When I was a kid I consumed a lot of historical romances aka bodice rippers. You know – books with handsome, muscled men and beautiful virginal women with breasts falling out of their dresses on the cover. I believe Fabio featured as the model on many of those covers back in the day.
I was partial to Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers. These were authors that my mother read and, shockingly, there was a lot of s-e-x. And even more euphemisms. All I really remember about the books was was that the sex was pretty graphic, and having had no real-life experience, pretty um…wow.
My grandmother was a big consumer of Harlequins, but I never really liked them all that much. After reading Rogers and Woodiwiss, the stories seemed rather tame by comparison. I was no longer a romance virgin and I wanted the good stuff. (Even though I was clearly too young to know what the “good stuff” was, exactly.)
In my early twenties I discovered LaVyrle Spencer and I still remember the day I started reading her novel Morning Glory. I fell totally under Ms. Spencer’s thrall and read into the wee hours of the morning. I consumed several more of her novels after that before I sort of tired of the genre.
Many of my friends would call me a romantic and yeah, okay, I’d probably say the same thing about myself. I suppose I only have these books to blame. Where else would I get the idea that some big strappin’ hunk of guy was going to swoop into my life and make everything better? Of course, I now realize it’s ridiculous – and I am perfectly capable of looking after myself and have been for years – but still {insert sigh}. Those breeches. That hair. Those muscles. {shakes head} Sorry. Ridiculous. Of course, I’d want an equal partner in everything and modern romance novels get that, I think. Women don’t need men to complete them.
Back on Valentine’s Day, I did a huge post about romance – the most romantic moments in fiction (including tv and movies because those characters had to be written before they hit the screen.) Revisit let’s talk about love.
Stylist.co.uk just posted a list of the Top 50 Most Romantic Lines from Fiction. I’d love to hear your favourites.
The Ludic Reader 