Last month I blogged about class romance authors I wish would come back; in particular, I mentioned Judy Cuevas’ Bliss, which I’d recently read, and how it would be on my reading list for Romance Novels 101, assuming such a course ever existed (and that they would pull me out of the ranks of peons to teach it, of course).
So I decided to do some digging, and Googled “romance novels course.” And lo and behold, they exist! Kind of. The London School of Journalism, NYU, and Ryerson (in Toronto) offer romance novel creative writing, and some popular lit courses have romance components.
Even more exciting was seeing that Lauren Willig and Cara Elliott, aka Andrea Pickens, actually taught a seminar on historical romance novels at Yale in 2010, from Jane Austen and Heyer through Woodiwiss, McNaught, Kleypas, Chase, and Quinn. I can only imagine the finagling, sweet-talking, scowling, and outright determination that led to the course, but all I can say is I wish I could have been there. (One class even had an expert panel with Eloisa James. Dang it.)
Anyway, all of this got me thinking: If I taught an introductory university course on romance novels, what would I put on my reading list? I had to remember that as a course meant to highlight the general development of the romance novel, readings would be exemplary, representative, or seminal. So I might not like the book, and it may not even be very good, but it was probably important somehow.
I got some ideas from Willig and Elliott’s syllabus and list of required texts (scroll down) and also from Pamela Regis’ A Natural History of the Romance Novel. After hemming and hawing, here’s what my Romance Novels 101 Reading List would look like, in approximate chronological order:
The Classics
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Modern Mothers
- Frederica, Georgette Heyer
- Nine Coaches Waiting, Mary Stewart
- Danger to the Duke, Barbara Cartland
- The Flame and the Flower, Kathleen Woodiwiss
- Paradise, Judith McNaught
- Whitney, My Love, Judith McNaught
The 80s and 90s: Refining a Genre and Breaking the Rules
- Silver Wing, Cassie Edwards
- Dangerous Masquerade, Janet Dailey
- The Temporary Wife, Mary Balogh
- Cupid’s Kiss, Karen Harbaugh
- Carnal Innocence, Nora Roberts
- Then Came You, Lisa Kleypas
- The Duke and I, Julia Quinn
- Lord Perfect, Loretta Chase
- Kiss Me While I Sleep, Linda Howard
- The Unsung Hero, Suzanne Brockmann
With the exception of the last, I’m stopping in the mid-90s for two reasons. The first is that this list could get veeeeeeery long. The second is that I’ve deliberately omitted the more recent years, which includes not only historicals and contemporaries, but also the paranormals, M/M, inspirationals, etc. etc. I can’t decide, and even if I could, I wouldn’t in this space. (See reason #1.)
So I’ll turn it over to you. What do you think of my list so far? What else would you contribute? And would you ever take such a course? (My answer: Hell yes.)
– Jean AAR
I’ve been reading romance novels for over 20 years, since I was 12 and I’m very interested and excited to learn that there are romance writing courses in some schools today.
For the reading list, I would also include works of Barbara Cartland (I think she was one of the pioneers of te Regency rmance) and Emilie Loring.
A seminar comparing the different types of series romances over the years, like Mills and Boon, Loveswept, Silhouette etc.
A short course on the way romance novels have evolved to include heroes and heroines from different cultural backgrounds, a take-off from the predominant Caucasian-type characters that have been the staple in romances from before the 21st century.
It would also be interesting to include a topic on how romance novels have also been springing up in other countries/other languages. In my own country, the Philippines, there has been a growing market for romance novels written in our local vrnacular, Tagalog, featuring Filipino heroes and heroines.
I agree, Little Women was one of the most influential of American novels — right up there with The Last of the Mohicans, another great American romance.
Your Alcott suggestion, Elaine, makes me think of “”Little Women,”” which would be a very interesting book to teach in a class on the romance. It’s got multiple plot lines / love stories, with lots of interesting internal tension between them, and it’s been influential on a number of more recent authors, notably Eloisa James. (Also it’s one of my favorite books, and that always makes things fun in the classroom!)
I think I would have included one of Louisa May Alcott’s rip-roarers, but I understand why the list needs to be manageably short.
I was personally pleased to see The Unsung Hero in the list. I was a true genre changer.
JeanAAR,
Any possibility we could actually host a class like this for fun through the AAR Forums? Publish a reading list and then invite people to come in and discuss the “”book of the week”” or “”book of 2 weeks”” etc, with some guiding questions? I would love to help organize.
Nana, that’s a fabulous suggestion. We’ll cogitate on it.
that list looks very complete. However, my all time favorites would have to include LaVeryl Spencer and Sandra Brown.
I was wondering how Julia Quinn made it onto this list but you explained that choice perfectly.
Got to put Rosemary Rogers on the list though she and K Woodwiss were my introduction to romance novels (mills & Boon aside) after reading them there was no turning back.
Now that I mentioned Mills & Boon Anne Mather was my favorite she deserves mention too :-).
@Laura Vivanco and Eric Selinger – Thanks so much for all the links! This was really my first foray into the academic side of romance novels, and it’s fantastic to see that it is done. And a peer-reviewed journal! Even better.
@maggie b. – Yeah, the term “”romance”” has quite a few meanings. There are a lot of courses about romance as the state of the relationship, the artistic movement, and the more modern labelling of “”Romance Novel””. I think there are quite a few courses about the first two, which would include Walter Scott, Pamela, and other books in the 18th through early 20th century. But my focus would be on the Contemporary Romance Novel, with its labels and limitations. Just another perspective.
I’m in the “”hell yeah”” camp.
I agree with adding an older romance such as “”Ivanhoe””. There are plenty of medieval tales with strong elements of romance in them and one of them should be added to the curriculum. There are also plenty of much older myths, such as Cupid and Psych, which adhere to the ‘modern’ definiton of romance.
As for categories, there are several things that would need to be addressed:
1. “”Anyone but You”” by Jennifer Crusie would address breaking the rules (older woman/younger man and not kids!) It would also illustrate how presend day bestselling authors learned their craft in the shorter format.
2. Any novel by Betty Neals, Charlotte Lamb or any of the other classic category writers would illustrate the older alpha male / young innocent girl pattern that’s now being carried out in paranormal romances under the guise of “”vamp/were/whatever”” male and human woman.
I’d take a class like this, although I’ve read few of the 80″”s romances. I only started reading romances a few years ago and I seem to have enough recent books to keep me more than busy. The relatively few 80’s books I’ve read have been a mixed bag for me.
Personally, I’d add Jayne Ann Krentz’s Lost Colony Trilogy to the list, or at least Sweet Starfire. I believe I read that it flopped in the 80’s and forced her to change pen name to get something else published. (I could be wrong, so forgive me if I am.) However, these three books stand up very well 25 years later, feeling neither dated or cliched. With science fiction romance starting to make it’s mark as a viable romance sub-genre, it seems this trilogy by Krentz was definitely ahead of its time. It would be interesting to see if these books were at all inspirational to present day SFR writers.
OH, and I just recently purchased “”New Approaches to Popular Romantic Fiction”” by Sarah Frantz and Eric Selinger. It looks like a great introduction to the world of romance writing and reading in the world today.
I think I would go a different route with my course simply because I believe people have read romances for hundreds of years and it is only our fairly recent obsession with labeling things that has broken them out from the crowd. “”Ivanhoe”” for example, was to me primarily a romance. Much of the plot circles around Rowena and Rebecca. This is different than many other novels of that time period, which centerred around the adventure.
Then we act as though between the Austen/Eyre period romance died for a hundred years. Grace Livingston Hill wrote romances that sold and sold well in the early part of the 20th century. Emilie Loring did so as well. I am certain there are many others. So if I did do such a class I would want to look at romance through the ages and highlight which popular novels were really romances.