Count the Ways

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” So wrote Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Robert Browning, the man whose love let her escape her tyrannical father, saved her from life as an invalid, and ultimately inspired her to become one of the world’s greatest poets. But even she could not count the many ways in which people love.From royalty to rock stars, Count the Ways delves into some of the most captivating love affairs of our times, including the obstacles, dramas, joys, and not-always-happy endings.Learn how love conquered the British monarchy when Edward VIII abdicated his throne in favor of the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Wonder why the love of Lee Krasner kept painter Jackson Pollock sane, yet the devotion of F. Scott Fitzgerald drove his wife, Zelda, mad. Witness the courage of love with Christopher and Dana Reeve, as their marriage overcame a tragic accident to give new meaning to the vows “in sickness and in health.” Observe how Ronald and Nancy Reagan proved that love and politics can mix and how Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow showed how love and crime do not. And don’t forget Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the tumultuously enamored couple for whom fighting was itself a kind of lovemaking.Remarkably, many of these love affairs remained hidden despite the high-profile lives involved. While fans were quick to blame Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles, few attempted to understand the love she and John Lennon shared. And while the world focused on the disastrous marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, few paid attention to his enduring relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.These stories and many others are here, each accompanied by a striking black-and-white photo of the couple. Love stories are too often reduced to either storybook romance or scandal, but—as this collection proves—the truth behind them often turns out to be more interesting . . . and more romantic.