TO YOU WITH LOVE: A Treasury of Great Romantic Literature

Much of the ""Great Romantic Literature"" here would be better called Short Love Stories for Sweet Sixteen (Maureen Daly, Jessamyn West), although the first epithet does apply to the several poems and letters of the Brownings and Keats and Shelley. There are some eerie queer entries by Mark Van Doren and Jack Finney, an excerpt from Dickens' Pickwick, and of course ""The Gift of the Magi."" And some ditties--""Believe Me, If All Those Endearing, etc."" and ""It Was A Lover and His Lass""--a lengthy weirdo by Mrs. Oliphant, a fluffy Hildergarde Dolson called ""The First Prom's the Hardest,"" a discussion of the origins of floral symbolism by Susan Belcher and Seon Manley (""The Flower Alphabet of Love""). Then there's Katherine Mansfield's ""Singing Lesson"" and Saroyan on a girl and a dog, one of James Joyce's ""epiphanies"" titled ""Araby,"" a short Poe and a long Seon O'Faolain. Also, from France: Colette, Flaubert's ""Simple Heart,"" and a letter from Abelard to Heloise; at the end a few pieces from The Diary of Anne Frank. A large anthology that's hard to quarrel with but harder to get excited about.