It is quite different on this side of the world.

But the simple explanation of the difference is not enough.

There are many things to be explained.
Why should not only the novel writers but all the poets make love the principal subject of their work?
I never knew, because I never thought, how much English literature was saturated with the subject of love until I attempted to make selections of poetry and prose for class use--naturally endeavouring to select such pages or poems as related to other subjects than passion.

Instead of finding a good deal of what I was looking for, I could find scarcely anything.

The great prose writers, outside of the essay or history, are nearly all famous as tellers of love stories.