Romance

Here's what I think about the topic:

• Most Romantic Novel: Nineteen Eighty-Four(George Orwell):

Winston and Julia have just started to meet secretly, mostly in public places for fractions of a minute, but sometimes in a hideout for a few happy hours.

"It's all off," she murmured as soon as she judged it safe to speak. "Tomorrow, I mean."
"What?"
"Tomorrow afternoon. I can't come."
"Why not?"
"Oh, the usual reason. It started early this time."
For a moment he was violently angry. During the month he had known her the nature of his desire for her had changed. At the beginning there had been little true sensuality in it. The first love-making had been simply an act of the will. But after the second time it was different. The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity, something that he not only wanted but felt he had a right to. When she said that she could not come, he had the feeling that she was cheating him. But just at this moment the crowd pressed them together and their hands accidentally met. She gave the tips of his fingers a quick squeeze that seemed to invite not desire but affection. It struck him that when one lived with a woman this particular disapointment must be a normal, recurring event; and a deep tenderness, such as he had not felt for her before, suddently took hold of him. He wished that they were a married couple of ten years' standing. he wished that he were walking through the streets with her just as they were doing now, but openly without fear, talking of trivialities and buying odds and ends for the household.

• Most Romantic Song: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen, also Rufus Wainwright, and there's about a million versions- here are my favourite excerpts):

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah


(Hallelujah)


I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

(Hallelujah)

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

(Hallelujah)

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

(Hallelujah)

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah


(Hallelujah)

• Most romantic Movie: Much Ado About Nothing(with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson)

Oh, the language! The wit! The unbearable wit! And they are so right for each other! Sigh.