Salon

After watching the movie version of "Sex and the City," many viewers flocked to stores in search of the book quoted by Carrie Bradshaw in the movie, "Love Letters of Great Men." Their hopes were dashed: The book was invented by the filmmakers, even though the quotes were real. But Macmillan publishers have been quick to explore the business potential of an unexpected tie-in, and the book has duly been compiled and issued. It contains the letters of such diverse lovers as the Roman politician and writer Pliny the Younger, the English king Henry VIII and the poets John Keats and Lord Byron.

Love letters of great people hold a special fascination for readers. It is often heart-warming to see in them the same anguish, despair or joy that everyone knows from personal experience. It's especially interesting for critical readers to see writers' changing moods. A well-known example is the contrast between the feelings expressed by Alexander Pushkin in one of his best-known lyrical poems -- "I remember a wondrous moment" -- and the description of his physical bond with the same woman, detailed in a letter to a friend in the crudest possible terms. Pushkin's letters to his wife, in spite of occasional condescension, are full of warm and sincere love.

Another famous example of love letters in Russian literature is the exchange between Pyotr Tchaikovsky and his benefactor, the Baroness Nadezhda von Mekk. Tchaikovsky was famously wary and awkward with women, but tried to conceal it, along with his sexual orientation. He wrote lengthy and very emotional letters to von Mekk -- about music, literature and the nature of human emotion -- but apparently they never even met face to face.

Letters have often made for a good medium for fiction -- such as the famous English novels of the 18th century -- although the diary form has proved more successful in Russia, with such masterpieces as Mikhail Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time."

The advent of e-mail has changed the nature of letter writing -- in spite of many criticisms, I believe, for the better. After a long era of telegrams and phone calls, the written word has regained ground, and real-life romances in letters have started sprouting across the globe. The novels by Polish author Janusz Wiesniewski, including the bestselling "Loneliness on the Net," capitalized on that trend. It is perhaps even not too speculative to expect a collection of "E-mails of Great Men" (and, certainly, women) sometime in the future -- if posterity happens to find any greatness in the things we type.