Timeless Love: Poems, Stories, and Letters

by William Shakespeare, John Keats, Edith Wharton

This beautiful, giftable collection celebrates the beauty and the agony of love through classic poems, stories, and letters from beloved writers. Because it defines human existence, love is one of art’s favorite subjects. Timeless Poems, Stories, and Letters celebrates the mysterious nature of love and passion by bringing together classic works by beloved writers through the ages. Including stories, poems, and letters from Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barret Browning, John Keats, Edith Wharton, and more, this collection explores how each love is singular—yet love itself is universal. Hand-selected and presented in a lovely, gift-worthy package, Timeless Love will make a romantic, thoughtful gift for the reader in your life or the perfect addition to a collector’s shelf.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Romance, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published December 29, 2020

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook via BookBeat UK!

What a great audiobook! Although not all of the entries spoke to me on a strongly personal level, it was still a pleasant listen on a lazy Saturday morning. With a full cast narration team, there were many voices and writings to explore. Some examples being The Brothers Grimm, Edith Wharton and Shakespeare just to name a few. This book I see as the perfect ‘gift-giving one’ to someone you know for a special occasion!

I’ve added the book to my Wishlist for 2021.

To see more of my bookish happenings, head on over to my Twitter and Instagram today!:
Twitter- www.Twitter.com/AllyBookKnot
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[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
An audiobook I simply adored. It was a pleasure to listen to and the narrators were excellent.
Many of these were timeless and terribly romantic. *sigh* Others were classics that I recalled from a required reading in high school.
It’s just over 4 hours of listening and I highly recommend it for those who love the classics and very old love stories.

Thank you, Thomas Nelson via Netgalley for this lovely audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

[Federica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audiobook is fantastic! The narrators are so good, it was a real pleasure to listen to.
I loved the poems and the story, but I feel the letters especially added a bit of taste of reality to it.
Highly recommended!!

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to this audiobook.

[Pretty Little Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was such a beautiful beautiful read. I think the poems were first amazing - the selection was very apt. And then the audiobook narrator did a brilliant job with the narration - I was enthralled and loved being in the moment. I would put down everything and just sit down or lay back to soak in these beautiful and evergreen words.

[Lieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of the stories and letters.
But the poetry was not for me, although the cadans could be nice I had trouble focusing on the words.
My favorite story was The Gossip of Valley View by L.M. Montgomery, it was such a sweet story.
I think the stories and letters give a good view into love in the 18th and 19th centuries (UK and US).
Since it is almost valentine this felt like the ideal time to listen to them.
3.5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Juli Rahel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a majorly romantic person, but I can be quite the fool for literary romance. Show me a good love poem and I might just believe it's all real. As such, I couldn't pass up the chance to indulge in some of the best love poems, stories and letters narrated beautifully. Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Timeless Love we are gifted with various poems, stories and letters, excellently narrated, from some of our most well-known authors. From Shakespeare's sonnets to Alexander Hamilton's letters, there is a variety of things to listen to and there will be something for everyone to enjoy.

There were a few favourites for me. 'The Fullness of Life' by Edith Wharton is a joy that plays with what love and happiness truly is. 'Mr. and Mrs. Dove' by Katherine Mansfield is adorable and was new to me. The real standout, however, were the three stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery, namely 'The Tryst of the White Lady', 'The Girl and the Photograph' and 'The Gossip of Valley View'. The first is a Gothic tale of love and haunting with an oddly touching ending. The second is a story of confusion and destiny, love found, lost and regained at last. The third was perhaps my favourite of the three, in which town gossip for once brings about happiness. I hadn't read any L.M. Montgomery before although I was aware of her, so this was a nice introduction. The poems I was mostly familiar with, but since I'm not a major poetry fiend they didn't affect me as much as the stories. The same was true for the letters, although every since Hamilton I've had a soft spot for Alexander and Eliza.

My only gripe with Timeless Love would be that these texts were taken mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries and solely from the UK and the USA, with an exception for the Brothers Grimm from Germany. I would have loved to see a wider branching out, to see texts that we're not as familiar with from voices we haven't heard quite as often. Many of the texts in this collection will be familiar to the listener and reader, so the occasional surprise would have been fun. Since all these texts are classics, it is hard to really say much about them. Each is well-written and has its own charm. The beauty of Timeless Love, for me, therefore lies in the narration. Each narrator does an excellent job to bring emotion and pathos to the texts, may they be poems, stories or letters. This audio production is narrated by a full cast and sadly I found it difficult to find a full list of the narrators. As such, I have done my best to produce a full list of narrators (underlined) below since they deserve a lot of credit for making it all a pleasure to listen to. If you notice a mistake, please do let me know!

Poems:

Shakespeare and Wordsworth by Mike Reid; John Keats and Paul Laurence Dunbar by Sule Rimi; Elizabeth Barret Browning and Christina Rosetti by Natalie Pownall; Robert Burns by Angus King; Mary Weston Fordham and Alice Dunbar Nelson by Penelope Rawlins.

Stories:

Oscar Wilde by Mike Reid; Edith Wharton and Katherine Mansfield by Penelope Rawlins; L.M. Montgomery by Natalie Pownall; the Brothers Grimm by Mike Reid, Sule Rimi, and Angus King.

Letters:

Alexander Hamilton and Robert Browning by Sule Rimi; John Keats by Mike Reid; Elizabeth Barret Browning by Natalie Pownall.

For those with a love for, well..., love, Timeless Love will be a delightful listen or read. The collection is excellently narrated and although very traditional, it is a nice selection of texts.

[Lucía ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I was kindly sent this in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley*

This compilation has been chosen wonderfully, I loved all of the pieces that appeared. John Keats is the owner of my heart and soul, everything he wrote was absolutely beautiful. I also loved Shakespeare’s sonnets and Wordsworth’s poem. This collection also made me discover Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and I will be reading more of her in the future.

I also discovered a few short stories (except for Rapunzel of course, and I had heard of Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose too since it is quite famous and he is one of my favourite authors ever), and I was pleasantly surprised by them. For my number one I have to choose Wilde, because as always, his writing is magnificent.

In my opinion, it was very original to include letters. I would like to read more journals and letters, and I am hoping that this will be the last push that I needed to start doing so. The first Hamilton letter was very beautiful, it was probably my favourite (you become dearer to me every moment).

As for the audio, I really liked that they had different people narrating, depending on the author they were reciting. They all do a marvellous job. All in all, really well done, I would rate it 4.5 stars if I could, but it’ll have to do with 4.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a lovely collection of poems, short stories and letters, all centering on the theme of love in some way. The full cast for the audiobook was a delight, with different people with different accents reading the various items. I think on the whole, that this would work better as a book, because then you could easily pick and choose what you wanted to read (a particular poem or a short story, for example), even though the recording was lovely. The audiobook also didn’t come with a detailed table of contents, which would have made it easier to listen to a particular story or poem.

I very much enjoyed the poems, which included ones by Shakespeare, Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Wordsworth, and Robert Burns and a few others. The short stories included ones by Oscar Wilde, Edith Wharton, and The Brothers Grimm (including the well-known fairy tale, Rapunzel). The letters from Alexander Hamilton to his wife Elizabeth Schuyler, while he was courting her were wonderful. There were also letters from Keats, Robert Browning and Barrett.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

[Emilio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love. Who knew that a four-letter word could hold such emotional resonance. With Valentines Day you might want to be inspired to share the love stories of those whose experience has lasted through the ages. Its title "Timeless Love" affirms this and features sonnet's, poetry, letters, and short stories from some of history's brightest minds. In this collection, you'll find John Keats, Edith Wharton, William Shakespeare, L.M Montgomery, and more. It is one I highly recommend if you feel the need to express your love through a literary medium. You cannot go wrong by utilizing the words of these great people for their intention has been cemented since the time of their creation. The audiobook is told by various narrators who brought these works to life. I enjoyed it immensely and would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher (Thomas Nelson) for a review copy to listen to. Out of five stars, I gave this audiobook four.

[Amanda Lavelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for kindly providing me with a digital audiobook copy of this book for review.
I listened to this audiobook, which is a collection of poetry, pose and letters all around the theme of love. Some of them, such as the Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, pieces I was already familiar, but I have discovered some new authors as well. And like many anthologies, there’s always different writings that I prefer over others- I really liked the short story by Edith Wharton in this collection, and I’m making it a 2021 aim to read more of her this year.
I enjoyed all the different narrations, and the addition of music also helped to enrich the audio experience.
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I would suggest this might be an ideal gift for the bookish love of your life.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would I recommend this for a long car ride? No.
Quiet day at home? Most definitely.

To some extent, what matters is the narration, which is fantastic by all accounts; there are moments where I had goosebumps because the narration was so good. Hands down would say it's fantastic just on that alone.

But I loved the mix of very much in the pop culture psyche and things I'd never heard before. Hearing the sonnets at the beginning was a marvelous and quite a familiar feeling of nostalgia. But on the other hand, there were short stories I had never heard before that depicted love in different forms and how it can grow and change, and I found them enrapturing as I listened.

This book is sweet as candy and timeless, much as the title states.

[Janna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky to receive an ARC of this audiobook from NetGalley

I enjoyed listening to this collection. I like that you can listen to different poems and stories separately when you feel like it. You can just listen to one tale a time and doesn’t take much of your time. Or if you are in the mood for a bit of romance or old time love, you can just pick a tale or a poem and have a listen.

I especially enjoyed the old familiar stories like Rapunzel and I enjoyed the poems. The letters were less for me but it is still good to read letters from the past and see how much communication between people have changed from the 1800s to today. It’s quite eye opening.

All in all, this is a good collection of stories about love. I really enjoyed listening to it.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless Love: Poems, Stories, and Letters (Hardcover)
by William Shakespeare
Collections of various authors form 14th century to the 18th century, with poems and prose. Shakespeare sonnets, Elizabeth Barret Browning and John Browning's love letters, John Keats, chases after two separate women to hilarity of the reader as he switches between one and another. Edith Wharton, and her stories of how love should be. Its a somber look at love and relationships in history.

[OjoAusana · Rating 3 out of 5]

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* interesting but different, not really my cup of tea though

[adathrse · Rating 2 out of 5]

got this on booksale for ₱190; such a steal ! although tbh, there were good and not-so good parts pero a steal nevertheless

[Manon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable.

[Beatrix Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of the things i didnt really like ngl

[Hannah-rose Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more than a millennium, love has consumed people’s minds. Inspiring acts of heroism and insanity, it has the power to bring out the best and worst in people; yet, despite the risk, we all long to find a love worth sacrificing our lives for!

Timeless Love is a beautiful compilation of poetry, short stories, and letters written by some of the most famous classical authors. From William Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Barret Browning to L.M Montgomery, John Keats to Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Burns to the Brothers Grimm, the vast collection brought a variety of romance in all shapes and sizes. With poems that will make your toes tingle, short stories that will bring tears to your eyes, and letters that will swell your heart, this is the perfect book for all the romantics looking for more reasons to fight for the people we love.

While I must confess that I hadn’t read or heard of most of the work included in this book, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the narrators pour their souls into the passion-filled compositions. Personally, I loved the poetry section the best because the words swept me off my feet and filled me with an even greater desire to one day find a man who will love me with as much passion as these authors wrote about. The short stories were also entertaining. It was funny to have a beloved fairytale included, but it fit. Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale also deserves mention; it was equally beautiful and heartbreaking! Lastly, getting to hear two of Hamilton’s letters to Eliza was a real treat! *Queues Burn on Spotify*

Altogether, this is a great collection piece to have on your bookshelf. There is nothing better than spending a few hours immersed in the world of love and romance! The way words influence our emotions is truly remarkable, and I admire these classic authors for how they were able to capsulate just a pinch of what love can be.

*Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing this pre-release recording. All opinions and thoughts are my own.*

[Mandy Hazen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and laid out. I absolutely love love stories and poetry. Most of these you will know. Some I have never heard of before. These stories transported me to another world of love and light. I felt like this book was speaking to me and for me. It was so beautifully written and resonated to my core. Highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook collection.

I normally am the one reading the poetry and I will say having the chance to listen to others read it((full cast)) has been the most delightful.

Of course I have loved this and while I would love to own it in print I also would not be opposed to buying this as a audio either