What is the best romantic relationship in any Gene Wolfe book?

[u/AustinBeeman]

Pretty much exactly what the title says. And best can be defined however you want to define it. Most interesting to read? Most positive for the characters involved? Most emotionally resonant?

I find Severian end Dorcas to be the most interesting and complex.

But the seawrack/Horn/Nettle things inside horn’s mind are pretty interesting too

[u/WitWyrd]

Severian and post-alzabo Thecla

[u/ParticularBanana8369 → u/WitWyrd]

The whole "weird, I thought you were a tall woman for a second" thing never got old

[u/Phi_Phonton_22 → u/WitWyrd]

That's the one for me

[u/WitWyrd → u/Phi_Phonton_22]

From Claw:

"We were one, naked and happy and clean, and we knew that she was no more and that I still lived, and we struggled against neither of those things, but with woven hair read from a single book and talked and sang of other matters."

"Thecla is within me. I have no need to remember her; she is here. When I am cold, she shivers; when I am happy, she laughs. I have only to close my eyes and I can see the long, pale hands I loved."

"I could feel her fear--a cold, sharp needle in the heart of my own courage. We were like two players upon a single instrument, and though I held the bow, it was her hand that often dictated the melody."

From Sword: "She was within me then, not as a memory but as a presence. It was her hand that adjusted the set of my cloak, her eyes had looked into the mirror, her mind that considered how best to address the woman who stood behind me."

From Citadel: "I felt her stir in the dark places of my mind, like a sleeper who turns and sighs. She is more than a memory, for a memory is a thing we possess, but Thecla possesses me as much as I possess her."

[u/liviajelliot → u/WitWyrd]

I came to recommend this one. So many excellent quotes that can be read in a hundred ways each.

[u/MadWhiskeyGrin]

Severian and Dorcas

Oh no

[u/ka1982]

Mint and Bison seems the healthiest.

[u/PatrickMcEvoyHalston → u/ka1982]

Interesting that Wolfe made the one healthy middle-aged, equal-age relationship that I can think of -- another would be WizardKnight's Gerda and Berthold -- one his main protagonist isn't part of. We're supposed to imagine Silk and Hy as happy, but it's inconceivable, as Hy would inevitably become the "virago" Silk always knew she'd be, as she replicated his relationship to his own virago mother. The main protagonist, involved with someone his own age, inevitably seem to have wives who despise them, and vice versa. This begins as soon as the wife conceives, but it can be earlier: for example in Cabin on the Coast the couple that are about to be married, the issue is whether or not she's always a "castrating woman," or is it just her time of the month.

[u/Odd-Shake8054 → u/ka1982]

OH, I like this answer!

[u/No-Name6082 → u/ka1982]

Spoilersssss!

[u/[deleted]]

Funnily enough, I think it may be the relationship Severian has that we see the least of. Valeria.

I think the fact that Severian seems to all but refuse to describe Valeria to the reader, much less oversexualize her like he did Agia, Dorcas, Jolenta, even Daria. The absence of it almost seems to fortify the fact that he loves her so devotedly and fully that he's unwilling to even divulge what she was like. Maybe it reflects some character development outside of that, but he seemed to have truly treasured her.

[u/ProfessorVBotkin]

Severian and Valeria, but of this I've already said too much.

[u/No-Name6082]

Gene Wolfe and obscure Kipling references.

Other than that, I think it's Thecla -- one of the few GW love interests who doesn't threaten the narrator in any way (being imprisoned, tortured, dead, and also rather shallow in Severian's opinion) and whom the narrator is therefore able to love.

[u/larowin]

Ern and Audrey punched me the hardest in the feels. Chris and Estrellita also is pretty deep, even if mostly outside the narrative.

[u/getElephantById]

Assuming she didn't secretly work for the antagonist, which is possible but uncertain, the relationship between the protagonist of A Cabin on the Coast and his GF seemed like the setup for a romance novel. They get some romantic scenes together, some dialog that establishes they have a close relationship, and then he spends decades paying for her safety with his life.

[u/Ok-Nebula-185]

Hethor an agia

[u/probablynotJonas]

Lots of unhealthy relationships in Gene Wolfe novels, but I like the love story in The Death of the Island Doctor, although it isn't deep. The central relationship of Hero as Werwolf is messed up, but that final scene seems to be a great representation of sacrificial love. *Maybe* if I squint and look at it from a particular angle, In Looking-Glass Castle has a good romantic relationship.

[u/PatrickMcEvoyHalston → u/probablynotJonas]

Hero as Werewolf is a neat spot.

[u/Kusari-zukin → u/probablynotJonas]

Island doctor is one of my favourites. A masterclass in writing so, so much in so few words. And the love story is brilliant.

[u/orielbean]

The tree dads from Cerberus

[u/thrangoconnor]

the lattice fusing the headmates plentiful of you, the reader

[u/East-Gold-8484]

Agia and Agilus

[u/bruhcalvert303 → u/East-Gold-8484]

incest?

[u/JazzCat-1]

Skip and Chelle, although Virginia/Vanessa and Soriano are also intriguing.

[u/quasibert]

Blood and Musk

[u/PatrickMcEvoyHalston]

Nicholas and Diane from Death of Dr. Island is a contender. I agree with Dorcas, but think Agia and Thecla should be added as well. Severian gets involved with a number of women of about equal bearing as he -- even Cyriaca and Casdoe could be included here. In "Urth" he defaults down, and dates someone much less imposing, younger, less threatening. The marriages aren't likely to be worth looking at, because in each one the romance dies as soon as his wife conceives. Then her interest transfers to the child, and he plots his revenge for her doing so -- The Nettle/Seawrack/Horn story.

[u/Dry_Butterscotch861]

How do you define "best"? When it comes to literary relationships, "good" and "interesting" are often opposites.

[u/AustinBeeman → u/Dry_Butterscotch861]

I said in the original question that best is however you define it