Great novels about longing; plus, I don't care about 50 Shades of Grey very much

Julian was good at being in love. But he was clever enough to know that what he really liked about being in love was the state of unconsummated tension...One had to believe that these lovely creatures were, in potentia, the longed for intimate friend from whom nothing need be hidden, by whom everything would be understood, forgiven and admired. But Julian was clever and observant enough to see that love was at its most intense before it was reciprocated.
A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book

I'm determined not to pay more mind than is due to the cash cow that is 50 Shades of Grey, as I think its getting quite boring to hear people reiterate the same thing. I'm going to hold my hands up and say I haven't read it, I have no real desire to as I'm ambivalent to a text that has taken on this liberating mantle for female sexuality whilst telling the story of, from what I can gather, a naive young woman entering into a sexual dynamic that makes her uncomfortable just because she likes a man. And is then rewarded with marriage. Radical!

Rant over, ultimately I don't particularly care; it hasn't impacted my life apart from the fact that there's more black underwear on sale, which suits me fine. But what the 50 Shades phenomenon has made me think about is how desire represented in literature. I can walk into my nan's cottage and survey her bookshelves or walk into the library to see precedents of 50 Shades; naughty novels of virgins with heaving bosoms encountering quivering members; or head to Waterstones to pick up some real classy filth, like Anais Nin and Henry Miller.

You really don't have to strain yourself to find erotica to suit yourself. We've reached a point where taboo has crossed over into the everyday at all levels. Explicit depictions of sex are found in lavishly awarded 'highbrow' works, and some of the most prominent writers have turned their hands to writing pure erotica. A couple of weeks back, the Guardian Review published an article inspired by 50 Shades, featuring a page spread of authors including Jeanette Winterson and AL Kennedy writing little naughty gems of a couple of paragraphs; either in seriousness or with a smirk.

I'm absolutely pro this movement for adult readers, but there comes a point at which I feel exhausted by the pneumatic sex lives of my favourite characters. Sometimes, I like a bit of unrequited or halted passion that stops before the bedroom.
To this end, I present to you some of my favourite books about old fashioned, unconsummated longing. Because, many more of us can relate to that than to ball gags. I think.

The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993)

A story about a house of self-dooming teenage sisters in a fragile and unhappy household doesn't sound like a breeze, but there's something about this novel, with its chorus of love-sick boy-neighbours, that is utterly pure and charming. For a brief summer, the boys observe the girls with a haze of love and concern, following the suicide of the youngest sister. A passage detailing the boys playing vinyls to the girls over the phone, as they are holed up in their bedroom by their repressive and clueless parents is one of the most moving I've encountered.

The Body, by Hanif Kureishi (2011)

Kind of a cheat, as this novella within a volume of otherwise pretty tepid short stories is about a senile novelist who is given the opportunity to 'upgrade' his body by having his 'self' grafted into the body of a beautiful (dead) young man, in order to have sex with a cast of hundreds, take drugs, and behave very badly indeed. A really heartbreaking moment comes when he spots his wife across the road, and finds himself longing for the intimacy that he has left behind, and for the body he is so familiar with, seen through physically fresh young eyes. She thinks he's travelling alone. He realises that he is. 

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier (2000)

More than any other piece of fiction I can think of, this short n' sweet novella really makes use of its portrait source material; it's luminous and beautifully worded as well as being uncliched about the nature of the artist-muse relationship. The 'girl' Griet is a servant in painter Vermeer's household, and through snatches of dappled light, hair uncovered and flesh pierced and jewelled, the sexiest sexless affair unfolds.

Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee (2007)

An emigrant South African writer spends his waning years in Australia lusting after his Filipino neighbour Anya. It's not as creepy as it sounds, and is a hell of a lot smarter. Coetzee is not Philip Roth. The novel's ruminations on impotent desire and ageing is as painful as is possible; and Anya is not the idolised Venus many writers would be tempted to make her. 

A very small list I know, and I've tried not to go for obvious ones... but I want to hear other people's suggestions? What's your favourite book that skirts around the bedroom?