Top ten barriers to love in some top stories

James Dawson’s books include Say Her Name and This Book Is Gay. At the Guardian he tagged ten ways in which writers have established barriers to love just for the sake of a great story, including:

I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE

Nothing says “I Love You” like completing a mythical quest for a loved one. Orpheus had to travel into the Underworld and perform his greatest hits for Hades before he was allowed to take Eurydice back to the land of the living (only to then muck it up at the last minute). Rama had to rescue Sita from Ravana, Mal must bring the antlers of Morozova’s Stag to Alina in Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, and pretty much ANY YA roadtrip novel would fall into the “quest” category. I prefer my quests a little darker and Valmont’s deflowering of Madame De Tourvel to win the “love” of Madame de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses is much more to my taste.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses also appears on Jonathan Grimwood's top ten list of French Revolution novels, Helena Frith Powell's top ten list of sexy French books, H.M. Castor's top ten list of dark and haunted heroes and heroines, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best lotharios in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue