Top Ten Tuesday - Romances That Could Survive in the Real World

This weeks topic hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is a bit more difficult. I don't read that many romance novels and those that I have read are completely unrealistic. Let's give it a shot:

1. Fermina Daza and Dr. Juvenal Urbino from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera - Their marriage is out of interest. Fermina is pretty, Juvenal is sort of rich and they get along together. It's not a love that conquers all, that moves the universe, an undying passion, but they did live a happy life for fifty years. Maybe it did conquer all?

2. The Reader and Ludmilla from Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - This isn't a typical romance, but then again, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler isn't a typical novel. You are the Reader and you're stuck in a book, but it's not really you. Trust me on this one. There, you meet Ludmilla, the other reader and you go on an adventure together. In the end you get married and are pronounced the Reader and the Reader (in Italian Lettore and Lettrice). Face it, relationships between readers work. Most of the time.

3. Pelagia and Antonio from Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Technically, they didn't have a love story, but I think it was very realistic. They fell in love, life separated them and they spent their life wondering what could have been. Sounds like real life to me. 

4. Sibel and Kemal from Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence - Their relationship didn't work out in the book, but had they lived outside of a book, I'd bet it would have. Men of Kemal's background and breeding don't leave their sophisticated fiancées in order to pursue a girl who is almost fifteen years younger, outside of his class and doesn't want to be caught. At least, this one wouldn't have the courage.  

5. Holly and Gerry from Cecelia Ahern's P.S. I Love You - I hated this book and will fight everyone who says it was amazing, but I can't deny that stories like this exist. A couple gets married way too young and then one of them doesn't know how to go on with their life without the other one.

6. Lotte and Albert from Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther - The entire book is written from Werther's perspective and we don't really know how Lotte feels, but from the glimpses we get of the real her and not the one that's constantly on Werther's mind, she's in love with Albert, and Albert is in love with her. They chose each other and are as happy as they can be.

7. Lata and Haresh form Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy - While I was reading this book, I didn't want Lata to marry Haresh. I was rooting for her to defy her family and marry the one who she chose, even if it would have been more difficult. In the end, she makes the sensible choice and marries the hardworking, sweet guy her mother chose for her. Most people do make the sensible choice.

8. Marguerite and Armand from Alexandre Dumas's The Lady of the Camellias - A girl who is using a guy who's smitten. I know there's a lot more to The Lady of the Camellias than all the using, but this is the part that certainly works in real life.

9. Cecilia and Roby from Ian McEwan's Atonement - Both of them are stubborn and know what they want. Even though they come from different social backgrounds they decide to fight for each other in the book and are each other's equal. I think a similar thing would happen in real life.

10. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Not a love story, but I want a tenth and don't want to leave it at nine! And while we're at it, they could work in real life. And they're almost a love story. 

I can't believe it I've listed ten of them! Well, this is basically every love story (if we interpret a love story as a story that has some love in it) I've ever read that's a tiny bit realistic. Some of my favorite love stories are from The Master and Margarita, or A Tale of Two Cities, but they don't have the tiniest shot of happening in real life.