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Good Male Written Romance Books for Study

I'm looking for male written romance novels as the title suggests, female written is okay if its really above and beyond. I'm hoping for things like Francois Mauriac and Nabokov, with weird and deviant pairings and a greater focus on the mental state of the couple and their sexual dynamics. Anything specifically SciFi or Fantasy would be great, though I would prefer that the romance was the center stage storyline. As an aside, what do you guys think makes a romance story good and what would draw you too one if you're not interested in romance normally?

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>Nabokov

>"romance"

Lmao, his books are not romance, except maybe "Ada"?

Just read Tolstoy or Flaubert if you want !classics style romance.

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I was specifically thinking Ada and Lolita(I know its not technically romance but you get what I mean) when I mentioned him. Either way, thank you for the recommendation.

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Lolita is not a romance, unless you're talking about how it's Nabokov's love letter to the English language.

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Lolita is a subversion (an actually meaningful subversion btw, not the kind redditors and video essayists jerk off to when a work doesn't stick to standard tropes) of a romance. The narrator is constantly trying to reframe events to make it seem like a beautiful romance but the truth bleeds through, often very comedically.

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Nabokov was an amateur entomologist and lepidoptera collector, but he never learned to drive so his wife would take him on field trips to go catch butterflies :marseyembrace:

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Lolita ain't no romance but I still recommend it. Great character study from the POV of a psychopath and beautiful florid language. Even if Humbert comes off as super goss he still has many funny lines.

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