Literary love stories begin where the love stories of popular culture end. They are not so much about falling in love as about what happens next - an ever after not always lived so happily. Collected in The Literary Lover are twenty stories of infatuation and devotion, bliss and heartbreak, fading ardor and intense eroticism, written by some of the greatest contemporary masters of the short story.Among the lovers to be found in these pages are a beautiful woman drawn to ugly men; a man of seventy writing a letter to his wife of many years; a virgin bride; a revolutionary on the lam; a sadist and a masochist not quite in synch with each other; an abandoned wife living in a small apartment with four young children; a real estate broker whose love for another man destroys his marriage; a girl with a high-school reputation for promiscuity who recaptures her chastity in college; a married couple on a European vacation in the aftermath of a miscarriage; and an estranged couple in Africa pursuing intentionally hurtful extramarital affairs.The expressions of love range from an innocent declaration to a calculated seduction. Each story treats the subject of romantic love in an original way, with clarity and truthfulness. The writing in The Literary Lover is full of passion, emotion, and sexuality both veiled and openly expressed. It is the perfect anthology for anyone who has ever been in love. Read Less