Popular Romance writer Nora Roberts has selected Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre as the most romantic Valentine's Day book. In her February 10-12, 2006 article in USA Weekend she wrote:
It's got it all. The brooding complicated hero with a secret, the forthright, intelligent heroine, compelling atmosphere, brilliant writing, the complicated and romantic meeting of two minds and hearts - and the mad woman in the attic.
Charlotte's 158 year-old yet timeless Victorian novel continues to speak to our hearts.
A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away - away - to an indefinite distance - it died. The nightingale's song was then the only voice of the hour: in listening to it, I again wept. Mr. Rochester sat quiet, looking at me gently and seriously. Some time passed before he spoke: he at last said: "Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one another."
Posted by Randall Grimsley, Region 7 contact for the American Brontë Society
NB Nora Roberts is a publishing phenomenon, especially in the USA, with over 75 million copies of her books in print. Her work has been optioned and made into films, excerpted in national magazines and translated in over twenty-five different countries. She currently has over 130 published novels to her credit with more to come.