Classical Romance Main Characters?

Question

I'm trying to gather a list of hero and heroine's names from classical romances along with the books they come from. (besides the horribly obvious Shakesphere couples). Give me a hand?

Answer 1

I had this whole list that got deleted! Oh my gosh! Arrrggh!! Anyway . . . let me try to remember:

Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff [Wuthering Heights]

Gilbert Markham and Helen Huntingdon [The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]

Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester [Jane Eyre]

Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy [Pride and Prejudice]

Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth [Persuasion]

f***y Price and Edmund Bertram [Mansfield Park]

Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley [Emma]

Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars [Sense and Sensibility]

Count Vronsky and Anna Karenina [Anna Karenina]

Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley [A Farewell to Arms]

Newland Archer and the Countess Ellen Olenska [The Age of Innocence]

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe [Anne of Green Gables series]

Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson [A Room With a View]

Sidney Carton and Lucie Manette [A Tale of Two Cities]

Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette [A Tale of Two Cities]

The Narrator and Maxim de Winter [Rebecca]

Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara [Gone With the Wind

The Phantom and Christine Daae [The Phantom of the Opera]

same token, Viscount Raoul de Chagny and Christine, same novel

Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan [The Great Gatsby]

I may have more that I forgot, I'll add them in later.

Answer 2

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (also Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley)

Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere from Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. (The legend of Tristan and Iseult or Isolde is said to have influenced this love story.)

Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Catherine Earnshaw (later Linton) and Heathcliff - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Anne Eliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth - Persuasion by Jane Austen (and the rest of Jane Austen's couples - Emma and Mr. Knightley in Emma, Elinor Dashwood and Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility, Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, f***y Price and Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park)

Helen of Troy and Paris - The Iliad by Homer

Sheherazade and King Shahryar in A Thousand and One Nights (or The Arabian Nights)

Roxanne and Cyrano - Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

Marguerite and Sir Percy Blakeney - The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Quasimodo and Esmeralda - Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe - Anne of Green Gables (series) by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Erik and Christine - Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (also Raoul and Christine)

Philip Ashley and Rachel - My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Rosamund Vivian and Phillip Tempest - A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott

Catherine Sloper and Morris Townsend - Washington Square by Henry James

Jo March and Professor Bhaer (even though a lot of people wanted her to go with Laurie) - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Meg March and John Brooke - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Robin Hood and Maid Marian - The Foresters by Alfred Lord Tennyson (as well as other tales of Robin Hood)

There are so many more who could be named, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. Hopefully this will get you started, though.

***Edit: When I was finished, I realized L had already mentioned some of the characters I named as well as some I forgot like Lucie Manette and Sydney Carton/Lucie and Charles Darnay. If I think of some more, I'll add them. It's a rather fun question!

***Odysseus and Penelope from The Odyssey by Homer

Pip and Estella, at least on his side - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Paula and Smithy/Charles Rainier - Random Harvest by James Hilton

Ivanhoe and Rowena - Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Dulcinea and Don Quixote - Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Amelia Sedley & William Dobbin - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

David Copperfield and Agnes - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Eloisa (also Heloise) and Abelard - "Eloisa to Abelard" poem by Alexander Pope

Lorna Doone/Dugal and John Ridd - Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore

I don't know that the book is considered a classic but the love story is - Lady Hamilton and Lord Horatio Nelson in Emma by  F. W. Kenyon