Romance (prose Fiction)

The type of romance considered here is mainly the genre of novel defined by the novelist Walter Scott as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", in contrast to mainstream novels which realistically depict the state of a society. These works frequently, but not exclusively, take the form of the historical novel. Scott's novels are also frequently described as historical romances, and Northrop Frye suggested "the general principle that most 'historical novels' are romances". Scott describes romance as a "kindred term", and many European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is ''le roman'', ''der Roman'', ''il romanzo''".

There is second type of romance where the primary focus is on "romance", in the sense of love and marriage. Jane Austen wrote this type of romance. A strong love interest is also found in a very different type of literary fiction romance such as ''Wuthering Heights'' and ''Jane Eyre'', works that correspond more to Scott's definition of the romance genre than Austen's novels do. Literary fiction, in the book-trade, are novels that are regarded as having literary merit and can employ a variety of subgenres, including the love romance novel, the historical novel, the adventure novel, and scientific romance. Works of nautical fiction can also be romances, as the genre often overlaps with historical romance, adventure fiction, and fantasy stories. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'', suggests that the term "romance", as applied to literary fiction, is "now chiefly archaic and historical," and is now mainly used to refer to genre fiction love romances.

The terms "romance novel" and "historical romance" are ambiguous, because the words "romance", and "romantic", can have different meanings: for example, romance can refer to romantic love, or "the character or quality that makes something appeal strongly to the imagination, and sets it apart from the mundane; an air, feeling, or sense of wonder, mystery, and remoteness from everyday life; redolence or suggestion of, or association with, adventure, heroism, chivalry, etc.; mystique, glamour" (OED). The latter sense is associated with the Romantic movement, as well as to the medieval romance tradition. The gothic novel, and romanticism influenced the development of the modern literary romance. Hugh Walpole's gothic novels combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism. Romanticism influenced the romance through its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, and preference for the medieval rather than the classical; its emphasis on extremes of emotion and its reaction against the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment, and associated classical aesthetic values, were also a significant influence.

In addition to Walpole, Scott, and the Brontës other romance writers (as defined by Scott) include E. T. A. Hoffmann, Victor Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy. In the twentieth century, examples are, Joseph Conrad, John Cowper Powys, and more recently, J. R. R. Tolkien and A. S. Byatt, whose best-selling novel '' Possession: A Romance'' won the Booker Prize in 1990.

Though the modern literary romance has its beginnings in the eighteenth century, the genre has a long history that includes the ancient Greek novel and medieval romances.

Definition

The American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne described a romance as being radically different from a novel by not being concerned with the possible or probable course of ordinary experience.

The following are the two main definitions relating to literature found in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'':
* A fictitious narrative, usually in prose, in which the settings or the events depicted are remote from everyday life, or in which sensational or exciting events or adventures form the central theme; a book, etc., containing such a narrative. Now chiefly archaic and historical;
* A story of romantic love, esp. one which deals with love in a sentimental or idealized way; a book, film, etc., with a narrative or story of this kind. Also as mass noun: literature of this kind.

And in other words:
::With the rise of realism in the novel, the romance began to be considered a less serious and more frivolous genre, so that in the 20th century the term 'romantic novel' is often used disparagingly, to imply a contrast with a realist novel ... The term gradually came to mean any fiction remote from the conditions and concerns of everyday life. In this sense, romance is a broad term which can include or overlap with such genres as the historical novel or fantasy. In popular culture, however, a romance has come to mean specifically a love story, in which a happy ending follows a series of vicissitudes.

As noted above a relationship exists between romance and "fantasy", something which arises in particular because of the relationship between this type of novel and medieval chivalric romances.

The most common fantasy world is one based on medieval Europe, and has been since William Morris used it in his early fantasy works, such as ''The Well at the World's End''. and particularly since the 1954 publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Such a world is often called "pseudo-medieval"—particularly when the writer has snatched up random elements from the era, which covered a thousand years and a continent, and thrown them together without consideration for their compatibility, or even introduced ideas not so much based on the medieval era as on romanticized views of it. When these worlds are copied not so much from history as from other fantasy works, there is a heavy tendency to uniformity and lack of realism. The full width and breadth of the medieval era is seldom drawn upon. Governments, for instance, tend to be uncompromisingly feudal-based, or evil empires or oligarchies, usually corrupt, while there was far more variety of rule in the actual Middle Ages. Fantasy worlds also tend to be economically medieval, and disproportionately pastoral.

Medieval romance

As a literary genre of high culture, "heroic romance" or "chivalric romance" is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. The word ''medieval'' also evokes distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes. It developed further from the epics as time went on; in particular, "the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the ''chanson de geste'' and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates."

Later influence

Edward Dowden argued that Shakespeare's late comedies should be called "romances", because they resemble late medieval and early modern "chivalric romance".

The rise of the modern novel as an alternative to the chivalric romance began with Miguel de Cervantes, and, especially with, ''Don Quixote'' (1605, 1615). Initially seen as a comedy satirizing chivalry, in the 19th century it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell "whose side Cervantes was on". Many critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote's idealism and nobility are viewed by the post-chivalric world as insane, and are defeated and rendered useless by common reality.

While the modern literary fiction romance was influenced by medieval romance via the Gothic novel, and the interest of Romantic writers in the medieval period, William Morris and J. R. R. Tolkien were directly influenced by medieval literature. In the nineteenth century William Morris wrote a series of imaginative fictions usually referred to as the "prose romances", which were attempts to revive the genre of medieval romance, and written in imitation of medieval prose. These novels – including ''The Wood Beyond the World'' and ''The Well at the World's End'' – have been credited as important milestones in the history of fantasy fiction, because, while other writers wrote of foreign lands, or of dream worlds, or the future (as Morris did in ''News from Nowhere''),

Morris's works were the first to be set in an entirely invented fantasy world.Lin Carter, ed. ''Kingdoms of Sorcery'', p. 39 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976. On its publication, ''The Well at the World's End'' was praised by H. G. Wells