Romances as Rare Books

Romney, Rebecca's The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769-1999 is now available both in a limited edition signed hardcover of 500 copies (TypePunch Matrix) and as a free downloadable pdf.

I was lucky to have a preview of this before it went online. The survey is a sales catalogue: the hope is that a university library will purchase all the lots and thus instantly acquire a significant romance collection. If Romney's hopes are realised, this will obviously be a signal that romance is being increasingly recognised within academia. Even if it is not, however, the publication of this catalogue is an important indication of the (literal as well as literary and cultural) value inherent in these novels.

It's also an interesting and quick overview of the development of the genre and its many subgenres.

Stereotypes of Romance Readers and their Effects

This "presentation is about how romance novels and readers are perceived, not reality." Andrea Martucci used the fact that the Bridgerton screen adaptation of a Julia Quinn novel introduced many people to romance, to discover more about attitudes towards romance novels, romance readers, and what happens when someone with a negative perception of both discovers that they actually like reading romances!

Andrea Martucci gave this presentation at the PCA/ACA conference this year with the title "Romance Reader Stereotypes: Will Bridgerton Change Popular Perceptions About Romance Novels?" She writes that this 

video version of my Pop Culture Association presentation, recently presented at #PCARomance [...] is just one tiny slice of the research I did. I'll be touching on other aspects of the research in future episodes of the podcast. (Twitter)

Her Shelf Love podcast can be found here.

 

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