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The Historical Romance (Popular Fictions)
The Historical Romance - Popular Fictions Author:Helen Hughes 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... more » 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.« less