My Book Boyfriend: Edward Rochester

It's My Book Boyfriend time! This is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader, focusing on fictional boys that we wish were not so fictional. This week my book boyfriend is Edward Fairfax Rochester from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I love him for his passion, intelligence and general sexiness as well as the way he respects Jane and treats her like an equal. He's her perfect match and they're connected in a powerful, almost supernatural way. It's one of my favourite love stories. When I first read the book I was still in my Ever After phase, so my Rochester ended up looking a lot like Dougray Scott. But since then I've fallen in love with Toby Stephens as Rochester and, even more recently, Michael Fassbender. Now I'm torn between the two - they're both brilliant and different in the role - though my new obsession with Fassbender makes me lean slightly towards him. I think I'll have to reread the book and test who comes to mind. In the meantime, I've included pics of all three guys...

Swoon-worthy Quotes

"'I knew, you would do me good, in some way, at some time; - I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not - (again he stopped) - did not (he proceeded hastily) strike delight to my very inmost heart so for nothing.'"

"'I have for the first time found what I can truly love - I have found you. You are my sympathy - my better self - my good angel; I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you - and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.'"

 

"'Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure; and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still.'"

“'My bride is here,' he said, again drawing me to him, 'because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?'”

My Book Boyfriend: Captain Wentworth

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by The Unread Reader every Wednesday. It's all about fictional boys that make us swoon. This week, I'm swooning over Captain Frederick Wentworth from Jane Austen's Persuasion.

I was initially going to go with Mr Darcy (the obvious choice, I know), but when thinking about my fave fictional moments in response to The Perpetual Page-Turner's post on fictional men the other day, Captain Wentworth was the one who sprang to mind first, and stuck there...

About Wentworth

• He falls in love with Anne Elliot at a young age. Austen describes him at that time as "a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy." Eight years on, when the novel is set, "he was not altered, or not for the worse... [the years] had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look."
• He starts out poor, but his confidence and ambition - and, er, broken heart - motivate him to move up the ranks in the navy, and he soon makes a fortune.
• He's one hell of a letter-writer.
• I first read Persuasion not long after my Ever After phase, so, inevitably, my Wentworth looked a lot Dougray Scott (and, come to think of it, my Anne looked pretty much like Drew Barrymore).

• In all the adaptations, only one Wentworth has made me waiver from my original picture: Rupert Penry-Jones from the 2007 BBC version. He looks totally different, but he's totally gorgeous:

Swoon-worthy quote
Two words: the letter. If nothing else, Persuasion would be worth reading for the letter alone (though as a bonus there's a lot of other awesomeness). Here are my favourite parts - warning, spoilers ahead... but they're kinda worth it.

"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... 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. For you alone I think and plan... I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice, when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature!"