A Century of Dishonor


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The Historical Romance


Book Description

The Historical Romance explores the ways in which romance authors seek to represent our fantasies of life in the past. Examining how the cut-and-thrust swashbucklers of the 1930s gave way to female-orientated romances, Helen Hughes takes a comprehensive look at how romance authors have dealt with the turbulent question of female independence, and how traditional attitudes towards love, marriage and women's sexuality have been approached in more recent texts. Hughes also charts the ways in which the marketing of romance has developed, with the eventual explosion of the mass market and the blockbusting family sagas of the eighties. The Historical Romance unravels the formulaic and mythical nature of historical romance to provide a fascinating study of this highly popular genre.




Romance


Book Description

Romance: The History of a Genre is a collection of essays devoted to the highly popular and no less controversial genre of romance. A genre often disregarded for its stereotypical language, shallow characters, and predictable plots, dismissed as “women’s” fiction, accused of conventionalism, romance is a genre which, after ups and downs in its millennial history, is now holding a leading position on the international bookselling market. This achievement has also been possible with the endorsement of contemporary media and modern technology, cinema, television, the Internet, etc. Much has been written in both traditional and more recent literary theory about the origins and evolution of the early forms of romance, from the classical Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and into the Renaissance and early modernity in Western Europe. A corpus, which is becoming more and more substantial today, is already available about the gendered status of contemporary romance, both in terms of the writing ethos and in terms of reader response, with theories coming from the combined areas of feminism, social sciences, and psychoanalysis. The aim of the present volume is that of noting the fluid character of the genre, with the great number of subcategories, mixed and hybrid, bringing evidence to the polymorphous nature of contemporary popular culture. This book proposes, in four parts and twelve chapters, a fascinating and multifaceted journey into the history, substance and geography of romance. From its origins to the latest developments, from its subgenres to its features, from print to film, from television to Facebook, romance comes in various shapes and colours, which the reader can fully explore. The journey in the world of romance takes the reader from familiar corners to less familiar ones: from North America, Great Britain, Romania, or Turkey, to India or South Africa. The numerous approaches to romance generate diverse data, varied analytical frameworks and interesting, fresh and solidly grounded findings.




Historical Romance Fiction


Book Description

The first book-length study of romance novels to focus on issues of sexuality rather than gender, Historical Romance Fiction moves the ongoing debate about the value and appeal of heterosexual romance onto new ground, testing the claims of cutting-edge critical theorists on everything from popular classics by Georgette Heyer, to recent 'bodice rippers,' to historical fiction by John Fowles and A.S. Byatt. Beginning with her nomination of 'I love you' as the romance novel's defining speech act, Lisa Fletcher engages closely with speech-act theory and recent studies of performativity. The range of texts serves to illustrate Fletcher's definition of historical romance as a fictional mode dependent on the force and familiarity of the speech act, 'I love you', and permits Fletcher to provide a detailed account of the genre's history and development in both its popular and 'literary' manifestations. Written from a feminist and anti-homophobic perspective, Fletcher's subtle arguments about the romantic speech act serve to demonstrate the genre's dependence on repetition ('Romance can only quote') and the shaky ground on which the romance's heterosexual premise rests. Her exploration of the subgenre of cross-dressing novels is especially revealing in this regard. With its deft mix of theoretical arguments and suggestive close readings, Fletcher's book will appeal to specialists in genre, speech act and performativity theory, and gender studies.




The American Historical Romance


Book Description

This book traces the tradition of American historical fiction from its origins in the early nineteenth century to the eve of World War II. It examines the historical novel's connections with Enlightenment and Romantic theories of history; with the rise of literary regionalism; with the ambitions of Romantic writers to revive the epic and romance; with changing conceptions of gender roles; and with the authors' troubled responses to the great revolutionary and imperialistic conflicts of the modern era. However, though inevitably much concerned with the theory of genre and with the specific contents of the genre of historical romance, Professor Dekker devotes most of his book to new readings of major texts by James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Allen Tate, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and William Faulkner, as well as to the Briton whose name was synonymous with the genre for most of the nineteenth century - Sir Walter Scott. 'The American Historical Romance is the richest, most fully meditated and most rewarding yet written by this author ... It is the most important book on the relations of British and American fiction to come out for many years. No devotee of the American novel will ignore it.' -- The Times Literary Supplement




A Natural History of the Romance Novel


Book Description

The romance novel has the strange distinction of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. Scholars have alleged that romance novels help create subservient readers, who are largely women, by confining heroines to stories that ignore issues other than love and marriage. Pamela Regis argues that such critical studies fail to take into consideration the personal choice of readers, offer any true definition of the romance novel, or discuss the nature and scope of the genre. Presenting the counterclaim that the romance novel does not enslave women but, on the contrary, is about celebrating freedom and joy, Regis offers a definition that provides critics with an expanded vocabulary for discussing a genre that is both classic and contemporary, sexy and entertaining. Taking the stance that the popular romance novel is a work of literature with a brilliant pedigree, Regis asserts that it is also a very old, stable form. She traces the literary history of the romance novel from canonical works such as Richardson's Pamela through Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Brontë's Jane Eyre, and E. M. Hull's The Sheik, and then turns to more contemporary works such as the novels of Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Janet Dailey, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Nora Roberts.




Mara, Daughter of the Nile


Book Description

From a three-time Newbery Honoree and Edgar Award-winning author comes this compelling story of adventure, romance, and intrigue, set in ancient Egypt.




A Lady Awakened


Book Description

In Cecilia Grant’s emotionally rich and deeply passionate Regency romance debut, a deal with a rumored rogue turns a proper young woman into . . . A Lady Awakened. Newly widowed and desperate to protect her estate and beloved servants from her malevolent brother-in-law, Martha Russell conceives a daring plan. Or rather, a daring plan to conceive. After all, if she has an heir on the way, her future will be secured. Forsaking all she knows of propriety, Martha approaches her neighbor, a London exile with a wicked reputation, and offers a strictly business proposition: a month of illicit interludes . . . for a fee. Theophilus Mirkwood ought to be insulted. Should be appalled. But how can he resist this siren in widow’s weeds, whose offer is simply too outrageously tempting to decline? Determined she’ll get her money’s worth, Theo endeavors to awaken this shamefully neglected beauty to the pleasures of the flesh—only to find her dead set against taking any enjoyment in the scandalous bargain. Surely she can’t resist him forever. But could a lady’s sweet surrender open their hearts to the most unexpected arrival of all . . . love?




An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire


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Former lovers become reluctant allies in this delightfully witty historical rom-com from the bestselling author of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem—for fans of Evie Dunmore, Enola Holmes, and Netflix's Bridgerton! England, 1867: As half of the writing duo behind England’s most infamous crime column, Miss Caroline Hardcastle has quite the scandalous reputation. It may have cost her a fiancé, but she would much rather bring attention to crimes against those ignored by society than worry about what the ton thinks of her. After Caro’s dear friend is kidnapped, however, she has no choice but to work with Lord Valentine Thorn, the same man who broke her heart. Worse, when her actions put her father’s business at risk, a marriage of convenience may be her only solution . . . but can she trust Val to stand by her? Or will their past repeat itself? Val—the new Viscount Wrackham—is in an untenable position: His father is demanding he find a respectable bride to secure the succession. Yet the only woman he’s ever loved, Miss Caroline Hardcastle, is notorious for behaving improperly. And she’s never forgiven him for his youthful transgressions, missteps made in the name of familial duty, but ones he still regrets to this day. As they grow closer to unmasking the culprit, Val sees an opportunity to show Caro he’s a changed man. But can he convince her to give their love a second chance—before death does them part?




The Greatest Historical Romance Novels of All Time


Book Description

e-artnow presents to you the collection of the great love stories of the past, the best historical novels in one edition:_x000D_ Uarda: A Romance of Ancient Egypt (Georg Ebers)_x000D_ The New Abelard: Love in the Times of Cathedrals (Robert Williams Buchanan)_x000D_ Hildebrand: The Days of Queen Elizabeth (Anonymous) _x000D_ Love-at-Arms (Rafael Sabatini) _x000D_ The Making Of A Saint (W. Somerset Maugham) _x000D_ The Cloister and the Hearth (Charles Reade) _x000D_ The Princess of Cleves (Madame de La Fayette)_x000D_ The Forest Lovers (Maurice Hewlett) _x000D_ Malcolm (George MacDonald) _x000D_ Scarlet Letter: Love in the Colonial Period (Nathaniel Hawthorne) _x000D_ The Wild Irish Girl (Lady Sydney Morgan) _x000D_ Sophia (Stanley John Weyman) _x000D_ Paul and Virginia (Bernardin de Saint-Pierre) _x000D_ Memoirs of Emma Courtney (Mary Hays) _x000D_ Powder and Patch (Georgette Heyer)_x000D_ The Black Moth: A Romance of the XVIIIth Century (Georgette Heyer)_x000D_ The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (Eliza Haywood)_x000D_ Fantomina (Eliza Haywood)_x000D_ Olinda's Adventures (Catharine Trotter Cockburn)_x000D_ Belinda (Maria Edgeworth)_x000D_ Dangerous Liaisons (Pierre Choderlos de Laclos)_x000D_ Evelina (Fanny Burney)_x000D_ Pamela Trilogy_x000D_ Mary (Mary Wollstonecraft)_x000D_ Jane Austen:_x000D_ Pride & Prejudice_x000D_ Sense & Sensibility_x000D_ Mansfield Park_x000D_ Emma_x000D_ Persuasion_x000D_ Miss Marjoribanks & Phoebe, Junior (Mrs. Olifant)_x000D_ Vanity Fair (Thackeray)_x000D_ Mr. Rowl (D. K. Broster)_x000D_ The Battle of the Strong (Gilbert Parker)_x000D_ Kitty Alone (Sabine Baring-Gould) _x000D_ Sentimental Education (Gustave Flaubert) _x000D_ Lady Anna (Anthony Trollope)_x000D_ The Manoeuvring Mother (Lady Charlotte Bury)_x000D_ Ramona (Helen Hunt Jackson) _x000D_ Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)_x000D_ Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)_x000D_ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë)_x000D_ The Lady of the Camellias (Alexandre Dumas)_x000D_ The Portrait of a Lady & The Wings of the Dove (Henry James)_x000D_ Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)_x000D_ The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)_x000D_ Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)_x000D_ Bel Ami (Guy de Maupassant) _x000D_ The Squatter and the Don (María Ruiz de Burton) _x000D_ Maria Chapdelaine (Louis Hémon)_x000D_ The Four Feathers (A. E. W. Mason) _x000D_ The Miranda Trilogy (Grace Livingston Hill)_x000D_ The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)