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I’m in the mood for love…well, love letters 😉
I love reading love letters of the past, written to wives from their husbands. Contrary to the popular opinion that “most women in history were degraded, treated like door mats, etc., etc.”, we see a glimpse of love so rare, that the happiest among us would be shocked to receive such a letter from our husbands!
I think the letters stir in our souls, too, a desire to be our husband’s best friend; that part of him that no one else can replace; that one essence in his life that he should hardly be able to do without.
To me, it’s a beautiful reminder of what God intended between a man and a woman united in marriage.
Maybe I’m just a weepy romantic in my pregnancy days, but I still think there is deep pondering in these letters! I may post several over the next few days.
Here’s one from Napoleon to his wife Josephine:
In addition to being a brilliant military mind and feared ruler, Napolean Bonaparte (1763 – 1821) was a prolific writer of letters. He reportedly wrote as many as 75,000 letters in his lifetime, many of them to his beautiful wife, Josephine, both before and during their marriage.
“I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Are you angry? Do I see you looking sad? Are you worried?…
My soul aches with sorrow, and there can be no rest for you lover; but is there still more in store for me when, yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire? Ah! it was last night that I fully realized how false an image of you hours.Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire.”
8 comments
Hmm. “Letters written by Napoléon to his wife Josephine suggest that their love was deep and enduring. In fact, their relationship was often stormy. During their thirteen-year marriage, both were unfaithful, especially Josephine when her husband was away on military campaigns. When Napoléon learned of this, his love for her was crushed. When it became clear that Josephine could not produce a male heir, Napoléon ended their marriage in 1809.”
It’s a nice letter though.
I do wish people still corresponded like that. I email and text, sure, but nothing gives me a thrill like receiving a letter in the mail (or anything that isn’t my bank statement).
MOD…
Sorry, I didn’t know you needed a disclaimer for every word I post.
The point of the letter (I knew Napoleon wasn’t even a professing Christian) was to reveal the speech and language common among husbands and wives of that day–that women weren’t treated like dogs as most would like to think.
By posting the letter I’m not holding their marriage up as one to be emulated. He had a lot more faults than just those within his marriage.
I can’t help but compare the language of this letter, and the previous one, to the “language” that is coming out of public schools these days. Love letters these days consist of abbreviated text messages. Pathetic.
Quinn,
Ooh…another stereotype to point out. I submit that we are not “better and better educated all the time”. Our very language speaks for that.
(On a side note, while looking at that site that Deanna mentioned, a mother had pointed her daughters to a “work that had greatly influenced her life” at around the age of 12 or 13).
Curious, I looked up the work. Needless to say, it would take my full concentration to swallow the message–a typical 12 or 13 year old in our day would equate it with a foreign language. (I can say that because I taught high school literature–painstakingly explaining one sentence at a time of “The Scarlet Letter”. 😉
Watch out Josephine… (fanning myself) 😉
I leave love notes in my husbands wallet.
I’m sure that the lack of technology and convenience of communication it brings helped their hearts grow fonder.