How Do I Love Thee? Famous Love Letters Quiz

Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven penned this letter, dated July 6, 1806 to his "Immortal Beloved". Beethoven had a tumultuous and ultimately unhappy love life. Many of the women he fell in love with were of a higher class than him, and in 19th century Europe, crossing class boundaries was an almost insurmountable task. The identity of the recipient of the "Immortal Beloved" letters has baffled historians; the film of the same name with the redoubtable and undoubtedly talented Gary Oldman, offers one solution.

Answer: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo sent this to her husband, Diego Rivera. Kahlo and Rivera's love life was turbulent and fraught with infidelity (by both parties), jealousy, arguments, acrimonious break-ups and passionate reconciliations. They married one another twice, the first time in 1929 and the second, after divorcing one another, in 1940.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte sent this to Josephine in December 1795. She was his first wife, who, by many accounts, married him for practical purposes (i.e., an income). Other historians feel she did love Napoleon, or at least came to love him, over time. Even though both had extramarital affairs, they remained married until it became apparent that Josephine could not bear the heir Napoleon so desperately wanted. Reluctantly, he divorced her, while remaining in love with her.

His last words, as he lay dying on the island of St.

Helena, were: "France, the army, head of the army, Josephine."

Answer: Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo expressed these sentiments to Adele Foucher in 1821. Hugo and Adele married, against the wishes of Victor's mother, only after his mother had died. On the surface, it seemed a happy and secure union, producing five children, yet Hugo's biography revealed numerous infidelities. One of the strangest of these liaisons, was with the object of his own son's infatuation: to discourage the woman's interest in his son, Hugo so beguiled her with billets doux, and the two eventually became lovers. Hugo, as the excerpt from the love letter attests, was extremely passionate and found sex "a form of contemplation".

Answer: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote these words to her husband, Robert Browning. The courtship and eventual marriage of this dynamic literary duo was conducted in a clandestine and secretive manner, as Elizabeth feared her father's reaction (and it turned out she was right, as he disinherited her, when he found out she was married).

Although older than Browning by some six years, and in generally poor health, the relationship between Elizabeth and her lover appears to have been fulfilling. Her most famous sonnet "How do I Love Thee?" appears in "Sonnets from the Portuguese", so titled because Robert fondly called her his "little Portuguese".

Answer: Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill sent these words to his wife Clementine, on January 23, 1935. Winston proposed to Clementine in a temple dedicated to Diana, in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, his ancestral seat. A month later they were married and named their first child for the temple in which they had pledged their love to one another. Married life together produced five children, while their relationship was described as "close and affectionate".

Answer: Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan sent this letter to her lover (and father of her second child) Gordon Craig, on Christmas Day, 1904. Craig, a theatre designer, first met Duncan after watching her perform. In his biography, he recounted feeling in awe of the American, as she danced in a manner both "primal" and "ethereal". Duncan also reported feeling an instant attraction to Craig, claiming that she felt a presence in the audience that night and was compelled to look out to see who it was (something she did not usually do).

She was so impressed by Craig that she invited him to dinner that very night.

Answer: Heloise d'Argenteuil

Heloise wrote this to Abelard after they had been separated. Abelard believed his relationship with Heloise posed a threat to his career as philosopher and academic, so the two kept their feelings for one another as secret as possible. Eventually they married (quietly) after a son was born.

When Heloise's uncle, the secular canon Fulbert, discovered the relationship, Abelard's worst fears were realized: Fulbert confined Heloise to a convent (of which she later became abbess), while Abelard was castrated! Their relationship continued until his death, in the form of numerous, moving letters.

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a letter to his wife Constanza, October 17, 1790. The early stages of Wolfgang and Constanza's relationship did not run smoothly: they broke up after Mozart exploded in a jealous rage over her flirting with a young man during a game (and scandalously letting him measure her calves). They were married a day before permission arrived from Wolfgang's father. She was widowed after only nine years of marriage. (I swear I can hear Tom Hulce's adorable giggle in the excerpt!)

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

Raleigh and Bess were married, secretly. When the monarch, Elizabeth I, found out, she imprisoned them both. They were later released, and remained devoted to one another, but it took a long time for Raleigh to regain the royal favor. Sir Walter was later imprisoned for treason during the reign of Elizabeth's successor, James I.

The excerpt was taken from a letter written to his wife in 1603, although he would linger in prison until 1618.