“I loved ‘Climates,’” says Nelson of this early 20th-century French novel about the vicissitudes of love. When Phillipe falls in love with the beautiful but volatile Odile, his possessiveness and jealousy drives her away. Crushed, Phillipe then marries the sweet and sincere Isabelle and does to her what Odile had done to him, inflicting the same anguish on their marriage. “It’s very flowery, very stylized, very ‘of the period,’” says Nelson. “It took me right back to my 14-year-old self. It’s a lovely book.”
