Sentence:  Some of the greatest and most widely-appreciated literary achievements have been wholly or mainly independent of <WSD>love-interest</WSD> or love-inspiration. Religious fervour, zeal for liberty, admiration of abstract virtue, philanthropy, desire to search the heart of man, and contemplation of the beauties and splendours of the outward world,—all these prove to be motives as capable of firing and exalting the imagination  as the more directly personal stimulus of love. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A romantic plot or subplot in a film or book.