I want to believe that prince-like things still exist in this age of doomed chivalry and philandering father figures—that terrifying Austrian man who kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years being an extreme example.

It is hard to find the right type of romance, that makes your heart beat faster—but not so fast that you have a coronary. In the French movie Priceless, the pretty Parisian poupée, Audrey Tautou, plays the emotionally bankrupt girl who wants nothing more than to marry a pimpish elderly creepazoid. But the penniless young bartender/bellman manages to steal her heart, and they ride barefoot across the sunny Côte d’Azur on his scooter.

My friend’s boyfriend had to move to the UK just as they started dating. Two weeks into their relationship, he flew back and surprised her for a visit. She is a poet, and he is an impoverished graduate student, but princes find ways to cross oceans, even when they’re paupers.

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