Reader I Married Him

I watched a very interesting programme last night called Reader I Married Him. It was all about romantic novels and their mass appeal. It got me thinking as to what exactly constitutes a romantic novel. For example, Summerset would be classed as a romantic novel as the story centres around the love affair between Lou and Andrew but Mad About the Boy for example has romance in it, but it doesn’t constitute the whole story and yet I guess it would still be lumped into the romance genre, but I wonder if that’s more to do with me be a female writer more than the contents of my book.

One interesting part of the programme was when Daisy Goodwin, the presenter undertook an experiment with the University of Westminster to see if reading romantic novels reduces stress levels. They took a saliva sample from her prior to her doing an hour of normal work and then another sample prior to her reading a romantic book for an hour. Her cortisol (the stress hormone) levels were far lower after reading a romantic novel but I’m a little sceptical as to whether this is due to her reading a book or just that she was doing something that was more relaxing than work.

I liked a point Marian Keyes made when she said that she didn’t like romantic novels where the man was the ‘happy ending’. It had to end where the heroine had learnt something about herself or achieved something rather than just gaining the love of a man. That comes back to my Bronte vs Austen argument. To me Austen is all about the man being the route to happiness whereas for example in Jane Eyre, before being reunited with Rochester, Jane makes her own way in the world and becomes a woman of independent means.

On another note. I drove the car home perfectly well yesterday and it was raining! I’m itching to get behind the wheel again but it means roping someone else in to help – I’ll just have to start being nice to my friends!