He Smolders, She Smolders A visual history of a publishing genre treats bodice-rippers with reverence

摘要

When I was in high school in the late 1970s, I consumed dozens of historical romances-the lusty ones set in the antebellum South or colonial Williamsburg, featuring a luscious, financially imperiled virgin and the rich, brutal man-prey she forces into submission with hot sex and eternal love. I knew this stuff was trash, but I read it anyway. Lots of it. The Art of Romance, a new picture book from Prestel, escorts us through the history of the popular romance novel by way of two legendary publishers: the British firm Mills & Boon, founded in 1908, and the Canadian company Harlequin, which merged with Mills & Boon in 1971 after distributing its titles in North America for more than a decade.