Reading path
Love and Its Wreckage
The full catastrophe. Desire, devotion, obsession, betrayal, and the quiet grief of love that arrived too late or left too soon. Literature has always understood love better than love understands itself, and this path gathers the most devastating and necessary evidence. Painful recognition is part of the territory. So is the strange comfort of knowing it's all been felt before.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. The SymposiumPlato, 385 BCE
- 2. Fragment 31Sappho, 600 BCE
- 3. Sonnets from the PortugueseElizabeth Barrett Browning, 1850
- 4. Holy SonnetsJohn Donne, 1633
- 5. To His Coy MistressAndrew Marvell, 1681
- 6. The Eve of St. AgnesJohn Keats, 1820
- 7. Dangerous LiaisonsPierre Choderlos de Laclos, 1782
- 8. Wuthering HeightsEmily Brontë, 1847
- 9. Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen, 1813
- 10. Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy, 1877
- 11. Madame BovaryGustave Flaubert, 1857
- 12. Tess of the d'UrbervillesThomas Hardy, 1891
- 13. Jude the ObscureThomas Hardy, 1895
- 14. White NightsFyodor Dostoevsky, 1848
- 15. The Lady with the DogAnton Chekhov, 1899
- 16. The Wings of the DoveHenry James, 1902
- 17. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of DespairPablo Neruda, 1924
- 18. Poem of the EndMarina Tsvetaeva, 1924
- 19. Doctor ZhivagoBoris Pasternak, 1957
- 20. Love in the Time of CholeraGabriel García Márquez, 1985
- 21. The LoverMarguerite Duras, 1984
- 22. One ArtElizabeth Bishop, 1976
- 23. Birthday LettersTed Hughes, 1998
- 24. Funeral BluesW.H. Auden, 1938
- 25. Effi BriestTheodor Fontane, 1895
- 26. Celestina Or The Tragic-Comedy Of Calisto And MelibeaFernando de Rojas, 1499
- 27. Froth on the daydreamBoris Vian, 1947
- 28. La RegentaClarín, 1884
- 29. Petrarch's SongbookFrancesco Petrarca, 1341
- 30. A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens, 1859
- 31. For Whom the Bell TollsErnest Hemingway, 1940
- 32. Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare, 1597
- 33. Gone With the WindMargaret Mitchell, 1936
- 34. Elective AffinitiesJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1809
- 35. Bonjour TristesseFrancoise Sagan, 1954
- 36. Dom CasmurroMachado de Assis, 1899
- 37. Her LoverAlbert Cohen, 1968
- 38. The Alexandria QuartetLawrence Durrell, 1957
- 39. The Garden of the Finzi-ContinisGiorgio Bassani, 1962
- 40. Rabbit, RunJohn Updike, 1960
- 41. Sons and LoversD.H. Lawrence, 1913
- 42. The Age of InnocenceEdith Wharton, 1920
- 43. The Devil to Pay in the BacklandsJoao Guimaraes Rosa, 1956
- 44. The God of Small ThingsArundhati Roy, 1997
- 45. Angle of ReposeWallace Stegner, 1971
- 46. Ethan FromeEdith Wharton, 1911
- 47. Fortunata and JacintaBenito Pérez Galdós, 1887
- 48. If I Forget Thee, JerusalemWilliam Faulkner, 1939
- 49. I'm Not StillerMax Frisch, 1954
- 50. JealousyAlain Robbe-Grillet, 1957
- 51. Parade's EndFord Madox Ford, 1924
- 52. The End of the AffairGraham Greene, 1951
- 53. The Forsyte SagaJohn Galsworthy, 1906
- 54. The Hunchback of Notre-DameVictor Hugo, 1831
- 55. The Princess of ClevesMadame de La Fayette, 1678
- 56. Of Human BondageW. Somerset Maugham, 1915
- 57. AdolpheBenjamin Constant, 1816
- 58. A Heart So WhiteJavier Marias, 1992
- 59. The MaiasEça de Queirós, 1888
- 60. Our Lady of the AssassinsFernando Vallejo, 1994
- 61. DesolaciónGabriela Mistral, 1922
- 62. The Road Into The OpenArthur Schnitzler, 1908
- 63. The Golden BowlHenry James, 1904
- 64. The Heart of the MatterGraham Greene, 1948
- 65. The MagusJohn Fowles, 1965
- 66. MelbourneDavid Cecil, 1939
- 67. Venus in FursLeopold Von Sacher-Masoch, 1870
- 68. Far from the Madding CrowdThomas Hardy, 1874
- 69. The Small House at AllingtonAnthony Trollope, 1864
- 70. A Pair of Blue EyesThomas Hardy, 1873
- 71. Family HappinessLeo Tolstoy, 1859
- 72. The Bride Of LammermoorSir Walter Scott, 1819
- 73. Poor FolkFyodor Dostoevsky, 1846
- 74. The Kreutzer SonataLeo Tolstoy, 1889
- 75. A Harlot High And LowHonoré de Balzac, 1839
- 76. O Pioneers!Willa Cather, 1913
- 77. Washington SquareHenry James, 1880
- 78. VictoryJoseph Conrad, 1915
- 79. MaudAlfred, Lord Tennyson, 1855
- 80. LamiaJohn Keats, 1820
- 81. Isabella; or, The Pot of BasilJohn Keats, 1820
- 82. Bright StarJohn Keats, 1819
- 83. Letters of John Keats to Fanny BrawneJohn Keats, 1878
- 84. Evangeline: A Tale of AcadieHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1847
- 85. Love In A Fallen CityEileen Chang, 1943
- 86. KaterynaTaras Shevchenko, 1838
- 87. Fieldwork In Ukrainian SexOksana Zabuzhko, 1996