The History of Romance

Defining the Genre

    Despite being a billion dollar industry (Cameron, 2020), romance as a genre has never had the respect that it deserves. In 2023 alone, the romance genre generated more than $1.44 billion in revenue which makes romance the “highest earning genre of fiction” (Curcic, 2023). This genre is known for consisting of two main concepts: a central love story and a “happily ever after”. With such a wide variety of subgenres, romance has a plethora of characters, settings, plots, and moods for just about any reader. While loyal romance readers can easily see all the positives one can gain from reading romance, there are many out there who do not believe romance to be a valuable genre at all. For over 200 years the romance genre has continued to grow and evolve to be the best selling genre that it is today.   

History of the Romance Novel

    The first novel to be considered part of the romance genre was Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, published in 1740 (Cameron, 2020). Not only was this the first book to have a love story that concluded in a “happily ever after”, it was also the first novel to be told solely from a female’s point of view. This novel was extremely problematic according to today's views. The novel is about 15 year old maidservant, Pamela, who is continuously threatened of sexual assault by her employer, Mr. B (Wills, 2018). The heroine in this novel deals with numerous unwanted and unsuccessful attempts at seduction and because Pamela is successful at fending off Mr. B’s advances, her virtue is rewarded by marriage to Mr. B.

    Once the 19050's and 1960's hit, readers began to see more stories taking place in exotic locations and centering around women who found careers outside of the typical housewife and motherhood that was expected of women in those days (Pagan, 2019). Then, in the 1970's Gordon Merrick published the first best selling gay romance, The Lord Won't Mind. The 70's also saw the first publication of what we know as a bodice ripper novel. Up to this point in history there hadn't been much explicit sexual content in romance novels but that all changed with the publication of The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.

    Romance in the 21st century has steadily shifted to more accurately reflect current times. We have more diverse relationships, independent female characters, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. Women are turning to romance novels because they can relate to the characters, the stories give them hope, and the “happily ever after's” are a great escape when the world seems too brutal.

Conclusions

    Olivia Tapper’s (2014) article about twenty first century publishing theorizes that there are two reasons that the romance genre is doing so well. The first is the publisher's willingness to diversify. The second is the abundance of subgenres that have popped up in recent years. I think both of these things strongly contribute to the growing number of romance readers. If romance continues to become more diverse and inclusive, I imagine that the genre will continue to grow and gain followers. While there are still critics of the genre today, I believe that those critics' opinions are becoming less and less important to romance genre fans. Large romance fan groups can be found on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Goodreads. Book clubs and even entire book stores dedicated specifically to romance books are becoming more common. As more people embrace romance novels and ignore the judgment that comes from those who look down on the genre, the less power those criticisms have. Hopefully over time we won’t have so many negative voices present. 

Resources

Cameron, L. (2020). The Romance Publishing Industry and Its Reputation. Publishing Research    Quarterly, 36(1), 1–16. https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/10.1007/s12109-019-09703-2

Curcic, D. (2023, October 9). Romance novel sales statistics. WordsRated. https://wordsrated.com/romance-novel-sales-statistics/

Pagan, A. (2019, February 15). A brief history of the romance novel. The New York Public Library. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/02/15/brief-history-romance-novel-recommendations

Tapper, O. (2014). Romance and Innovation in Twenty-First Century Publishing. Publishing Research Quarterly, 30(2), 249–259. https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/10.1007/s12109-014-9363-6

Wills, Matthew. (2018, January 11). Why the first novel created such a stir. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/why-the-first-novel-created-such-a-stir/