Fifty Shades of Romance

Instead of deciding on one book, our book club went a different route this year. We choose one ‘genre’ per month and each member chooses a book of this type and reports on it. We do a summary at the end of the session and have a whole range of choices to explore. This month, the club worked on the romance novel. It was, for me, a liberal education.

I once had a course on the history of the novel in university. That being the direction of my mind, I went looking for a summary of romance novel writing, and found an interesting essay. Here is the URL, influential-romance-novels, if you would like to see the whole thing. (The list is added at the end of this post). What this essay did, essentially, was trace the history of the romance novel, giving an author and one of the author’s books for each type. The essay’s breadth was intriguing, as were some of the synopses and so I decided to read books from the types listed. 

Although her books are too early for the list, the most influential romance writer of our era is, without argument, Jane Austen. Her Pride and Prejudice is a masterwork, both in language and in plot and suspense, ending in a delicate denouement. Feisty and ineligible female scorns tall, dark and handsome man who, rich and endowed, first despises her and then learns to love her. There is a lot of word play between them. There is a problem with her sister that he resolves, and she learns to love him. So popular, indeed, is this plot that two out of every three (and maybe more, I didn’t count carefully) books in the Influential list retell it. And her works are, of course, regency romances since she wrote them during the Regency period.

I have read all of Georgette Heyer’s regency romances over the years. She uses Austen’s plot with a liberal hand. And a lot of her books are to a theme, cut and paste, written quickly for the money. Although she writes well. But, every once in a while, she turns things around. In what I think is her best book, A Civil Contract, a dowdy and hopelessly outclassed girl loves in silence while the man she adores is in love with her beautiful and volatile friend. But then economic disaster strikes the hero and to save his place in society, the dowdy girl marries him, bringing him a dowry of riches. The story then follows their struggles to adapt to one another and ends with her realization that the companionship of married life is her reward. There is a sister in the story who also ends up happily ever after.

Chugging along through the list, I note that I have probably read a Burchell, I own and have read all of Mary Stewart’s well plotted and described ‘love with a problem’ books, and I screech to a stop at Merrick. Gay and lesbian lovers? Goodness me. Right. I find carefully edited and quite proper lovers. Austen could not have been more correct.

And I am off into the ‘bodice ripper’ list, but am soon distracted by the entrance of Americans, blacks, and more lesbians. Then there is Nora Roberts. Everyone has picked up one of her books somewhere and ended up reading it. More scornful and enchanting heroines. More tall, dark and handsome men. A lot more. She brought potboiling to a science. The list continues with sci fi and sports romance. I skip these. And pick up the black protagonist theme again with Indigo. This is a thoroughly good and interesting book, and most of the sex scenes do have some purpose being there. It also has a lot of good data on the Underground Railroad and how it worked, at least in the first part of the story.

But what is intriguing me is that Fifty Shades of Grey is on the list. I had not read it and have always dismissed it as porn and not worth the bother. But most of the books in this list have had a good reason to be there. And so I decide to skip to Fifty Shades. And I find out that a copy of the book is in the house and has been for a long time. Also all three of the movies. Okay. Now I have to read the thing. And I do. 

And it has a plot, and suspense and is pretty well written. Now the plot is this: feisty and ineligible female falls at the feet of tall, red-haired and handsome man who, rich and endowed, learns to love her. There is a problem with his sister that she resolves and she learns to love him. She also gets pregnant, but after the wedding where Austen would have left her. The retelling from his point of view fills another three books, but I am not sure that there are movies about those books. Not yet, anyway. Mostly the hero and heroine communicate by having sex, kinky or otherwise. But there is a point to the sex. Tall and red-haired has an horrific past and PTSD, and sex is his reassurance and way of communicating. Feisty and plain ugly duckling turns into a swan, and can match him in sex play, thus saving  him from a sad and sterile existence. You can read the book for the mild S and M, but there is characterization, suspense and depth to the story. And a purpose to some, at least, of the sex scenes.

It has been, as my father was fond of quoting, a learning experience. I find myself wondering just what kind of book Jane Austen could write if she had the licence the twenty-first century offers authors. Feisty and lusty heroine …

Sad that we will never know. Or is it?

THE 20 MOST INFLUENTIAL ROMANCE NOVELS OF THE LAST 100 YEARS

• THE SHEIK BY EDITH M. HULL (1919)
• This massively popular book created a huge interest in the “desert romance” trope. The Sheik was clearly a trendsetting romance novel at the time, along with serving as inspiration for the rise of bodice rippers in the 1970s.
• REGENCY BUCK BY GEORGETTE HEYER (1935)
• For almost 100 years, Regency romances have dominated the historical romance market
• HOSPITAL CORRIDORS BY MARY BURCHELL (1958)
• No category of romance was more popular at the time than doctor/nurse pairings (although pilot/stewardess romances might have been a close second
• THE MOON-SPINNERS BY MARY STEWART (1962)
• Mary Stewart helped define the romantic suspense genre
• THE LORD WON’T MIND BY GORDON MERRICK (1970)
• At a time when most lesbian and gay characters in books had tragic endings, Gordon Merrick ignored publishers’ advice and gave his lovers, Charlie and Peter, a happy ending
• THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER BY KATHLEEN E. WOODIWISS (1972)
• This novel basically invented the “Bodice Ripper” category of romance. It’s also considered to be the first sexually explicit romance, where sex happens on the page.
• NO QUARTER ASKED BY JANET DAILY (1974)
• Janet Dailey’s No Quarter Asked signaled a big shift from romance novels being primarily British and European to the rise in American romance novels. This was the first novel set in America by an American.
• LOVING HER BY ANN SHOCKLEY (1974)
• This book stands out for several reasons. The happy ending in a queer novel was still quite unusual for this time. It is also the first known interracial lesbian romance which brings intersectionality to the genre.
• ADAM AND EVA BY SANDRA KITT (1984)
• Entwined Destinies by Rosalind Welles is known as the first romance novel by a Black author to feature Black characters. But Sandra Kitt was the first Black romance author to publish with Harlequin and build a romance writing career with over 25 books.
• PLAYING THE ODDS BY NORA ROBERTS (1985)
• She’s kind of in her own class when it comes to influential romance novels. She didn’t create a new category, genre, or trope within romance. But by writing dependably wonderful romance novels in many categories, she expanded the readership greatly
• SWEET STARFIRE BY JAYNE ANN KRENTZ (1986)
• Sweet Starfire is known as the first futuristic romance published by a mainstream publisher.
• IT HAD TO BE YOU BY SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS (1994)
• Her Chicago Stars series, starting with this book, brought the idea of sports romance novels into the market.
• DREAMING OF YOU BY LISA KLEYPAS (1995)
• This reversal in class dynamics, the agency of the heroine, and the emphasis on female friendship all represent an influential shift in historical romance.
• INDIGO BY BEVERLY JENKINS (1996)
• her historical romances have been hugely influential within romance history.
• BET ME BY JENNIFER CRUSIE (2004)
• Written by a romance fiction scholar, Bet Me challenged the overwhelming norm of romance novel heroines being thin and conventionally attractive.
• SLAVE TO SENSATION BY NALINI SINGH (2006)
• Nalini Singh began writing paranormal romance before the YA novel Twilight made the genre explode in popularity. It also combined science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal elements in new and innovative ways.
• IRRESISTIBLE FORCES BY BRENDA JACKSON (2008)
• Irresistible Forces marked the first Black romance novel to hit The New York Times Best Seller list.
• BUTTERFLY SWORDS BY JEANNIE LIN (2010)
• Jeannie Lin’s debut novel won the Golden Heart award for historical fiction from the Romance Writers of America. Set in Tang Dynasty China, her books show a move away from historical romance taking place in just Europe and America.
• FIFTY SHADES OF GREY BY E.L. JAMES (2011)
• Some people hate Fifty Shades of Grey or will argue it doesn’t belong in the romance category. But, as evidenced by it selling over 100 million copies, a lot of people love the book too, and its impact on romance novels and the market is apparent.
• THE KISS QUOTIENT BY HELEN HOANG (2018)
• The book is hilarious, sexy, and so romantic. It also marked a turning point for diversity in romance, with an intersectional story combining representation around race, disability, and sex workers with depth and nuance.