A romance, or romantic novel, is a genre of fiction in which the main narrative focuses on the development of a romantic relationship between two or more characters within a story, often concluding in an emotionally satisfying ending.
Romance novels encompass numerous subgenres. While women have traditionally been considered the primary readers of romance novels, a 2017 study commissioned by the Romance Writers of America found that men accounted for 18% of romance book buyers
The genre of works retroactively referred to as "romance novels" existed as far back as Greece in the Roman era. Precursors can also be found in the literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson's sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) and the novels of Jane Austen. Austen inspired Georgette Heyer, the British author of historical romance set around Austen's lifetime, as well as detective fiction. Heyer's first romance novel, The Black Moth (1921), was set in 1751.
The British Publisher, Mills & Boon, shifted focus towards romance fiction during the 1930s. Beginning in 1957, its novels were distributed in North America by Harlequin Enterprises, which expanded reader access through their direct marketing and mass market retail distribution.
An early American example of a mass-market romance was Kathleen E. Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower (1972), published by Avon Books. This was the first single-title romance novel to be published as an original paperback in the US. In the United Kingdom, Georgette Heyer's novels played a significant role in the development of historical romance. Some later editions have been revised to remove or alter certain stereotypes.
Strong sales of popular romance novels have contributed to the genre becoming one of the largest segments of the global book market. Although romance fiction was popular beforehand, the market experienced significant growth during the 1970s, with the addition of more subcategories and an increased number of single-title romances, but authors started pushing the boundaries of genre and plot, as well as creating more contemporary characters.
Definition
According to the Romance Writers of America, 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 subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love. Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending."
Leslie Gelbman, a president of Berkley Books, defines the genre as stating that 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 states the romance genre in books "are about the celebration of falling in love and emotion and commitment, and all of those things we really want."
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 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.
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' meeting early on in the story), to avoiding themes (such as adultery). 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 (for example, Romeo and Juliet).
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, domestic violence, addiction, 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, the press claimed that "all [romance novels] seem to read alike." Stereotypes of the romance genre abound. For instance, some believe that all romance novels are similar to those of Danielle Steel, 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, and are the most popular form of modern erotica 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 or third person.
Although most romance novels are about heterosexual pairings, there are romance novels that deal with same-sex relationships, and some participants in the book industry characterize books dealing with same-sex relationships as F/F, and M/M.
While most romance novels end in happiness many famous literary fiction romance novels end tragically. Examples include: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
History Development
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, Daphnis and Chloe, The Ephesian Tale, and The Ethiopian Tale.
Precursors of the modern popular love-romance can also be found in the sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson, 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.Regis (2003), pp. 63, 64, 66 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, 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.
The Romance novelist, Maria Edgeworth, influenced Victorian era motifs and authors with many of her works including Belinda (1801) and Helen (1834). An admirer of Edgeworth, Jane Austen, further influenced the Romance genre and Victorian era with her novel Pride and Prejudice (1813), which was called "the best romance novel ever written."Regis (2003), p 75. In the early part of the Victorian era, the Brontë sisters, like Edgeworth and Austen, wrote literary fiction that influenced later popular fiction. While Maria Edgeworth introduced the orphaned heroine archetype in her Romantic works Belinda (1801) and Helen (1834), Charlotte Brontë later adapted the archetype for the Victorian audience in Jane Eyre (1847). Brontë's romance incorporates elements of both the gothic novel and Elizabethan drama, and "demonstrate[s] the flexibility of the romance novel form."Regis (2003), p. 85.
While the literary fiction romance continued to develop in the 20th century, the new subgenre of genre fiction started to become more popular after the First World War. In 1919, E. M. Hull's novel The Sheik was published in the United Kingdom. The protagonist of this book was termed an "alpha male" who kidnapped the heroine and won her admiration through his forceful rape. The novel was one of the first modern works to introduce the "bodice ripper" concept that focused primarily on rape fantasy, 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, as was customary practice up until challenged during the women's rights movement. In this novel and those that followed, the rape was presented as societally acceptable by the author and depicted as more of a projected personal fantasy; the heroine is rarely if ever shown experiencing terror, stress, or trauma as a result because the author did not assume women had independent thought or rights to consider.Regis (2003), pp. 115–117.
The mass market version of the historical romance, which Walter Scott developed in the early 19th century, is seen as beginning in 1921, when Georgette Heyer 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. Because Heyer's romances are set more than 100 years earlier, she includes carefully researched historical detail to help her readers understand the period.Regis (2003), pp. 125–126. 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.Regis (2003), p. 127. Heyer was a prolific author, and wrote one to two historical romance novels per year until her death in 1974.Regis (2003), p 125.
Chinese vernacular romance novels