![Hammond-SS10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Hammond-SS10.jpg)
A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of
genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
A num ...
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
which places its primary focus on the relationship and
romantic love
Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a Interpersonal attraction, strong attraction towards another person, and the Courtship, courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emot ...
between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Precursors include authors of
literary fiction
Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...
, such as
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...
,
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
, and
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
.
There are many subgenres of the romance novel, including
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
,
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
,
contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
,
historical romance
Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Walter Scott helped popularize in the early 19th century.
Varieties Viking
These books feature Vikings during the Da ...
,
paranormal fiction
Paranormal fiction is a genre of fiction whose story lines revolve around the paranormal.
Sub genres
* Paranormal romance
* Urban fantasy
Television
*''The X-Files'', a suspense drama television series in which characters investigate various pa ...
, and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. Although women are the main readers of romance novels a growing number of men enjoy them as well. The
Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by incr ...
cite 16% of men read romance novels.
"Many people today don’t realize that romance is more than a love story. Romance can be a complex plotline with a setting from the past in a remote, faraway place. Instead of focusing on a love story, it idealizes values and principles that seem lost in today’s world of technology and instant gratification. However, romance may also be a typical, romantic, love story that makes people sigh with wishful thinking".
"Romance is a natural human emotion. Sad love songs and poems when one is recovering from a broken heart can help express unspoken feelings. Happy romantic movies and plays help people feel optimistic that someday they will also find true love. However, there is some criticism that many modern romantic stories make people develop unrealistic views about real relationships, as they expect love to be like it is in the movies".
The term "romance" is also applied to novels defined by
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvelous and uncommon incidents". Related to this type of romance novel are works that "involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest".
These romances frequently, but not exclusively, takes the form of the
historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
. Scott's novels are also frequently described as historical romances, and
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...
suggested "the general principle that most 'historical novels' are romances".
A thriving genre of works conventionally referred to as "romance novels" existed in ancient Greece.
Other precursors can be found in the literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson's
sentimental novel
The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensi ...
''
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' is an epistolary novel, epistolary novel first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of Conduct book, conduct li ...
'' (1740) and the novels of
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
. Austen inspired
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer (; 16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brothe ...
, the British author of historical romance set around the time Austen lived, as well as
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...
. Heyer's first romance novel, ''
The Black Moth
''The Black Moth'' (1921) is a Georgian era romance novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, set around 1751. ''The Black Moth'' was Heyer's debut novel, published when Heyer was nineteen. It was a commercial success.
The story follows Lord ...
'' (1921), was set in 1751.
The
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
company
Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd. It was founded in 1908 by Gerald Rusgrove Mills and Charles Boon as a general publisher. The company moved towards escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. In 1971, the ...
began releasing romance novels for women in the 1930s. Their books were sold in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
by
Harlequin Enterprises Ltd
Harlequin Enterprises ULC (known simply as Harlequin) is a romance and women's fiction publisher founded in Winnipeg, Canada in 1949. From the 1960s, it grew into the largest publisher of romance fiction in the world. Based in Toronto, Canada si ...
, which began
direct marketing
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. B ...
to readers and allowing
mass-market
The term "mass market" refers to a market for goods produced on a large scale for a significant number of end consumers. The mass market differs from the niche market in that the former focuses on consumers with a wide variety of backgrounds with ...
merchandisers to carry the books.
An early American example of a mass-market romance was
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (born Kathleen Erin Hogg, June 3, 1939 – July 6, 2007), was an American novelist. She pioneered the historical romance genre with the 1972 publication of her novel ''The Flame and the Flower''.
Early life
She was born K ...
' ''
The Flame and the Flower
''The Flame and the Flower'' (published 1972) is the debut work of romance novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. The first modern "bodice ripper" romance novel, the book revolutionized the historical romance genre. It was also the first full-length r ...
'' (1972), published by
Avon Books
Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...
. This was the first single-title romance novel to be published as an original
paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...
in the US, though in the UK the romance genre was long established through the works of
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer (; 16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brothe ...
, and from the 1950s
Catherine Cookson
Dame Catherine Ann Cookson, DBE (''née'' McMullen; 20 June 1906 – 11 June 1998) was a British writer. She is in the top 20 of the most widely read British novelists, with sales topping 100 million, while retaining a relatively low profile i ...
, as well as others. Nancy Coffey was the senior editor who negotiated a multi-book deal with Woodiwiss. The genre boomed in the 1980s, with the addition of many different categories of romance and an increased number of single-title romances, but popular authors started pushing the boundaries of both the genre and plot, as well as creating more contemporary characters.
Definition
One definition of the word "romance" is: "the feelings and behavior of two people who are in a loving and sexual relationship with each other."
According to the
Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by incr ...
, the main plot of a mass-market romance novel must revolve about the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain
subplot
In fiction, a subplot is a secondary strand of the plot that is a supporting side story for any story or for the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporting cha ...
s that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love. Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending."
Others, including Leslie Gelbman, a president of
Berkley Books
Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group.
History
Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Company" by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had worked for Avon; they quickly renamed it Berk ...
, define the genre more simply, stating only that a romance must make the "romantic relationship between the hero and the heroine ... the core of the book."
In general, romance novels reward characters who are good people and penalize those who are evil, and a couple who fights for and believes in their relationship will likely be rewarded with unconditional love.
Bestselling author
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of more than 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb for the ''in Death'' series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publication ...
sums up the genre, saying: "The books are about the celebration of falling in love and emotion and commitment, and all of those things we really want."
Women's fiction
Women's fiction is an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women's life experience that are marketed to female readers, and includes many mainstream novels or women's rights books. It is distinct from women's writing, which refers ...
(including "
chick lit
Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...
") is not directly a subcategory of the romance novel genre, because in women's fiction the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be as important as her relationship with the hero.
There is a lot of controversy among romance authors about what should and should not be included in plots of romance novels. Some romance novel authors and readers believe the genre has additional restrictions, from plot considerations (such as the
protagonists
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
' meeting early on in the story), to avoiding themes (such as
adultery
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
). Other disagreements have centered on the firm requirement for a happy ending; some readers admit stories without a happy ending, if the focus of the story is on the romantic love between the two main characters (e.g., ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
''). While the majority of romance novels meet the stricter criteria, there are also many books widely considered to be romance novels that deviate from these rules. The Romance Writers of America's definition of romance novels includes only the focus on a developing romantic relationship and an optimistic ending.
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or genera ...
is important; an Avon executive observed that "The phone never rings, the baby never cries and the rent's never overdue in romances." There are many publishers, libraries, bookstores, and literary critics who continue to go by the traditional definition of romance to categorize books.
A romance novel can be set in any time period and in any location. In recent years, romance novels have even expanded into the galaxy. There are no specific restrictions on what can or cannot be included in a romance novel.
Even controversial subjects are addressed in romance novels, including topics such as
date rape
Date rape is a form of acquaintance rape and dating violence. The two phrases are often used interchangeably, but date rape specifically refers to a rape in which there has been some sort of romantic or potentially sexual relationship between ...
,
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
,
addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...
, and disability.
The combination of time frame, location, and plot elements does, however, help a novel to fit into one of several romance subgenres.
Despite the numerous possibilities this framework allows, many people in the mainstream press claim that "all
omance novelsseem to read alike."
Stereotypes of the romance genre abound. For instance, some believe that all romance novels are similar to those of
Danielle Steel
Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947) is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million ...
, featuring rich, glamorous people traveling to exotic locations.
Many romance readers disagree that Steel writes romance at all, considering her novels more mainstream fiction.
Mass-market or formulaic romance novels are sometimes referred to as "smut" or female
pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, ,
and are the most popular form of modern
erotica
Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...
for women. While some romance novels do contain more erotic acts, in other romance novels the characters do no more than kiss chastely. The romance genre runs the spectrum between these two extremes.
Because women buy 90% of all romance novels,
most romance novels are told from a woman's viewpoint, in either
first
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
or
third person
Third person, or third-person, may refer to:
* Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'')
** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person
* Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...
.
Although most romance novels are about heterosexual pairings, there are romance novels that deal with
same-sex relationships
A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries w ...
, and some participants in the book industry characterize books dealing with same-sex relationships as F/F, and M/M.
Many famous literary fiction romance novels end tragically.
Examples include:
''
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...
'' by
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...
, ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writte ...
'' by
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, ''
The Thorn Birds
''The Thorn Birds'' is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda – a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland, the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1 ...
'' by
Colleen McCullough
Colleen Margaretta McCullough (; married name Robinson, previously Ion-Robinson; 1 June 193729 January 2015) was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being ''The Thorn Birds'' and ''The Ladies of Missalonghi''.
Life
...
, ''
Norwegian Wood'' by
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
, ''
Atonement
Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ex ...
'' by
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
, and ''
The Song of Achilles
''The Song of Achilles'' is a 2011 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is an adaptation of Homer's ''Iliad'' as told from the perspective of Patroclus. The novel follows Patroclus' relationship with Achi ...
'' by
Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller (born July 24, 1978) is an American novelist, author of ''The Song of Achilles'' (2011) and ''Circe'' (2018). Miller spent ten years writing ''The Song of Achilles'' while she worked as a teacher of Latin and Greek. The novel tell ...
.
History
Development
![Charles Gleyre - Daphnis et Chloe revenant de la montagne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Charles_Gleyre_-_Daphnis_et_Chloe_revenant_de_la_montagne.jpg)
The genre of works of extended prose fiction dealing with romantic love existed in classical Greece.
The titles of over twenty such
ancient Greek romance novels are known, but most of them have only survived in an incomplete, fragmentary form.
Only five ancient Greek romance novels have survived to the present day in a state of near-completion: ''
Chareas and Callirhoe'', ''
Leucippe and Clitophon
''The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon'' ( grc, τὰ κατὰ Λευκίππην καὶ Kλειτoφῶντα, ''ta kata Leukippēn kai Kleitophōnta''), written by Achilles Tatius, is one of the five surviving Ancient Greek romances, not ...
'', ''
Daphnis and Chloe
''Daphnis and Chloe'' ( el, Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη, ''Daphnis kai Chloē'') is an ancient Greek novel written in the Roman Empire, the only known work of the second-century AD Greek novelist and romance writer Longus.
Setting and style ...
'', ''
The Ephesian Tale'', and ''
The Ethiopian Tale''.
Precursors of the modern popular love-romance can also be found in the
sentimental novel
The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensi ...
''
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' is an epistolary novel, epistolary novel first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of Conduct book, conduct li ...
,'' by
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...
, published in 1740. ''Pamela'' was the first popular novel to be based on a courtship as told from the perspective of the heroine. Unlike many of the novels of the time, ''Pamela'' had a happy ending, when after Mr. B attempts unsuccessfully to seduce and rape Pamela multiple times, he eventually rewards her virtue by sincerely proposing an equitable marriage to her. The book was one of the first bestsellers, with five editions printed in the first eleven months of release. Richardson began writing ''Pamela'' as a book of letter templates. Richardson accepted the request, but only if the letters had a moral purpose. As Richardson was writing the series of letters turned into a story. Writing in a new form, the novel, Richardson attempted to both instruct and entertain. Richardson wrote ''Pamela'' as a
conduct book
Conduct books or conduct literature is a genre of books that attempt to educate the reader on social norms and ideals. As a genre, they began in the mid-to-late Middle Ages, although antecedents such as ''The Maxims of Ptahhotep'' (c. 2350 BC) a ...
, a sort of manual which codified social and domestic behavior of men, women, and servants, as well as a narrative in order to provide a more morally concerned literature option for young audiences. This conduct book genre has a long history.
Jane Austen is an important influence on romance genre fiction, and ''
Pride and Prejudice
''Pride and Prejudice'' is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreci ...
'', published in 1813, has been called "the best romance novel ever written." In the early part of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, the
Brontë sisters, like Austen, wrote literary fiction that influenced later popular fiction.
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
in ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
'', published in 1847, introduced the orphaned heroine. Brontë's love romance incorporates elements of both the gothic novel and
Elizabethan drama
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642.
This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. ...
, and "demonstrate
the flexibility of the romance novel form."
While the literary fiction romance continued to develop in the 20th century, the new subgenre of genre fiction, which first developed in the 19th century, started to become more popular after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In 1919,
E. M. Hull
Edith Maud Hull (16 August 1880 – 11 February 1947) was a British writer of romance novels, typically credited as E. M. Hull. 's novel ''
The Sheik'' was published in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. The novel, which became hugely popular, was adapted into a
movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
(1921), which established star
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...
as the top male actor of the time. The hero of this book was an iconic
alpha male
In biology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking individual is som ...
who kidnapped the heroine and won her admiration through his forceful actions. The novel was one of the first modern works to introduce the
rape fantasy
A rape fantasy (sometimes referred to as rapeplay) or a ravishment is a sexual fantasy involving imagining or pretending being coerced or coercing another into sexual activity. In sexual roleplay, it involves acting out roles of coercive sex. R ...
, a theme explored in Samuel Richardson's ''Pamela'' (1740). Although women were gaining more independence in life, publishers believed that readers would only accept premarital sex in the context of rape. In this novel and those that followed, the rape was depicted as more of a fantasy; the heroine is rarely if ever shown experiencing terror, stress, or trauma as a result.
The popular, mass market version of the historical romance, which
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
developed in the early 19th century, is seen as beginning in 1921, when
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer (; 16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brothe ...
published ''The Black Moth''. This is set in 1751, but many of Heyer's novels were inspired by Jane Austen's novels and are set around the time Austen lived, in the later
Regency period
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...
. Because Heyer's romances are set more than 100 years earlier, she includes carefully researched historical detail to help her readers understand the period. Unlike other popular love-romance novels of the time, Heyer's novels used the setting as a major plot device. Her characters often exhibit twentieth century sensibilities, and more conventional characters in the novels point out the heroine's eccentricities, such as wanting to marry for love. Heyer was a prolific author, and wrote one to two historical romance novels per year until her death in 1974.
Rise of the category romance
In the 1930s, the British publishers
Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd. It was founded in 1908 by Gerald Rusgrove Mills and Charles Boon as a general publisher. The company moved towards escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. In 1971, the ...
began releasing hardback romance novels. The books were sold through weekly two-penny libraries and were known as "the books in brown" for their brown binding. In the 1950s, the company began offering the books for sale through newsagents across the United Kingdom.
A Canadian company,
Harlequin Enterprises
Harlequin Enterprises ULC (known simply as Harlequin) is a romance and women's fiction publisher founded in Winnipeg, Canada in 1949. From the 1960s, it grew into the largest publisher of romance fiction in the world. Based in Toronto, Canada si ...
, began distributing in North America in 1957 the category romances published by Mills & Boon.
[Thurston (1987), p. 42.] Mary Bonneycastle, wife of Harlequin founder Richard Bonneycastle, and her daughter, Judy Burgess, exercised editorial control over which Mills & Boon novels Harlequin reprinted. They had a "decency code," and rejected more sexually explicit material that Mills and Boon submitted for reprinting. Realizing that the genre was popular, Richard Bonneycastle finally decided to read a romance novel. He chose one of the more explicit novels and enjoyed it. On his orders, the company conducted a market test with the novel he had read and discovered that it outsold a similar, tamer novel. Overall, the novels were short and formulaic, featuring heroines who were sweet, compassionate, pure and innocent. The few heroines who worked did so in traditional female jobs, including as
nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...
s,
governess
A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...
es and
secretaries
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
. Intimacy in the novels never extended beyond a chaste kiss between the protagonists.
On October 1, 1971, Harlequin purchased Mills & Boon. By this point, the romance novel genre "had been popularized and distributed widely to an enthusiastic audience" in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
. In an attempt to duplicate Mills & Boon's success in North America, Harlequin improved their distribution and marketing system.
[Regis (2003), p. 156.] By choosing to sell their books "where the women are," they allowed many mass-market merchandisers and even supermarkets to sell the books, all of which were exactly 192 pages. Harlequin then began a reader service, selling directly to readers who agreed to purchase a certain number of books each month.
The beginnings of American romance fiction
In the US, modern romance genre fiction was born in 1972, with
Avon's publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss' ''
The Flame and the Flower
''The Flame and the Flower'' (published 1972) is the debut work of romance novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. The first modern "bodice ripper" romance novel, the book revolutionized the historical romance genre. It was also the first full-length r ...
'', which was the first of the modern "bodice ripper" romance novels to follow "the principals into the bedroom."
Aside from its content, the book was revolutionary in that it was one of the first single-title romance novels to be published as an original
paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...
, rather than being first published in
hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...
, and, like the category romances, was distributed in drug stores and other mass-market merchandising outlets.
The novel went on to sell 2.35 million copies.
Avon followed its release with the 1974 publication of Woodiwiss' second novel, ''The Wolf and the Dove'' and two more sexually graphic novels by newcomer
Rosemary Rogers
Rosemary Rogers (née Jansz; 7 December 1932 – 12 November 2019) was a Sri Lankan Burgher best-selling author of historical romance novels. Her first book, ''Sweet Savage Love'', was published in 1974. She was the second romance author, after ...
, ''Sweet Savage Love'' and ''Dark Fires''. The latter sold two million copies in its first three months of release. By 1975, ''Publishers Weekly'' had reported that the "Avon originals" had sold a combined .
[Thurston, pp 47-48.] The following year over 150 historical romance novels, many of them paperback originals, were published, selling over .
The success of these novels prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between a helpless heroine and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger.
The covers of these novels tended to feature scantily clad women being grabbed by the hero, and caused the novels to be referred to as bodice rippers.
A ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' article in 1980 referred to these bodice rippers as "publishing's answer to the Big Mac: They are juicy, cheap, predictable, and devoured in stupefying quantities by legions of loyal fans." The term ''bodice ripper'' is now considered offensive to many in the romance industry.
In this new style of historical romance, heroines were independent and strong-willed and were often paired with heroes who evolved into caring and compassionate men who truly admired the women they loved. This was in contrast to the contemporary romances published during this time, which were often characterized by weak females who fell in love with overbearing
alpha male
In biology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking individual is som ...
s.
Although these heroines had active roles in the plot, they were "passive in relationships with the heroes."
Across the genre, heroines during this time were usually aged 16–21, with the heroes slightly older, usually around 30. The women were
virgins
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
, while the men were not, and both members of the couple were described as beautiful.
Category romance adapts
Category romance lines were slower to react to some of the changes that had swept the historical romance subgenre. Despite the fact that the former Mills & Boon lines were now owned by a
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n company, the lines did not have any American writers until 1975, when Harlequin purchased a novel by
Janet Dailey
Janet Anne Haradon Dailey (May 21, 1944 – December 14, 2013) was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey (her married name). Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold more than 300 million ...
. Dailey's novels provided the romance genre's "first look at heroines, heroes and courtships that take place in America, with American sensibilities, assumptions, history, and most of all, settings." Harlequin was unsure how the market would react to this new type of romance, and was unwilling to fully embrace it. In the late 1970s, a Harlequin editor rejected a manuscript by
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of more than 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb for the ''in Death'' series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publication ...
, who has since become the top-selling romance author, because "they already had their American writer."
Harlequin sold almost $70 million of its paperback romances in 1979 through 100,000 supermarkets and other stores, giving the company almost 10% of the market for paperback books. That year the company began distributing its own books in the United States instead of through
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
's
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...
. In 1980 Simon & Schuster formed Silhouette Books to publish its own romance novels, beginning what ''The New York Times'' called "perhaps the most bitter war in American book publishing history."
The company sought to take advantage of the untapped talent of the American writers. They published several lines of category romance, and encouraged their writers to create stronger heroines and less dominant heroes. Authors were also expected to address contemporary issues where appropriate. Silhouette soon saw their market share expand, and in 1984, Harlequin acquired them. Despite the acquisition, Silhouette continued to retain editorial control and to publish various lines under their own imprint.
Harlequin had also failed to adapt quickly to the signs that readers appreciated novels with more explicit sex scenes, and in 1980, several publishers entered the category romance market to fill that gap. That year, Dell launched their Candlelight Ecstasy line with
Amii Lorin's ''The Tawny Gold Man'', becoming the first line to waive the requirement that heroines be virgins. By the end of 1983 sales for the Candlelight Ecstasy line totaled $30 million. Silhoeutte also launched similar lines, Desire (sexually explicit) and Special Edition (sexually explicit and longer stories, up to 250 pages), each of which had a 90–100% sellout rate each month.
A 1982 survey of romance readers confirmed that the new styles of writing were attracting new readers to the genre. 35% of the readers surveyed had begun reading romances after 1977. An additional 31% of those surveyed had been readers for between 6 and 10 years, meaning they had become interested in the genre after 1972, when Woodiwiss' revolutionary novel was published. This means that two-thirds of those surveyed joined the genre after it had begun to change.
The number of category romance lines increased at a rapid pace, and by 1985 there were 16 separate lines producing a total of 80 novels per month. The sudden increase in category romance lines meant an equally sudden increase in demand for writers of the new style of romance novel. This tight market caused a proportionate decrease in the quality of the novels that were being released. By 1984, the market was saturated with category lines and readers had begun to complain of redundancy in plots. The following year, the "dampening effect of the high level of redundancy associated with series romances was evident in the decreased number of titles being read per month." Harlequin's return rate, which had been less than 25% in 1978, when it was the primary provider of category romance, swelled to 60%.
Further change
The genre continued to expand in the mid-to-late 1980s, as publishers realized that the more popular authors were often those who stretched the boundaries of the genre. A 1984 novel by
LaVyrle Spencer
LaVyrle Spencer (born July 17, 1943) is an American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been ''New Y ...
featured an overweight, middle-aged hero who had to make drastic changes to his lifestyle to win the heroine, while a 1987 Dailey novel involved an ugly hero and a heroine who was searching for her birth mother.
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Ann Krentz, née Jayne Castle (born March 28, 1948 in Cobb, California, United States), is an American writer of romance novels. Krentz is the author of a string of ''New York Times'' bestsellers under seven different pseudonyms. Now, she ...
's 1986 novel ''
Sweet Starfire
''Sweet Starfire'' is a futuristic romance written by Jayne Ann Krentz and released in 1986. Krentz likened the novel to a historical romance set in another world, and its success inspired her to begin writing historical romances under the pseud ...
'' became the first futuristic romance, combining elements of traditional romance novels and science fiction.
The relationships had also modernized: by the 1990s, it was rare to see a book that featured a man raping his future wife.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, contemporary romances began to feature women in more male-dominated jobs, such as offshore oil rigs and the space program. The age range of heroines also began to expand, so that books began to feature women who had already reached 30 and even 40. Heroes also changed, with some authors veering towards a more sensitive man. Despite the broadening of some aspects of the plot, other taboos remained, and publishers discouraged authors from writing about controversial subjects such as terrorism, warfare, and masculine sports.
Romance novels began to contain more humor beginning in the 1990s, as
Julie Garwood
Julie Garwood (born 1944 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American writer of over twenty-seven romance novels in both the historical and suspense subgenres. Over thirty-five million copies of her books are in print, and she has had at least 24 ...
began introducing a great deal of humor into her historical romances.
The romance novel began to expand in other ways as well.
In 1989, author
Jude Deveraux
Jude Deveraux (born September 20, 1947; née Jude Gilliam) is an American author of historical romances. Deveraux has written over 40 novels, many of which have been on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, including such titles as ''A Knight ...
became the first romance author to transition from writing original mass market paperbacks to being published in hardcover. Her novel, ''A Knight in Shining Armor'', "became a natural bestseller."
Several authors found success writing single-title romances set in contemporary times, and publishing houses began to encourage the growth in the genre. Because the novels were set in modern times, they could include more of the elements that modern women could relate to, and soon began to touch on themes such as single parenthood, adoption, and abuse.
The 21st century brought additional changes to the genre that included diversifying main characters and plots to incorporate identities that had not previously been represented.
Scholars of romance novel history have observed that characters with disabilities have been largely underrepresented in mainstream media, including romance novels.
By the early 2000s, though, more books in the romance genre featured heroes and heroines with physical and mental impairments.
Mary Balogh
Mary Balogh (born Mary Jenkins on 24 March 1944) is a Welsh-Canadian novelist writing historical romance, born and raised in Swansea. In 1967, she moved to Canada to start a teaching career, married a local coroner and settled in Kipling, Sas ...
's ''Simply Love'', published in 2006, features a hero with facial scarring and nerve damage who overcomes fears of rejection due to his physical appearance to enter a romantic relationship and family unit by the end of the novel. This was a substantial shift from past narratives where disabled characters were "de-eroticized" and not given storylines that included sex or romantic love.
Additionally, characters with
autism
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
have gained more representation in the romance genre since the turn of the century. The year 2010 saw
Christine Feehan
Christine Feehan (born Christine King in Ukiah, California) is an American author of paranormal romance, paranormal military thrillers, and fantasy. She is a #1 ''New York Times'', #1 ''Publishers Weekly'', and International bestselling author ...
's novel, ''Water Bound'', featuring a heroine with autism as a significant plot point including a detailed and compassionate portrayal of living and coping with autism.
Helen Hoang
Helen Hoang (born 1982) is the pen name of an American romance novelist, best known for her best-selling debut novel ''The Kiss Quotient''.
Career
Prior to being published, Hoang wrote paranormal and fantasy romances with a martial arts ben ...
's 2018 novel ''
The Kiss Quotient
''The Kiss Quotient'' is a 2018 novel written by Helen Hoang. It follows Stella, an autistic woman who hires an escort in order to explore intimacy with other people.
Development
Hoang wrote the first draft of what would become ''The Kiss Quot ...
'', for example, focuses on the heroine's
Asperger's syndrome
Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behav ...
.
However, it is still rare to find romance novels in which there are characters with cognitive disabilities, and they are most likely to be included as secondary characters.
Since the 1980s, many plot lines that were once thought to be taboo by the romance publishing industry have become much more accepted into the mainstream of romance fiction. For example, in the 20th century it was rare to find a book with a hero who was in the military or professional sports. In the 21st century, however, such characters are relatively common and even have their own sub-genres within the romance category.
By 2000, the covers had begun to evolve from featuring a scantily clad couple to showing a view of the landscape featured in the novel.
In the earliest Harlequin romance novels, heroines were typically nurses and secretaries, but as time has passed and women have entered the workforce in larger numbers, romance heroines have spanned the career spectrum.
Modern romance novels now feature more balanced relationships between men and women.
Critical reception
Some important literary figures received critical acclaim for their romance novels. For instance, the Nobel laureate
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
received critical praise for his romance novel ''
Love in the Time of Cholera
''Love in the Time of Cholera'' ( es, El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel written in Spanish by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez and published in 1985. Edith Grossman's English translation was published by ...
''.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
held that, if poets and novelists across continents have not stopped producing romance novels since millennials, it is because no other topic is more relevant and so the theme never gets old. According to Schopenhauer, romance/love is more important than other topics because it affects the species (not only the individual), in the sense that romance and partner choice is generally a prerequisite to have offspring and continue maintaining the human species in future generations of humankind.
Despite recent rehabilitation and merging of the genre with other genres, there is sometimes a negative stigma with the romance novel. Some dedicated readers are embarrassed to admit to buying or even reading the books.
The romance genre has sometimes generated criticism. Some critics point to a lack of suspense, as it may seem obvious that the hero and heroine will eventually resolve their issues, and wonder whether it is beneficial "for women to be whiling away so many hours reading impossibly glamorized love stories."
According to fiction author
Melissa Pritchard
Melissa Pritchard (née Brown) is an American short story writer, novelist, essayist, and journalist.
Life
Melissa Brown was born on December 12, 1948 in San Mateo, California. She grew up in San Mateo, Burlingame and Menlo Park and attended ...
, a romance novel "perpetuates something slightly dangerous, that there's this notion, that there's this perfect love out there, and it can distract you from the work of loving yourself."
Romance novelists attribute the stigma to the fact that romance is, according to some, a genre "written almost exclusively by women for women."
Romance novelist
Jennifer Crusie
Jennifer Crusie (born 1949) is a pseudonym for Jennifer Smith, an author of contemporary romance novels. She has written more than twenty novels, which have been published in 20 countries.
Biography
Crusie was born as Jennifer Smith in Wapak ...
counters that in the modern romance novel "a woman is rewarded with unconditional love
nlyif she remains true to herself,"
while novelist
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Susan Elizabeth Phillips (born December 11, 1944 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a romance novelist from the United States. She is the creator of the sports romance and has been called the “Queen of Romantic Comedy.”
Biography
Phillips was born o ...
believes that romance novels are popular because the heroine typically wins, sometimes overcoming great odds so that she is no longer a victim.
Formats
Romance novels are divided into two sub-sets, category romances, also known as series romances, and single title romances.
Many authors write only within one of the formats, but others, including
Jennifer Crusie
Jennifer Crusie (born 1949) is a pseudonym for Jennifer Smith, an author of contemporary romance novels. She has written more than twenty novels, which have been published in 20 countries.
Biography
Crusie was born as Jennifer Smith in Wapak ...
and
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Ann Krentz, née Jayne Castle (born March 28, 1948 in Cobb, California, United States), is an American writer of romance novels. Krentz is the author of a string of ''New York Times'' bestsellers under seven different pseudonyms. Now, she ...
, have achieved success in both formats.
Category romance
![Collection Nocturne de Harlequin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Collection_Nocturne_de_Harlequin.jpg)
Category romances are short, usually no more than 200 pages, or about 55,000 words.
[Regis (2003), p. 160.] The books are published in clearly delineated lines, with a certain number of books published in each line every month. In many cases, the books are numbered sequentially within the line.
These novels have widespread distribution—often worldwide—and a single U.S. print run, remaining on a bookseller's shelves until they are sold out or until the next month's titles are released and take their place.
Writers for the largest publisher of category romance,
Harlequin/Mills & Boon, can find their novels translated into 26 languages and sold in over 100 international markets.
To write a successful novel of this length, the "author must pare the story down to its essentials. Subplots and minor characters are eliminated or relegated to the backstory."
[ Nonetheless, category romance lines each have a distinct identity, which may involve similar settings, characters, time periods, levels of sensuality, or types of conflict. Publishers of category romances usually issue guidelines for each line, specifying the elements necessary for a novel to be included in each line.][Toth (1998), p. 519.] Depending on the current market and perceived reader preferences, publishers frequently begin new lines or end existing ones. Most recently, erotic and Christian lines have been introduced while traditional Regency romance
Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency (1811–1820) or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency rom ...
lines have ended.
Single-title romances
Single-titles novels are romance novels not published as part of a publisher's category. They are longer than category romances, typically between 350 and 400 pages, or 100,000-110,000 words. Publishers may release the novels over a shorter period of time for sales and publicity reasons, but on average authors write 1.5 novels per year and have one each year published. Single-title novels remain on the booksellers' shelves at the discretion of the store.
Despite their name, single-title novels are not always stand alone novels. Some authors prefer to write several interconnected books, ranging in number from trilogies to long-running series, so that they can revisit characters or worlds. Such sets of books often have similar titles, and may be labelled as "Number 1 in the XXX Series", but they are not considered series romances because they are not part of a particular line.
Subgenres
Because the definition of a romance novel does not limit the types of plot devices, time frames, or locations that can be included, the genre has grown to encompass a wide variety of material and spawned multiple subgenres. Subgenres of romance are often closely related to other literature genres, and some books could be considered a romance subgenre novel and another genre novel at the same time. For example, romantic suspense novels are often similar to mysteries, crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
and thrillers, and paranormal romance
Paranormal romance is a subgenre of both romantic fiction and speculative fiction. Paranormal romance focuses on romantic love and includes elements beyond the range of scientific explanation, blending together themes from the speculative fiction ...
s use elements popular in science fiction and fantasy novels.
Contemporary romance
Contemporary romance, which is set after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, is often what people mean when they refer to a romance novel. Contemporary romance novels—the largest subgenre—are set in the time when they are written, and usually reflect the mores of that time. Heroines in contemporary romances prior to 1970 usually quit working when they marry or have children—while heroines after 1970 usually have, and keep, a career.[Ramsdell (1999), p. 43.] As contemporary romance novels have grown to contain more complex plotting and more realistic characters, the line between this subgenre and the genre of women's fiction has blurred.[
Most contemporary romance novels contain elements that date the books. The majority of them eventually become irrelevant to more modern readers and go out of print.][Ramsdell (1999), p. 44.] Those that survive the test of time, such as Jane Austen's work, are often reclassified as historical romances.[
Over half of the romantic fiction published in the United States in 2004 (1,468 out of 2,285 books) were contemporary romance novels.] Contemporary romance novels have twice been chosen by Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa (; born October 2, 1970) is an American actress and talk show host. Since 2001, she has been the co-host of the syndicated morning talk show '' Live! with Kelly and Ryan'' in various formats.
As an actress, Ripa's best known roles ...
to be featured in her Reading with Ripa book club.
Historical romance
Historical romance, also known as historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
, is a broad category of fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past, which Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
helped popularize in the early 19th century, with works such as '' Rob Roy'' and ''Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
''. Literary fiction historical romances continue to be published, and a notable recent example is ''Wolf Hall
''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a symp ...
'' (2009), a multi-award-winning novel by English historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
ist Hilary Mantel
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
. However, the focus here is on the mass-market
The term "mass market" refers to a market for goods produced on a large scale for a significant number of end consumers. The mass market differs from the niche market in that the former focuses on consumers with a wide variety of backgrounds with ...
genre.
This subgenre includes a wide variety of other subgenres, including Regency romance
Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency (1811–1820) or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency rom ...
. Mass-market historical romance novels are rarely published in hardcover, with fewer than 15 receiving that status each year, less than one-fifth of the number of contemporary romance novels published in that format. Because historical romances are primarily published in mass-market format, their fortunes are tied to a certain extent to the mass-market trends. Booksellers and large merchandisers now sell fewer mass market paperbacks, preferring trade paperbacks or hardcovers, which prevents historical romances from being sold in some price clubs and other mass merchandise outlets.
In 2001, 778 mass-market historical romances were published, a 10-year high. By 2004, the annual number had dropped to 486, which was still 20% of all romance novels published. Kensington Books
Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American, New York-based publishing house founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius (1923–2011)Grimes, William"Walter Zacharius, Romance Publisher, Dies at 87,"''New York Times'' (MARCH 7, 2011). and Roberta Bender ...
says they receive fewer submissions of historical novels, and their previously published authors have switched to contemporary.
Romantic suspense
Romantic suspense involves an intrigue or mystery for the protagonists to solve. Typically, however, the heroine is the victim of a crime or attempted crime, and works with a hero, who tends to be in a field where he would serve as a protector, such as a police officer, FBI agent
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
, bodyguard, or Navy SEAL
The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sma ...
. By the end of the novel, the mystery is resolved and the interaction between the hero and heroine has evolved into a solid relationship. These novels primarily take place in contemporary times, but authors such as Amanda Quick
Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, “she who must (or is fit to) be loved”. Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much b ...
have broadened the genre to also include historical timeframes.
Like all romances, romantic suspense novels must place the development of a relationship between the protagonists at the heart of the story. The relationship "must impact each decision they make and increase the tension of the suspense as it propel the story. In turn, the events of suspense must also directly affect the relationship and move the story forward." Romantic suspense novels tend to have more "clean" language, without the "emotional, intimate" descriptions often used in more traditional romances. Because the mystery is a crucial aspect of the plot, these novels are more plot-driven instead of character-driven.
This blend of the romance and mystery was perfected by Mary Stewart, who wrote ten romantic suspense novels between 1955 and 1967. Stewart was one of the first to seamlessly combine the two genres, maintaining a full mystery while focusing on the courtship between two people. In her novels, the process of solving the mystery "helps to illuminate" the hero's personality, helping the heroine to fall in love with him.
Paranormal romance
Paranormal romance blends the real with the fantastic or science fictional. The fantastic elements may be woven into an alternate version of our own world in an urban fantasy
Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which places imaginary and unreal elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with quixotic plot-drivers, unusual character traits, and a platform for cl ...
involving vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
s, werewolves
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...
, and/or demons, or they may be more "normal" manifestations of the paranormal—humans with psychic abilities, witches, or ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
s. Time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
, futuristic, and extraterrestrial romances also fall beneath the paranormal umbrella.
These novels often blend elements of other subgenres—including suspense, mystery, or chick lit—with their fantastic themes. A few paranormal romances are set solely in the past and are structured much like any historical romance novel. Others are set in the future, sometimes on different worlds. Still others have a time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
element with either the hero or the heroine traveling into the past or the future. Between 2002 and 2004, the number of paranormal romances published in the United States doubled to 170 per year. A popular title in the genre can sell over 500,000 copies.
Many paranormal romances rely on the blend of contemporary American life with the existence of supernatural or magically empowered beings, human or otherwise. Sometimes the larger culture is aware of the magical in its midst; sometimes it is not. Some paranormal romances focus less on the specifics of their alternate worlds
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film
* ''The Alternative ...
than do traditional science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
or fantasy novels, keeping the attention strongly on the underlying romance. Others develop the alternate reality meticulously, combining well-planned magical systems and inhuman cultures with contemporary reality.
Science fiction romance
These books (time travel, fantasy, science fiction, and futuristic) blend romance with fantasy or science fiction, and they often overlap the paranormal subgenre. While exploring their alternate worlds, they also offer a fully developed romance. The sensuality level in these novels varies from chaste to very sexy.
Over the years, many publishers have included futuristic, fantasy, and science-fiction romances in their contemporary series lines (for example, Harlequin Temptation, Harlequin Superromance, Silhouette Special Edition). Today these romances are published by most major publishers, including Berkley Books
Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group.
History
Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Company" by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had worked for Avon; they quickly renamed it Berk ...
, Harlequin's LUNA and MIRA, Pocket Books, Kensington Books, Dorchester Publishing, Avon Books
Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...
, and NAL. The e-Book publisher Ellora's Cave
Ellora's Cave was an independent erotic fiction publisher. It was launched in 2000, and initially published in e-book only format and later moved into print. Ellora's Cave published in several genres, which included but were not limited to adult r ...
has published many erotic romances with fantasy themes and other-worldly heroes and heroines.
There is overlap in these subgenres. Steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...
is science fiction mixed with alternate history which takes place during the Victorian era. It mixes historical elements with technology (think of the television series ''The Wild Wild West
''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...
'' (1965–1969)). Authors to check out include M. K. Hobson
M. K. Hobson (born January 21, 1969) is an American speculative fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 she was a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her debut novel The Native Star was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award. She lives in Oregon City, Oregon.
...
and Gail Dayton.
The first futuristic romance to be marketed by a mainstream romance publisher, Jayne Ann Krentz's ''Sweet Starfire
''Sweet Starfire'' is a futuristic romance written by Jayne Ann Krentz and released in 1986. Krentz likened the novel to a historical romance set in another world, and its success inspired her to begin writing historical romances under the pseud ...
'', was published in 1986 and was a "classic road trip romance" that just happened to be set in a separate galaxy. This genre has become more popular since 2000. Krentz attributes the popularity of this romance genre to the fact that the novels "are, at heart, classic historical romances that just happen to be set on other worlds."
Fantasy romance
Fantasy romance, also known as romantic fantasy, is a subgenre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a Category of being, category of literature, ...
of fantasy fiction
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. ...
, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre. Romantic fantasy has been published by both fantasy and romance lines, with some publishers distinguishing between "fantasy romance" being more like a contemporary fantasy novel with romantic elements, and "romantic fantasy" with more emphasis on the romance elements of the story.
Time-travel romance
Time-travel romances are a version of the classic "fish out of water" story. In most, the heroine is from the present day and travels into the past to meet the hero. In a smaller subset of these novels, the hero, who lives in the past, travels forward into his future to meet the heroine. A successful time-travel romance must have the characters react logically to their experience and should investigate some of the differences, both physical and mental, between the world the character normally inhabits and the one where they landed. Some writers end their novels with the protagonists trapped in different time periods and unable to be together—to the displeasure of many readers of the genre.
Inspirational romance
Inspirational romance, as the market exists today, combines explicitly Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
themes with the development of a romantic relationship. In 2004, 167 novels were published in the inspirational romance subgenre. These novels typically do not include gratuitous violence or swearing, and the central courtship is chaste. Sex, if it is present at all, occurs after marriage and is not explicitly detailed. Many novels in this genre also focus on the hero or heroine's faith, turning the love story into "a triangle: the man and the woman and also their relationship with God." Themes such as forgiveness, honesty, and fidelity are common.
The first line of series inspirational romances debuted shortly after the 1980 U.S. presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. ...
, when Silhouette launched their Silhouette Inspirations line. The books were aimed at born-again Christian
Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and sepa ...
s and were marketed in religious bookstores. The Silhouette Inspirations line was closed after Harlequin acquired Silhouette in 1984 because it was not profitable. However, other Christian publishers continued to produce romance novels, including historical and contemporary, and Harlequin later rejoined the market with the 1998 launch of its Steeple Hill and Love Inspired lines.
Young Adult romance
Young adult romance are romance novels where young adult life is centered. The subgenre is believed to have been started in 1942, with varying degrees of popularity throughout time. The romance between two characters is the central focus of the book, however other aspects of young adult/teen life are also explored, often with coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...
themes and navigating relationships. While most romance ends with "happily ever after," "happily for now" is generally accepted due to the age of characters.
Young adult romance has its own subgenres which include contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, LGBTQIA+, and more.
LGBTQIA+ romance
LGBTQIA+ romance has been a fast-growing subgenre, especially with the rise of indie publishing and social media granting access to doors that are normally closed. Male/male romance leads the subgenre, but lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
, bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
, transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
, genderqueer, and ace-spectrum (or asexual and aromantic
A person's romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the sex or gender with which a person experiences romantic attraction towards or is likely to have a Interpersonal relationship#Romance, romantic rela ...
) fiction are all featured prominently, with multiple small publishing houses leading the way. The romantic relationship is the central story, and focus is usually taken off of trauma.
Black Love romance
Black love romance is a romance where both main characters and majority of supporting characters are black. The abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
and suffragist Frances E. W. Harper wrote what was arguably the first African American romance novel, ''Iola Leroy
''Iola Leroy'', ''or Shadows Uplifted'', an 1892 novel by Frances E. W. Harper, is one of the first novels published by an African-American woman. While following what has been termed the "sentimental" conventions of late nineteenth-century wri ...
'' in 1892. The subgenre started growing in the early 80's along with other romance subgenres. Black love historical romance novels center the love and happiness of its main characters, and usually includes black history and black people standing in solidarity. Political and social commentary is the norm, with a large majority of books expressing explicitly abolitionist and activist views. In contemporary black love, themes of activism are not as dominant, however normally are still included. Popular authors include Beverly Jenkins
Beverly Jenkins (born 1951, Detroit) is an American author of historical and contemporary romance novels with a particular focus on 19th century African-American life. Jenkins was a 2013 NAACP Image Award nominee and, in 1999, was voted one of ...
, Alyssa Cole
Alyssa Cole (born August 12, 1982) is an American author of Historical romance, historical, science fiction, and contemporary romance novels. Her stories include diverse casts of characters with a variety of professions, from Civil War spies to m ...
, Rebecca Weatherspoon, Kennedy Ryan, and Christina C. Jones.
Multicultural romance
Multicultural romance typically features a hero and/or heroine who is African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
, although some multicultural lines also include Asian or Hispanic heroes or heroines or interracial
Interracial topics include:
* Interracial marriage, marriage between two people of different races
** Interracial marriage in the United States
*** 2009 Louisiana interracial marriage incident
* Interracial adoption, placing a child of one raci ...
relationships. The first line of multicultural romance novels, Arabesque, was launched by Kensington Books in 1994. BET Books purchased the line in 1998, and the number of new authors that they publish has continued to expand each year. BET has also developed some of the Arabesque novels into made-for-television movies.
In 1999, Kensington Publishing
Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American, New York-based publishing house founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius (1923–2011)Grimes, William"Walter Zacharius, Romance Publisher, Dies at 87,"''New York Times'' (MARCH 7, 2011). and Roberta Bender ...
launched the first line of Latino romance novels – ENCANTO. The ENCANTO novels were originally released in two ways – a bilingual Spanish/English version and a Spanish-only version. Two novels were published every month until late 2001, when the line went into hiatus. Despite the demise of the line, several of the ENCANTO authors have continued writing novels with Latino protagonists, namely Sylvia Mendoza, Tracy Montoya, Caridad Pineiro, Berta Platas, Lara Rios and Lynda Sandoval.
Although romance novels featuring African-Americans and Hispanic protagonists are becoming more popular, those featuring Asian or Asian-American characters are rare. Author Tess Gerritsen
Tess Gerritsen (born Terry Tom; June 12, 1953) is the pseudonym of Terry Gerritsen, an American novelist and retired general physician.
Early life
Tess Gerritsen is the child of a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese-American seafood chef. While grow ...
believes this is due to the fact that there are fewer Asian-American women who read romances: "We read romances because we want to feel good about love...in order to do that, the reader must identify with the heroine."
Erotic romance
Erotic romance is a blend of romance and erotica
Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...
. Erotic romance novels are characterized by strong sexual content, but can contain elements of any of the other romance subgenres. Erotic romance novels tend to use more frank language, avoiding many of the euphemisms used in books with milder content. These novels also usually include more sex scenes, often focusing more on the sex act rather than being a more traditional love scene, and may include more unusual positions or acts. Despite a greater emphasis on the sex scenes, however, erotic romance is distinguishable from traditional pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, . Pornography concentrates on the sex acts, but erotic novels include well-developed characters and a plot that could exist without the sex acts. In a vast majority of erotic romance novels, the sexual act progresses the plot or furthers the character development in some way and are critical to the story.
Erotic romances' lengths run from short stories to single-title novels. Some of these are published as part of a category, such as Harlequin Blaze, while others are published as part of an anthology and are only novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
length. Even single-title erotic romances may be as short as a novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
, however.
Many of the publishers of erotic romance are either small press
A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably.
Independent press is general ...
publishers or electronic book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alth ...
publishers. Writers often have more leeway as to what types of erotic acts can be included when working with an electronic publisher than they would have when working with a print publisher.[ The market for erotic romances has been growing rapidly, leading some publishers to create new lines for these types of books.] Some subjects are still considered taboo, even with erotic romance. Themes such as pedophilia, incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...
, and bestiality are discouraged by all publishers.
The market for erotic romances has grown rapidly. Ellora's Cave
Ellora's Cave was an independent erotic fiction publisher. It was launched in 2000, and initially published in e-book only format and later moved into print. Ellora's Cave published in several genres, which included but were not limited to adult r ...
, an electronic publisher that focuses on erotic romance, became the first electronic publisher recognized by the Romance Writers of America as a legitimate publisher. Ellora's Cave went out of business at the end of 2016. Several other smaller presses largely focused on erotic romance have also closed up shop, including Samhain Publishing (closed 2017) and Loose Id ''Loose Id'' is a single-movement composition for brass quintet and percussion—later expanded for orchestra—by the American composer Steven Bryant. The original brass quintet version premiered November 1995 at the University of North Texas and ...
(closed 2018). Changeling Press, focused on short-form erotic romance, is still publishing as of March, 2021.
Chick lit
Chick lit
Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...
or chick literature is named after the readership it attracts (women in their twenties and thirties), and it is said to be inspired by the 1996 novel ''Bridget Jones's Diary
''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies (writer), Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States and France, it is ...
''. Some of the dominant themes of chick lit are a single woman's journey through career, high-powered work environment, personal life, relationships, motherhood, and parenting. Some subcategories of this genre are baby lit and mummy lit.
Markets
North America
The romance fiction market "has been impervious to the overall economic recession, with faithful readers spending up to $40 a month" on romance novels in 1982.[
] That year, paperback romances totaled $300 million in sales, and the total audience was estimated at 20 million readers. A survey of 600 regular romance readers the same year "found that they mirror the general population in age, education, and marital and socioeconomic status." Over half of the women had at least some college education, and 40% were employed full-time. 60% of the women surveyed read at least one romance every two days. The women admitted to reading romances as an antidote to stress, for mental escape, and to learn about history and new careers.
at least 25% of all paperbacks were romance novels; by 1991, they comprised 46% of all mass market paperbacks sold in the US. This expansion was due in part to voracious readers, with over half of Harlequin's customers purchasing 30 novels per month. By this time, the romance novel audience had become more educated, with 45% having a college degree, and more than half of the audience worked outside the home.
By the 2000s, romance had become the most popular genre in modern literature. In 2008, romantic fiction generated $1.37 billion in sales, with 7,311 romance novels published and making up 13.5% of the consumer book market. Over 74 million people claimed to have read at least one romance novel in 2008, according to a Romance Writers of America study. The study reported that 9.5% of romance readers identified themselves as male, and that romance readers were more likely to be married or living with a partner. According to the RWA 84% of romance buyers were women and 16% were men. Of the entire American population, 24.6% read at least one romance novel in 2008.
International markets
74.8 million people read an English-language romance novel in 2008. Harlequin sells more than 4 books per second, half of them internationally. Author Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy ''License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaimed ...
attributes this to the fact that "emotions translate easily." In the United Kingdom, over 20% of all fiction books sold each year are romance novels.
Although romance novels are translated into over 90 languages, most authors of women's fiction are from Great Britain or North America. In France, where over 12 million romance novels are sold each year, all are translations, as are almost all Harlequin novels in Italy. Some publishing companies in Germany refuse to allow their romance authors to use their own names, fearing that readers will not buy a romance novel that does not have an American pseudonym.
The Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
perspective in the fiction at times can be much less successful in a European market. Although Italy is the strongest foreign market for the chick lit sold by single-title imprint Red Dress Ink, in that country romance readers do not care to read books about cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
s, as this type of occupation was not common in their culture. The paranormal romance genre is not popular in countries such as Poland and Russia, although historical romance tends to be very successful. Inspirational romance does not sell well in Europe, where romances that feature babies are very popular. German readers enjoy reading more erotic romance novels, and some German translations of English romance novels expand or insert love scenes into otherwise tame stories. The alternate scenario also occurs, as other German translators censor the love scenes.
As of 2014, romance is the most popular literary genre in Russia (chosen 13% of respondents), especially among the younger audience.
In 2004, sales of romance novels in Australia increased 28% over the year before. Between 1999 and 2004 there was an increase of 40–50% in the number of new titles released. Harlequin, which received 20,000 unsolicited manuscripts each year, found that women are 99% of romance readers.
Awards
The most prestigious and notable awards for romance novels are the RITA Awards, which are presented annually by the Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by incr ...
to the best novels in romantic fiction.
Another notable award is the Romantic Novel of the Year Award (RoNA) through the Romantic Novelists' Association
The Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) is the professional body that represents authors of romantic fiction in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1960 by Denise Robins (first president), Barbara Cartland (first vice-president), Vivian Stuart ...
.Romantic Novelist's Association Awards
/ref> The award is separated into categories:
* Contemporary Romance
* Historical Romance
* Romantic Comedy
* Fantasy Romance
* Romantic Thriller
* Romantic Saga
* Shorter Romantic Novel
* Debut Romance Novel
See also
*Amish romance
Amish romance is a literary subgenre of Christian fiction featuring Amish characters, but written and read mostly by evangelical Christian women. An industry term for Amish romance novels is "bonnet rippers" because most feature a woman in a bonne ...
*Charles Boon
Charles Boon (9 May 1877 – 2 December 1943) was a publisher who, along with Gerald Rusgrove Mills, founded the publishing company Mills & Boon in 1908.
Early life
Charles Boon was born on 9 May 1877 in London as the eldest of the six childre ...
* Dark romanticism
*List of romantic novelists
Notable novelists who specialise or specialised in writing romance novels include:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
V
W
X-Z
See also
* Lists of writers
The following are lists of writers: ...
*Gerald Rusgrove Mills
Gerald Rusgrove Mills (3 January 1877 – 23 September 1928) was a publisher who, along with Charles Boon, established the publishing company Mills & Boon in 1908. Early life
Gerald Rusgrove Mills was born on 3 January 1877 in Stourbridge as the ...
*Romance film
Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...
*Shakespearean comedy
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies; and modern scholars recognize a fourth category, ''romance'', to describe the specific types of comedy that appear in Sha ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Romance Novel." ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature''. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 1411-15
Further reading
*
* Roy, Pinaki. “''Bodice-ripper and Feminism'': A New Perspective”. ''Gender Issues in India: Challenges and Strategies''. Ed. Som, S. Kolkata: Rupali, 2017 (). pp. 6–13.
External links
{{Romance novel
Romance
Literary genres