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Overview
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.
Synopsis
The Historical Romance explores the ways in which romance authors have sought to represent our fantasies of love since the first "cloak and dagger" tales captured the popular fiction market in the 1930s. The book explores how, with the social upheavals of war, these swashbucklers gave way to the female-oriented romances of Georgette Heyer and her successors, their qualities of fantasy and credibility and exaggerated romantic motifs representing the symbolic expression of women's concerns.
Hughes' study leads to the present day by exploring how authors as diverse as Conan Doyle and Barbara Cartland treat the question of female independence and how established attitudes about love, marriage, and women's sexuality have both been challenged and reaffirmed by more recent texts. Other themes include the abducted heroine and the disguised wounded hero; the romantic treatment of popular and revolutionary movements; and "Englishness," national identity and the First World War. The author also charts the ways in which the marketing of romance has developed since the beginning of the century, culminating in the explosion of the mass market. The Historical Romance unravels the formulaic and mythical nature of historical romance to provide a fascinating study of a highly popular genre.