THE ANTI-HARLEQUIN CLUB
THE ANTI-HARLEQUIN CLUB
Harlequin is a Canadian publishing company know best for its romance novels and “women’s fiction.” The books have a reputation for being almost anti-feminist, since the plots generally revolve around a (straight) woman who becomes fulfilled when she finally has “her man” at her side, often for good (i.e., through marriage). However, I won’t deny that many women read Harlequin novels – even I have. (Twice. But I hated both.)
Even back in the day (in Western European/US history), there were romance novels, though not the way we know them. In Pride and Prejudice (1813), Jane Austen mentions them, and in her satirical book Northanger Abbey (1817), the main character gets herself in trouble because she reads too many gothic romance novels. In the excerpt of William Alcott’s book (printed in 1855) in Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality, he writes of “doubtful romances” that “excite lascivious feelings” (114) in their female readers. These books bring “unhallowed thoughts and feelings” as much as the “animal” (p 114) foods do.
I find Alcott’s presentation of the confluence of feather beds, heat, meat, and romance novels extraordinarily apt. They cover the body, the belly, and the brain — the three main areas of physicality for humans. And even today, the items on Alcott’s list can conjure images of luxury – they are expensive, indulgent, for those who have the money and inclination to seek out such pleasures. And let’s not forget that The Scarlet Letter was set in Puritan times, and is full of references to the Puritan Spartan ways of dress. Pearl (both as a child and, presumably, as the mother of the child for whom Hester makes luxurious clothes at the end of the book) is set in strict contrast to the Puritans. And, as meat-eating, feather bed-sleeping, warmth-enjoying readers of romance novels would like to hear, she seems to have reached the ultimate happily-ever-after, romance-novel style, of course: She moved to a country where she will be accepted, married a wealthy man (see the coat of arms on the letters she sends Hester), and had a baby.
Hester wasn’t so lucky. She never had the romance-novel life; she never wore the beautiful clothes that Pearl had. Even her luxurious hair was always covered, except for that brief shining moment in the woods with Dimmesdale. Her only luxury – her only romance-novel moment – was the scarlet letter, and even that was a burden to be both scorned and adored by Pearl. And because she was doomed to be forever plain Hester, she came back at the end of the novel, still in her drab clothes, still wearing only her one shining A-shaped monument to romance and comfort. And Pearl stood alone. The lone romance woman in the ultimate non-romance novel.
Tags: harlequin, romance novels
March 7th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I found the lack of feather beds, warmth, and hearty food interesting as well. Very Freudian – people have the main drives to eat, sleep, be safe, and have sex. If the means by which the more vital of these are fulfilled are diminished – a lack of comfort, warmth, and good food – those affected would yearn more for these elements than sexual fulfillment.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:11 am
This post is a good follow-up to the quote that Lena gives us about Hawthorne and the women romance writers of his day. It is worth noting that the anthology that Lena quotes is actually a defense of Hawthorne, showing a more complex set of relations to the overly sentimentalized novels that were becoming so popular in his time. He did make those nasty remarks, but he also supported and was supported by many of the intellectual women of his time and surroundings–so it’s not women per se that he was deriding but rather the writers and readers of what he considered really bad fiction. He calls himself a romance writer because of the German school of romanticism, which has a philosophical leaning that emphasized ambiguity and the dark features of reality. Subsequently, romance is a term that has become associated with those harlequin publications that are sappy melodramas.