Romance novels generally are categorized as either single title romances or category romances. What is arguably the greatest of all romance novels, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), was a single title romance. The archetype of modern romance fiction, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), also was a single title romance.
Category romances, though, probably are what most people think of what they think of romance novels. These are short works (rarely more than 200 pages), which usually are published in some sort of series, often at the rate of several per month. They are widely available at grocery stores, airports and the like, as well as through various book clubs. The largest publisher of category romances, Harlequin, offers devoted readers of such romances substantial discounts through its website.
Category romances (first published by Mills & Boon in the 1930s) generally are what the critics are dissing when they work up a good lather. Because of the novella format (generally no more than 55,000 words), category romances have to do away with extensive character development, subplots, etc. Because the major publishers have specific guidelines for the elements which go into each of their category romances, the term "formulaic" certainly is appropriate.
But it is precisely this formulae which historians of the book find interesting. How such formulas are established, and how such formulas change over time, give historians of the book insight into the culture(s) for which such books are published. Other elements of romance fiction, such as how the cover art for such fiction has changed over time, also provide such insight.
A comprehensive collection of romance fiction would be a goldmine for book historians, allowing them to plot, among other items of interest: when such fiction quit depicting heroines as having to give up their careers in order to get married and have children (ca. 1970); the context within which the first line of multicultural romance novels was released (Arabesque, Kensington Books, 1994); when romance novels first followed protagonists into the bedroom (1972, Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower); when romance novels waived the requirement that the heroine be a virgin (1980, Amii Lorin's The Tawny Gold Man):
These shifts in what publishers found to be permissible elements in romance fiction are tracked by the cover art that graces such fiction, which has gone from demure to aggressively erotic over the years.
A good bit of romance fiction is now published in hardback, so if you dislike the extra work it will take to keep paperbacks in Fine condition, you can still collect the genre. (Hardback romance novels were published as early as the 1930s, when Mill & Boon published their "books in brown," category romances that were published weekly and sold through "two-penny libraries" in a uniform brown cloth binding.)
Whether you collect this fiction for its cover art, or for its potential scholarly interest, or simply because you enjoy the genre...you will have lots of company!
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