Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. You can find a list of topics for each week at That Artsy Reader Gir if you’d like to join in!

This week’s topic is a Love Freebie – so I decided to list just a few of the literary couples that have happy marriages/ long-term relationships… I thought it would be a nice idea to focus not just on the first few spasms of passion, but on the long-term flames…

 

1. Sam Vimes and Lady Sybil from Terry Pratchett’s The Discworld Series

I really love those two as a couple… although I will admit Lady Sybil puts up with a lot.

‘I’ll tell Willikins to pack winter clothes,” she said, watching him. ‘It’ll be pretty cold up there this time of year’

‘Yes.That’s a good idea’ Vimes continued to stare at a point just above the fireplace…

She said, “Do you think we ought to take the alligator with us?”

‘Yes, that might be advisable’

She watched his face. Small furrows formed on Vimes’s brow as the ears nudged the brain. He blinked. 

‘What alligator?’

(The Fifth Elephant Terry Pratchett)

2. Lewin and Kitty from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Because despite Lewin’s constant existential crisis and Kitty’s youthful mistakes, they somehow manage.

The baby was taken out of the bath, drenched with water, wrapped in towels, dried, and after a piercing scream, handed to his mother.

“Well, I am glad you are beginning to love him,” said Kitty to her husband… You said you had no feeling for him.”

“No; did I say that? I only said I was disappointed.”

“What! disappointed in him?”

“Not disappointed in him, but in my own feeling; I had expected more. I had expected a rush of new delightful emotion to come as a surprise. And then instead of that—disgust, pity… And most of all, at there being far more apprehension and pity than pleasure. Today, after that fright during the storm, I understand how I love him.”

Kitty’s smile was radiant.

“Were you very much frightened?” she said. “So was I too, but I feel it more now that it’s over.

(Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy)

3. Captain Carrot and Angua from Terry Pratchett’s the Discworld Series

She’s a werewolf and he’s a potential heir to the throne – and I love the two of them together.

“Look, sir, I know Angua. She’s not the useless type. She doesn’t stand there and scream helplessly. She makes other people do that.”  (Captain Carrot in Jingo by Terry Pratchett)

4. Admiral and Mrs. Croft from Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Who says Austen couldn’t write about happy marriages?

“The only time I ever really suffered in body or mind, the only time that I ever fancied myself unwell, or had any ideas of danger, was the winter that I passed by myself at Deal, when the Admiral (Captain Croft then) was in the North Seas. I lived in perpetual fright at that time, and had all manner of imaginary complaints from not knowing what to do with myself, or when I should hear from him next; but as long as we could be together, nothing ever ailed me, and I never met with the smallest inconvenience.” (Mrs. Croft in Jane Austen’s Persuasion)

5.Galadriel and Celeborn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

Middle-Earth’s power couple

On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and Galadriel. Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. (J.R.R. Tolkien Fellowship of the Ring)

 

 

 

Do you have any favourite literary couples? Who are they?