The most romantic line of all time?

Published Feb 11, 2016

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London - Her books describe some of the most heart-warming love affairs in literature.

So it perhaps comes as little surprise that a line by one of Jane Austen’s heroes has been voted the most romantic ever uttered.

But there’s a twist – for the words “My heart is, and always will be, yours”, spoken by the dashing Edward Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility, were not written by the author at all.

They were, in fact, added for the 1995 film adaptation. The script was written by actress Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Miss Thompson, 56, also starred in the film as Elinor Dashwood, to whom Mr Ferrars, played by Hugh Grant, utters the line when he proposes to her.

His remark was voted the most romantic by 16 percent of women in a survey about lines from books, film or TV. The second most popular line, on 14 percent of the vote, came from 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing, when Jennifer Grey’s character Baby tells Patrick Swayze’s Johnny: “I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you.”

Jack’s dying words to Rose in 1997 epic Titanic and Harry’s romancing of Sally in When Harry Met Sally came in third and fourth, with 11 percent each, in the poll of 2 000 women by TV channel Drama.

Other top ten movie moments to set hearts racing included the simple “I love you, I really love you” from 1990’s Ghost and Julia Roberts’s famous lines “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her” in Notting Hill.

The highest rated line from a book, in fifth place with 10 percent of the vote, came from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, when Catherine says about Heathcliff: “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

One passage by Miss Austen did make the list; in tenth place was Mr Darcy’s declaration of love for Elizabeth Bennet in Pride And Prejudice: “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Daily Mail

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