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  • A Natural History of the Romance Novel

  • By: Pamela Regis
  • Narrated by: Rosemary Benson
  • Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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A Natural History of the Romance Novel

By: Pamela Regis
Narrated by: Rosemary Benson
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Publisher's summary

The romance novel has the strange distinction of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. Scholars have alleged that romance novels help create subservient readers, who are largely women, by confining heroines to stories that ignore issues other than love and marriage.

Pamela Regis argues that such critical studies fail to take into consideration the personal choice of readers, offer any true definition of the romance novel, or discuss the nature and scope of the genre. Presenting the counterclaim that the romance novel does not enslave women but, on the contrary, is about celebrating freedom and joy, Regis offers a definition that provides critics with an expanded vocabulary for discussing a genre that is both classic and contemporary, sexy and entertaining.

Taking the stance that the popular romance novel is a work of literature with a brilliant pedigree, Regis asserts that it is also a very old, stable form. She traces the literary history of the romance novel from canonical works such as Richardson's Pamela through Austen's Pride and Prejudice,Brontë's Jane Eyre, and E. M. Hull's The Sheik, and then turns to more contemporary works such as the novels of Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Janet Dailey, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Nora Roberts.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.

©2003 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks
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Critic reviews

“A thorough, sensible, and partisan book, arguing for romantic fiction as a genre that celebrates freedom of choice.” ( Times Literary Supplement)
“This volume joins such noteworthy examinations of the romance as Tania Modleski's Loving with a Vengeance and Janice Radway's Reading the Romance.” ( Choice)
“Finally, a true and insightful history of the romance novel. This book establishes the historical legitimacy of an important literary genre.” (Jayne Ann Krentz)

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A Mamsplain

Warning! Warning! Warning! This book is not what it claims to be. It is not in any sense a "natural history" of the romance novel. This book, A Natural History of the Romance Novel, is actually a kind of 2-D outline and defense of those crusty romances you are likely to find in your dead grandmother's basement. Sorry gran but we burned them, lest they spontaneously combust and burn the house down due to their heated content! Regis's style of writing comes across as cantankerous, repetitive, patronizing, and Rosemary Benson does a great job in sounding like Regis, or that obnoxious species of American lady who is forever demanding that she is always right. Regis's argument, namely that the romance novel is basically about freedom, lacks depth and is marked by a very slanted reading of primary and secondary literature. Nevertheless, this audiobook did make me laugh a lot, but probably at things i should not have been laughing at. Moreover, it is the only audible work of literary criticism on the romance novel you will find here. So I recommend it, but in the same way one recommends raw meat in a cave where they have not invented fire.

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