The Form of Romance Novels

Kensington Cluff

Mrs. Miller

English 12

11 November 2013

The Romance Novel

"It is a truth universally acknowledged..." that romance novels are one of the most popular genres, especially among women. Romance was the top-performing category on best-seller lists in 2012, generating 1.438 billion dollars in sales. The genre that began with Pamela, was epitomized by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and has become one of the top-selling genres in the United States, has changed only slightly over time, remaining basically true to its original form.

But what is the original form of a romance novel? And what is a romance novel? We use the term often enough, but what does it actually mean? In her book A Natural History of the Romance Novel, Pamela Regis defines a romance novel as “a work of prose fiction that tells the story of the courtship and betrothal of one or more heroines (14).” Also in her book, Ms. Regis gives eight parts that all romance novels have:

“... a definition of society, always corrupt, that the romance novel will reform; the meeting between the heroine and hero; an account of their attraction for each other; the barrier between them; the point of ritual death; the recognition that fells the barrier; the declaration of heroine and hero that they love each other; and their betrothal (14).”

These eight parts make up the typical form of the romance novel. Meaning that, in one way or another, these six parts are in all romance novels, whatever their subject and whenever they were written. Another topic that appears in most romance novels is the feminist angle, the idea that women should be able to “choose marriage partners for personal, relational reasons rather than for familial, economic one...

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...c romantic form still applies.

Whether reading modern literature like Harry Potter or a more classic novel like Pride and Prejudice, the same basic form has prevailed in romance novels. Changes have occurred in language, content, etc, but the idea remains the same, and can be traced back, like a family reunion where they all have the same nose and many have the same hair as well.

Works Cited

Charles H. Hinnant. "Jane Austen's "Wild Imagination": Romance and the Courtship Plot in the Six Canonical Novels." Narrative 14.3 (2006): 294-310. Project MUSE. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

Green, Katherine S. The Courtship Novel: 1740-1820; a Feminized Genre. University Press of Kentucky, 1991. Print.

Regis, Pamela. A natural history of the romance novel. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. Print.

Richardson, Samuel. Pamela: or, Virtue rewarded. WW Norton & Company, 1958. Print.