Romance (prose fiction)

The type of romance considered here is mainly the genre of novel defined by the novelist Walter Scott as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", in contrast to mainstream novels which realistically depict the state of a society.^[1] These works frequently, but not exclusively, take the form of the historical novel. Scott's novels are also frequently described as historical romances,^[2] and Northrop Frye suggested "the general principle that most 'historical novels' are romances".^[3] Scott describes romance as a "kindred term",^[4] and many European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo".^[5]

There is second type of romance where the primary focus is on "romance", in the sense of love and marriage. Jane Austen wrote this type of romance. A strong love interest is also found in a very different type of literary fiction romance such as Wuthering Heights^[6] and Jane Eyre,^[7]^[8] works that correspond more to Scott's definition of the romance genre than Austen's novels do. Literary fiction, in the book-trade, are novels that are regarded as having literary merit and can employ a variety of subgenres, including the love romance novel, the historical novel, the adventure novel, and scientific romance. Works of nautical fiction can also be romances, as the genre often overlaps with historical romance, adventure fiction, and fantasy stories. The Oxford English Dictionary, suggests that the term "romance", as applied to literary fiction, is "now chiefly archaic and historical," and is now mainly used to refer to genre fiction love romances.

The terms "romance novel" and "historical romance" are ambiguous, because the words "romance", and "romantic", can have different meanings: for example, romance can refer to romantic love, or "the character or quality that makes something appeal strongly to the imagination, and sets it apart from the mundane; an air, feeling, or sense of wonder, mystery, and remoteness from everyday life; redolence or suggestion of, or association with, adventure, heroism, chivalry, etc.; mystique, glamour" (OED). The latter sense is associated with the Romantic movement, as well as to the medieval romance tradition.^[9] The gothic novel, and romanticism influenced the development of the modern literary romance. Hugh Walpole's gothic novels combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism.^[10] Romanticism influenced the romance through its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, and preference for the medieval rather than the classical; its emphasis on extremes of emotion and its reaction against the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment, and associated classical aesthetic values, were also a significant influence.^[11]

In addition to Walpole, Scott, and the Brontës other romance writers (as defined by Scott) include E. T. A. Hoffmann, Victor Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy. In the twentieth century, examples are, Joseph Conrad, John Cowper Powys, and more recently, J. R. R. Tolkien and A. S. Byatt, whose best-selling novel Possession: A Romance won the Booker Prize in 1990.

Though the modern literary romance has its beginnings in the eighteenth century, the genre has a long history that includes the ancient Greek novel and medieval romances.^[12]

^ "Essay on Romance", Prose Works volume vi, p. 129, quoted in "Introduction" to Walter Scott's Quentin Durward, ed. Susan Maning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xxv.
^ J. A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory,4th edition, revised C. E. Preston. London: Penguin, 1999, p. 761>
^ Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism (1957). New York: Atheneum, 1966, p. 307.
^ Walter Scott, "Essay on Romance", p. 129.
^ Margaret Anne Doody. The True Story of the Novel. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, p. 15.
^ Margaret Doody, p. 19.
^ Timothy Roberts, (2011). Jane Eyre. p. 8
^ Pamela Regis. A Natural History of the Romance Novel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003
^ David Punter, The Gothic, London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, p. 178.
^ David Punter, The Gothic, p. 178.
^ "Romanticism" in Britannica online
^ Margaret Anne Doody. "Introduction", The True Story of the Novel, pp. 1-11.

[1] "Essay on Romance", Prose Works volume vi, p. 129, quoted in "Introduction" to Walter Scott's Quentin Durward, ed. Susan Maning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xxv.

[2] J. A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory,4th edition, revised C. E. Preston. London: Penguin, 1999, p. 761>

[3] Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism (1957). New York: Atheneum, 1966, p. 307.

[4] Walter Scott, "Essay on Romance", p. 129.

[5] Margaret Anne Doody. The True Story of the Novel. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, p. 15.

[6] Margaret Doody, p. 19.

[7] Timothy Roberts, (2011). Jane Eyre. p. 8

[8] Pamela Regis. A Natural History of the Romance Novel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003

[9] David Punter, The Gothic, London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, p. 178.

[10] David Punter, The Gothic, p. 178.

[11] "Romanticism" in Britannica online

[12] Margaret Anne Doody. "Introduction", The True Story of the Novel, pp. 1-11.

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