Romance Novels - The Most Popular Genre of Literature Today

While many would find fault with the above title, the claim that romance novels are a form of literature, the fact remains that more romances are read than any other genre in North America. This has been the case since 2004 when fifty five percent of all paperback books sold were in the romance category.

That's an incredible amount of books, and surely a vast array of people reading them. But here again, there seems to be an unwillingness to accept that facts. Why? Because many like to claim that only women who are single, desperately unhappy or just desperate, and let's not forget uneducated, are the only people who read romances in any form. And this is despite reams of data that disputes these claims.

So, what does the data show? That women and men from all walks of life, from the poverty stricken to the wealthy, from the uneducated to the over educated, from single people and those involved in fulfilling, long term relationships, from the unemployed to those who are top grade professionals, read romances.

Romance novels are also looked upon with a degree of derision. Many say, and I will admit that in some cases there is a degree of true in this, that these types of books simply follow a formula. That if you've read one, you've read them all. But that can be said for many mainstream, New York Times bestsellers as well. There are mainstream authors that I refuse to read anymore, because the plot is exactly the same in each and every one of their novels.

But for those who like to read a good romance for whatever the reason, the good news is that there is an endless stream of them available. And there is something to fulfill every taste. Romantic suspense, romantic comedy, western romances and so on. The sub-genres of the romance category are many and varied.

So, do you like to read romances?

If so, you can find free romance ebooks and free romance stories at our two sites.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Gothic Novel and the Development of the Genre in English Literature

Gothic Novel is a type of romantic fiction. It was predominant in English literature around the late 18th century to the first two decades of the 19th century. The setting for the fiction was usually a ruined Gothic castle. The typical story of such romantic fiction revolved around the suffering of an innocent woman inflected by a cruel villain. The writers used ghosts and other supernatural occurrences. The main intend of such novels was to evoke chilling terror by skillfully using mystery and horror.

The Term Gothic Applied for:

1. The Gothic novel was also considered as Gothic romance.

2. The term Gothic is also employed to designate narrative poetry or prose of which the major elements are horror, violence, and the supernatural.

3. The selection of the locale was usually a haunted castle with dungeons, underground passages, ghost-haunted rooms, and secret stairways that produced great amount of awe, wonder and fear.

The genre was nothing but a phase of the literary movement of romanticism in English literature. It was also the precursor of the modern mystery novel.

The Major writers of the Gothic Romance:

It was Horace Walpole who inaugurated the Gothic romance. He wrote The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764). Other major writers were Clara Reeve, who wrote The Champion of Virtue (1777); Ann Radcliffe, who wrote The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794); Charles Robert Maturin, who wrote The Fatal Revenge (1807); and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley who wrote Frankenstein (1818).

The American professional novelist Charles Brockden Brown is known for his Gothic romances. Other American writers such as Henry James, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor used Gothic elements in their fiction. The late 20th century American novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice in their works show the sustained influence and popularity of this Gothic form.

Rakesh Patel is an aspiring poet, freelance writer, self-published author and teacher. Read his blog http://englishliterature99.wordpress.com/

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.