It’s February; love is in the air! A dreary month caught in the middle of the winter hangover leftover from December’s holiday excitement, broken up by the lover’s excitement and extravagant experiences, chocolates, flowers and those obnoxious large teddy bears that somehow last until the end of time. One thing people don’t usually think about during the month of love and chocolates isbooks. Alas, books can be a tried and true source or romance. From Pride and Prejudice to Beach Read (which could also be counted as a beach’ read), we’ll be taking a look at how the “romantasy” trend has changed over the years, with readers grappling for the next installment of popular tropes, from “enemies to lovers” to “pining but definitely in love.”
Starting out in the historical novels of Jane Austen (1800s), strong female characters were often
at the forefront of her books, who fell in love with a dark, handsome stranger. This is a trope explored in her novel Pride and Prejudice. She also wrote favorites such as Emma and Northanger Abbey, books that didn’t necessarily star the main character falling in love, but rather showcased the strong female characters, such as Emma with her ever persistent matchmaking, or the imaginary stories of Catherine Moorland.
Of course, Jane Austen isn’t the only historical romance writer. Charlotte Brontë went a different
direction with Wuthering Heights. This famous novel was originally published under a
male pseudonym, because women during this time were not taken seriously as authors. This is something that many other female writers struggled with, including Emily Dickinson, the majority of whose works were published posthumously.
Cathy and Heathcliffe from Brontë’s Wuthering Heights remain popular characters today.As the centuries progress, the story grows ever more violent and unexpected, the elements taking their love with the next East Wind. This story became more popular with the Kate Bush song, ‘Wuthering Heights’- introducing this love story to a new generation.
Also to be noted is the romantic poetry of authors such as Lord Byron, who led a life not without scandal, but his poem “She Walks in Beauty” shows his romantic touch: “She walks in beauty, like the night/ of cloudless climbs and starry skies.” The Lakes poets and writers include Percy Shelley, with his famous works being “Mount Blanc” and “Ode to a Skylark”, just two of his 43 published poems.
Onto the future:
There is the newest popular book series Fourth Wing, about a dragon training school in the “high fantasy” genre, as well as the newest book that was just released this past weekend, Dark Onyx. And of course, you have your regular romance books, from author Emily Henry, such as Beach Read, Book Lovers, and Funny Story, all with their own variant of the romance novel trope.
It’s safe to say, then, that romantic literature is still high on the market, and with how much it’s
changed since the first few historical romance books, readers will surely continue to nab them off the shelves as time goes on, and every month of the year there will be new, exciting books for romance readers to devour.
