and
the pleasure it provides to the
senses. Perfect fireside reading.

SOMETHING FOR THE
CHILDREN

Guess How Much I Love You

By Sam McBratney, illustrated
by Anita Jeram; Candlewick
Press; $15.99.

In the sweet — without being

precious — and old-fashioned tra-

dition of the children's classic
Goodnight Moon, here is a tale
bound to become a new classic.
Jeram's endearing watercolors
perfectly capture the bond unit-
ing Little Nutbrown Hare and
Big Nutbrown Hare, and the ten-
der love between them.

COVER PHOTO

Love: A Celebration in Art and
Literature, is a beautifully illustrated
collection of poetry and prose. The
cover illustration is a detail from
Equestrian by Marc Chagall. Published
. by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

—All dust jackets courtesy of Book
Beat Bookstore, in Oak Park.