A Valentine’s Kiss… or 10

What do The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, The Princess Bride and Byron’s Don Juan all have in common? According to Flavowire, each contains one of the great kisses in literature:

After all, there’s nothing more romantic than that most elemental of expressions of affection, and who could paint it better than the likes of Shakespeare, Nabokov and Byron? So if you’re looking for a few ideas (or just some steamy bathtub reading) this Valentine’s day, click through to read through ten of the greatest kisses in literature...

Each mentioned kiss, excerpts the great literary kiss in question. Here’s a bit of that steamy bit from Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex:

The rims of Clementine’s eyes were inflamed. She yawned. She rubbed her nose with the heel of her hand. And then she asked, “Do you want to practice kissing?”

I didn’t know what to answer. I already knew how to kiss, didn’t I? Was there something more to learn? But while these questions were going through my head, Clementine was going ahead with the lesson. She came around to face me. With a grave expression she put her arms around my neck.

Meanwhile today, in honor of Valentine’s, Killer Covers of the Week features the covers of 29 books with the word “kiss” in the title. You can find those here.