Bitchery reader Amy wrote and asked me a question that I’ve had a ball pondering as I look back over my readering history:
When I was fourteen, I bought my first Harlequin at a yard sale and read it so many times that now, at 40, I can repeat paragraphs of it. (Sara Craven, Solitaire. Last line of dialog: “There is a time in the life of every jeune fille in which the locking of doors is required. Your time is now.”)
I was curious if you two—or if your readers had the same experience—we never forget our first, right? Which book popped our cherries, and how much do we remember?
We’ve definitely discussed this topic before, and I’ve written about the first romance I read, Midsummer Magic by Catherine Coulter. But the dialogue Amy quoted?
That’s kinda hot, right there. Damn.
So I got to thinking – what dialogue do I remember years after reading it? My memory, it is a funky, funky place. I can recite the last paragraph of Great Expectations, probably due to too many viewings of the Beauty and the Beast pilot, but romance dialogue doesn’t often stick in my brain.
Notable exception: one brother in the Quinn quartet by Nora Roberts, and I want to say it was Philip but not in the novel wherein he was the hero, rants about wanting privacy and says he’s going to go live in a bunker and change his name to “Pierre.” For some reason, I laughed so hard at that I fell off my beach chair, and even now, when I get irritated at too large of a crowd, Hubby will ask me if I’m heading for the bunker.
I don’t know that I’d make a good Pierre.
So what line of dialogue from a romance has rocked your socks to the point that, long after those socks were lost in the dryer, you still remember it?
And anyone got a lead on a really cushy bunker with wifi? Lemme know
One line from Georgette Heyer’s “These Old Shades” has been seared into my memory…Leonie asks Avon if he remembers (errr, something I’ve forgotten), and he replies, “I remember every word you have ever spoken to me.” Swoonworthy on its own and all the more so in context, as this is (IIRC) the first indication that he thinks of her as more than his ward.
Though it’s not a traditional romance, I’ve read Elizabeth Marie Pope’s “The Perilous Gard” so many times over the past twenty years I can still quote entire conversations and descriptive passages.
Wow… it kind of horrifies me how much one person’s favorite line is another person’s purple prose.
And here’s my entry to the pot: Scarlet Pimpernel, the movie.
Oh, Jody, I can’t even claim they are in the attic. They are in my office on the shelves just like all my other books… and not a brown recluse in sight to eat them either… he he.
Besides Rosemary Rogers, I think those two books were the only ones that deserve the label ‘bodice rippers’ that I’ve read. And early RR is so far out there, even those Lindseys pale (Crowd Pleasers anyone?).
Okay, another favorite quote so we don’t dwell on the horribleness. This one is actually not in the book but in the chronology and isn’t from a romance either. It’s from the timeline of the Miles Vorkosigan books and describes one the books. ‘Miles hits 30, 30 hits back’. I’ve often felt that way regardless of which birthday it’s been… 🙂
La Reine Noire>
Not from memory (yeah right!) but here’s the last paragraph of that scene…
“Had she but turned back then, and looked out once more on to the rose lit garden, she would have seen that which would have made her own sufferings seem but light and easy to bear—a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last.”
Also in I Will Repay! (another Pimpernel book) there’s a part where Sir Percy is giving advice to a young would-be lover who calls the object of his affection a “saint”:
“And ‘twill be when you understand that your idol has feet of clay that you’ll learn the real lesson of love,” said Blakeney earnestly. “Is it love to worship a saint in heaven, whom you dare not touch, who hovers above you like a cloud, which floats away from you even as you gaze? To love is to feel one being in the world at one with us, our equal in sin as well as in virtue. To love, for us men, is to clasp one woman with our arms, feeling that she lives and breathes just as we do, suffers as we do, thinks with us, loves with us, and, above all, sins with us. Your mock saint who stands in a niche is not a woman if she have not suffered, still less a woman if she have not sinned. Fall at the feet of your idol an you wish, but drag her down to your level after that—the only level she should ever reach, that of your heart.”
Well, if we’re going with The Scarlet Pimpernel, there’s the scene where Percy and Marguerite have the huge fight outside their house and she runs up the stairs: “Had she but turned back then, and looked out once more on the rose-lit garden, she would have seen that which would have made her own sufferings seem but light and easy to bear—a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone; the will was powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last.”
Eunice—great minds think alike! Isn’t that scene incredible?!
I feel old confessing that I started with Barbara Cartland. I …. don’t …. remember …. any …. worthy dialouge, …. but …. who could forget …. her heroine’s …. sex-induced …. speech …. impediments?
Fortunately, I moved on to Georgette Heyer and discovered some truely enjoyable stories and heroines. A scene from Scarlet Pimpernel that I thought was truly romantic: after an argument in the garden the missus goes inside and he kisses the railing her hand rested on, all the way up the stairs.
Sarah Frantz> Kismet!
Also I love -Love!- Pablo Neruda’s poetry. It’s romantic and sexy at the same time
(translated to English)
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved
In secret, between the shadow and the soul”
Okay, I’ll stop commenting now.
My college roommate was from the Netherlands and when we were depressed we would cut class and she would simultaneously translate to English from Dutch versions of Harlequin romances; we would copy good lines onto our apartment wall. My personal favorite: “Was there a sexy way to remove pantyhose? she wondered.”
You know, I still wonder, too.
Because of all the other Pimpernel fans here…
A (poorly bootleg filmed) clip from the stage musical. Somebody posted this on another board once. It gets me every time. I loved the musical and once road-tripped 3 hours to see it. If it’s ever in your neighborhood you gotta go.
Erin, that poem you like is called Pippa Passes, and there’s a lot more of it!
I love the line in one of Terry Pratchett’s Guards series books where Sam is thinking about how Sybil gives him expensive presents and then he has to figure out what to do with them, since he’s set in his ways and he’s not used to having such nice stuff. He says, “She was a woman who was out for all she could give.”
I think the first romance I ever read was Devil’s Desire by Laurie McBain. I’ll have to get a copy and read it again. Oh, wait, does Jane Aiken Hodge count?
Most memorable line from a romance (I think): “With the possibility of great love comes the possibility of great pain.” I have no idea what book it came from – maybe somebody can HaBO? I don’t think it was a very good book – in fact, I was surprised the line was in it. And yeah, I know it’s not all that profound, but it sure as hell is true.
I am appalled that there was a sequel to Warrior’s Woman. Dear Goddess, what was the publisher thinking about?
There are in fact two sequals to Warrior’s Woman. The first about Challen and Tedra’s daughter who has sworn never to love a barbarian because she hates the lifestyle, only to fall into the hands of a some-what more civilized barbarian, civilization being relative here.
The other is about Challen and Tedra’s son who manages to find his wife right here on Earth in the form of a tall, stunning virginal carpenter. There is so much wrong with these descriptions and while I’m ashamed to have read the first two, at least I skipped the third.
Oh, Bujold, my goddess. Not a book of hers I’ve read but that I have to hide from onlookers, so they don’t catch me crying. Or snorting a giggle, which is awkward and sometimes messy. If I could write only half as well as her, I’d still be a pretty good writer.
“Miles, are you one-upping my dead?”
“She pours out honor like a fountain.”
“I’m my lady’s dog.”
“I’m not giving her to you [Caz], I’m giving you to her.”
I feel strongly tempted to pull out her books and start quoting them at length, but I’ll refrain.
Coming out of lurking mode to thank you all. So many memories were brought back by much of this and so many opportunities for memories were offered.
Off to feign sickness for the next three to six days so I can lay in bed and reread all my NR yet again.
Renda
spam word reported28 As a court reporter feigning illness, that’s how many depositions won’t be reported by me!!!
Deputman – Sadly, that third book sounds familiar. I think I started reading it on the recommendation of a librarian friend/co-worker, and eventually threw it against the wall. Ugh.
Kushiel train – I’m on it, too. I bought a ticket last summer and spent three weeks reading nothing but.
First romance novel – it was one of my grandmother’s Taylor Caldwell books, although I’ve forgotten the title. Something about bees or honey, set in Rome.
Brockmann quotes – there are a jillion, but the one that stands out (and I happen to have handy 🙂 ) is one from a conversation between Jules and Gina, where they’ve been talking about how no one wants to acknowledge that she was held hostage and raped by terrorists, and it’s usually the elephant in the room for her. Then she finds out that Jules is a gay FBI agent, and he says to her,
The best SEP quote – “Oh, but there was something splendid about being kissed by a lazy man.” From Lady Be Good – the whole passage just about knocked my socks off.
Pratchett – there is a passage in Men at Arms that made me weepy and happy at the same time. Angua (the werewolf and Carrot’s girlfriend) has been shot and killed in her wolf shape, but Carrot carries on with chasing the Big Bad anyways. Everyone is taken aback by this, but chalk it up to Carrot being Carrot (meaning, a by-to-book sort of person). After the Big Bad has been dispatched, he takes Angua to the morgue, cleans her up, and goes back to his room to write reports and sweep and suchlike. Later on, the door opens and Angua comes in, alive.
It’s so him – even though he appeared to carry on as if nothing had happened, he wasn’t certain and was probably worrying about it the whole time. Awwww…
It’s not a quote from the first romance novel I ever read (Jewels by Danielle Steele. I can’t remember any quotes from that) but this passage from Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull has stuck with me:
Also, “When will the love muffins be done, Mata Hari?” from The Lovely Bones just always amuses me when I think of it.
All you people remembering passages from The Scarlet Pimpernel are making me look bad. I’ve read that book so many times and I can’t remember a specific passage to save my life. Clearly this calls for a reread.
One of my first romances was Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux
My favorite line/scene is in Legend by Jude Deveraux
If you were with the right person, you were in the right place. “I love you,” she whispered so softly she almost couldn’t hear herself. But Tarik heard, becaue he paused for just a second in caressing her hair, and under her cheek she could feel the muscles of his stomach tense then release.
And I love love love the Anne of Green Gables for the romance factor in every book.
I just love that whole setting.
Not from a book but the most quotable movie of all time, The Princess Bride:
And not romantic but still one of my favourite lines ever :
Ok I need to stop now or I’ll just end up quoting the whole movie.
To whoever said up there that they just finished reading Jeaniene Frost’s second book I’ll give a hearty HELL YEAH of agreement, holy hotness batman! (slight spoiler, but I don’t know how to make invisible text)
Anna Lawrence & Darlene Marshall: I too worship at the altar of the Grand Georgette. These Old Shades is one of my favorite books ever. And the Grand Sophy definitely makes my top five of hers. I maintain that no one does dialogue better than her- No One.
The third Warrior’s woman sequel is actually not bad. In the (supposedly required) punishment love scene (she was almost eaten by a bear-monster) the man purposefully doesn’t take the libido-reducing drug so he can feel the same pain as his beloved. But when it’s over and he’s gone away to feel sorry for himself, she remarks to her little explaining computer thing that she’s somewhat used to it because of… something something…
I haven’t read the other two books though… they sound terrible.
The first romance book that I ever read was another Johanna Lindsey book called Once a Princess. The hero (a prince) reluctantly sets out to America to claim his promised bride only to find that instead of living the life of luxury she’s been working as a bar maid, stage dancer and apparent whore. He kidnaps her and sets out for his country. She trys to escape repeatedly… they suffer trials (his mistress, his lack of self confidence over his appearance (he has a scar), her apparent lack of virginity and his (and the kings) guilt over her having such a hard life, assasinations) they declare their love just before their wedding. Nicely touching romantic scenes, not so much horrid purple prose, humourous and believable. Lovely.
One of the most memorably funny scenes from a romance book happened in a Nora Roberts book. The Hero and Heroine are archiologists (?) and used to be married. They’re staying in a hotel in rooms next to each other and the heroine is practising her cello. The hero did something annoying that day and so the heroine decides to do something that she knows he’ll hate. The scene cuts to the hero’s room where he’s ruminating over how infuriating the heroine is. Then the strains of music start to float into his room through the wall. He starts to get creeped out and even more annoyed and exits his room and starts pounding on her door to get her to stop playing the Jaws theme. Classic! I LOLed. Can’t remember the name of the book though… HaBO?
And now, because this is too fun and I’m a quote-fiend (a fiend, I tell you!) here are my Top 5 non-Georgette Heyer quotes.
I know. I know. But it is my favorite book.
(ok, I cheated a little and looked those up to get it word for word…but still, good quotes).
Mk…out of my system. I’m done now. Promise.
There’s also a book of the Princess Bride, which is quite good. Different from the movie, but still funny and enjoyable.
Joanna, that Roberts was one of my favorite, Birthright. Although they are too young to both have tenure, it’s a fabulously amazing book otherwise! One I recommend all the time as part of my conversion packet!
WTF does it say about me that when I sit here and try to remember fave Romance lines I visualize naughty bits? Up against the wall in Deveraux’s The Duchess. In the jungle lean-to in Brockmann’s Out of Control. When I specifically try to remember my first read romance I remember the chick loosing her virginity on the wood floor of a cabin. And the door was open.
I think I’m broken. Or I’m that chick who gives romance readers a bad name.
I taught my 5 year old to say that as he played swords. Funniest thing ever. He still trots it out (two years later) when he wants to make me laugh.
Hee hee! It’s like that Lisa Kleypas novel Dreaming Of You. Sara Fielding and Derek Craven, and upon their marriage….
I could be the only one silly enough to come to that conclusion.
First romance was Kathleen Woodiwiss’ Flame and the Flower, OMG I about wore out that book. My grandmother gave it to me as I was hitting puberty – I don’t think my Mom realized …
Somewhere in the JDRobb series, Eve thinks Roark’s asleep, and she says “I love you” before falling asleep The paragraph continues that Roark smiled in the dark “he never fell asleep first.”
My first romance books were large bags of Harlequins that my aunt would loan me when I complained of being bored during summer vacation at Grandma’s. I don’t remember any dialog from those, but I do remember my father’s reaction when he realized what I was spending my time reading. He handed me a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Talk about memorable dialog!
How about this bit, when Elizabeth tells Jane that she and Darcy are engaged:
Or this priceless bit from a bit later in the same conversation:
Priceless. Jane Austen is priceless.
Oh, and save me a space on the Kushiel squee-wagon! Jacqueline Carey is a damn fine writer, too.
Han Solo! Courtesy IMDB:
AGH hormone overload just thinking about it.
To me, that means my “hero” is about to pass gas.
Heee!! Funny you should mention Han Solo, Lisa. The line of his that gets stuck in my head all the time is—bizarrely—“I feel terrible.” After he’s been released from being tortured by Vader? Just the way he says that… It runs through my head on continuous loop, and no one EVER gets it when I’m quoting him when I don’t feel all that well.
And, of course, let’s never, ever forget “Stuck-up, scruffy-looking nerfherder!” / “Who’s scruffy-looking?”
Aargh! I read those (or at least the first one)! It was the Terrilian Saga, from the early 80’s. I was no more than 13-14 when I first read those books. God knows how I got my hands on them. There’s a scene where Terri takes revenge on the “hero” (I believe after he rapes her for the the first time, but I could be wrong) by putting him in a virtual reality machine where’s forced to live out a violent rape scene from the victim’s perspective- and then Terri’s boss has the memory wiped from his memory because it would have left him broken and traumatized. The scene that made me throw the book against the wall, though, was the one where the hero gives Terri to a visitor for the evening – just to be hospitable, you know – and then is surprised when she’s in pain later.
In fact, it was another Sharon Green novel that probably counts as my first! The Rebel Prince – yet another Green novel where a psychically gifted heroine from a more advanced civilization is sold off to a barbarian. In this case, the heroine is a princess in a technologically advanced, but closed, society ruled by a few elite, and is forced into marriage with the leader of a faction of rebels. Rape and submission ensue, of course. Then she gets amazing psychic powers and starts killing people. I must have read that book two dozen times.
Thought of another movie quote… in the BBC North and South.
The rival is a guy named Henry, who’s traveling with the heroine as she makes an investment scheme for the hero’s factory. She meets up with the hero in a trian station and is trying to tell him about her ideas.
It’s the delivery… Richard Armitage as Thornton. By “You don’t need Henry to help you explain,” he’s really saying, “Leave the other man out of this, you’re coming home with me.” And Armitage knows it. And it is so hot.
The letter that Wentworth writes to Anne in Persuasion. Makes me quibble every time! Book/movie – any! *sniffle*
“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath…
I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”
You get to that part, and you’re like “OMG YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE HOUSE!!!” I LOVE IT!! I am such a sucker for that book.
And Pride & Prejudice. The words that WEREN’T said when Darcy and Lizzie finally got engaged. *sigh* Is it any wonder I turned out to be an incurable hopeless romantic?
I remember lots of Han Solo lines.. *Star Wars fanatic* (I’m reciting that scene mentioned above right now, by memory…)
I have the personal belief that everybody in America knows dialogue from The Princess Bride. 🙂 Not really that big on the movie, but has some great lines. (“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”).
And if we’re doing movies/books, Niles from Frasier is the most romantic beta hero EVER with Daphne (though, ok, the whole Mel thing…):
(Niles has admitted to loving her since he first met her, and wants her to run away with her):
or here. Niles comforting Daphne that he would always love her:
*yes, I have a crush on David Hyde-Pierce*
Damn, I really want to quote Fortunes of War (possibly my favourite book of all time) but I make an effort not to memorize it so I can rediscover it each time I read it.
And it’s not even any particular phrase that stands out, it’s just about the whole frigging book that’s incredibly romantic and beautiful, so I’ll just quote a random spot from probably the most intense bit of the story.
Around the time of the Spanish Armada these guys Robin and Channon (it’s a gay romance) one English, one Spanish are separated for 7 years by war and are finally reunited by chance when Robin’s ship is sunk by Channon’s privateer ship. This is old school true love, passionate declarations, no indecision whatsoever, these guys know exactly how much they mean to each other and how incredibly unlikely it is that they found each other again. Hot vigorous sex is imminent, but Robin is injured so…
Soon he was fatigued and Channon sent him back to the Divan. He slept at once, unaware of the soldiers quiet presence as Channon sat watching him in the shifting patterns of light from the stern-ports.
The gallizabra butted into the south-west, the sun had painted the sea the colour of blood and gold when Robin woke again. He opened his arms and Channon lay down with him, aroused in a moment, humping slowly at his hip. Clothes marred the pleasure and at last Robin stopped him.
“Against me,” he whispered.
seven11 lol
Lisa, that entire train scene at the end of North and South is possibly one of the hottest things ever to appear on television. The way he just holds her hand and she’s trying not to get flustered and explain her idea as they’re sitting and then he puts his hand on her face and they kiss and it’s just so hot and so understated. I love it.
It’s probably not really a romance but the first ‘semi’ I remember specifically reading (not counting things so mediocre they didn’t stick) was ‘A Princess of Mars’ by Burroughs.
That proposal …‘that you are a princess does not abash me but that you are you is enough to make me doubt my sanity as I ask you my princess to be mine’… WHY has no one ever said that to me (well details I admit)
also.. add me to the Kushiel swooners
Oh Rebecca, I love that bit from Men At Arms, too. Carrot and Angua have some really sweet moments. His insistence that “Personal isn’t the same as important,” and then the way he takes off after her, disregarding the whole mess of crap in Ankh Morpork because he thinks she might stay with Gavin in The Fifth Elephant. Gorgeous.
Lisa, I LOVE Richard Armitage (i’ve never experienced lust like i did watching him in black leather in Robin Hood). But I haven’t seen North & South! I keep meaning to get hold of the DVDs, but I can’t even find half an hour to watch Scrubs these days without some member of my household complaining about it, so several hours of BBC bonnet drama probably won’t go down well. Le sigh. This is what’s great about books: You read them privately, in your own world, and don’t impose on others.
I also remembered that one of my very favourite exchanges comes from one of my very favourite plays, Much Ado About Nothing (which also contains one of my very favourite heroines…do we see a pattern?).
Then there’s the scene at the end of Buffy, where Spike tells her:
Which is gorgeous not just for the almost Shakespearean cadence of his speech, but for the way he turns on a dime there at the end (mad props to James Marsters and Joss Whedon for it!). In fact a few weeks ago I got bored and translated it (with my hot GCSE English skills) into Shakespearean.
Fangurl over and out.
Got Netflix? It’s in their play on demand list. And really? It won’t matter if it doesn’t go down well – you won’t be able to hear the complaining over the sound of your own drooling.
(Because that whole “sound of drooling” didn’t come out right the first time: I’m picturing Homer Simpson except instead of “yum. . . donut. . .” it’s “yum. . . broody. . . sexy. . . ” I could go on.)