Romance novels: a spectacular craze
Élisa was 15 years old in 2020. Thanks to confinement, the one who is currently studying literature at the Sorbonne started reading romance… to the point of devouring a book a day. “My parents are divorced and I haven’t had any beautiful couple role models in my life,” she confides. It’s nice to discover stories where we believe in love, it gives a little hope. »
Sophia, studying law in Bordeaux (Gironde), turned to this type of literature when she met her lover: “I was extremely young and I needed reference points: I looked for them in this reading. »
Today, romance has its specialized bookstores in several large cities: L’encre du coeur, in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), Momie romances in Lyon (Rhône) or L’Atelier des romances in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). Or the Bloom Book bookstore which opened in September in Talence, near Bordeaux. “The success of this literary genre is shaking up the global book economy,” says Magali Bigey, semiolinguist specializing in popular literature at the Marie-et-Louis-Pasteur University in Besançon (Doubs).
Every week around a hundred new titles appear. The recipe for a successful romance? This has not changed much since the definition given in 1908 by the writer Gustave Reynier: “A love, an obstacle and, when the ending is happy, a marriage. » The novelty lies in the universe in which this love-story-that-ends-well will take place.
We speak of New Romance when the plot is anchored in the present and addresses contemporary issues such as addiction or harassment. With the romanticasy, another successful sector, the characters evolve in a fantastic universe. “I want to be able to escape into worlds that don’t look like today. I want dragons, curses,” explains Morgane, 27, who studies English in Rouen and reads her books in the original version. And then, there is Dark Romance, which brings its readers to the dark side of a relationship (read the box at the end of the article).
More explicit texts
This craze is nothing new. One of the first bestsellers of the genre dates from 1740: Pamela, epistolary novel by the Englishman Samuel Richardson. In the 19th century, still in England, Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters gave the romance novel its nobility. And very quickly, publishing, but also the press, seized on the romantic stories that fuel dreams of romance and feminine fantasies.
The success of the novels by Delly, Berthe Bernage and Barbara Cartland in the interwar period is echoed by that of the Harlequin collections in the 1980s and 1990s. The philosopher Michela Marzano remembers these little books very well: “In Italy, when I was a teenager, we read them to stay in the world of fairy tales. We then understood that Prince Charming did not exist and we moved on. »
What has changed with contemporary romance is not only the size of the books – often nearly 400 pages – but also the characters, more psychologically in-depth, and the presence of explicit sex scenes. “Today,” confirms Michela Marzano, “we are looking for more clearly stated expressions of desire in these books. »
Élisa remembers her reactions as a teenager: “On the social network TikTok, the advice from influencers much older than me was not really appropriate. Some books were very crude, I was shocked. There were a lot of sex scenes, so I was skipping pages. »
An idealized love
Because, according to Magali Bigey, what interests young readers is first and foremost the feeling of love: “For young people,” she says, “these books are comfort toys. » What Manon, 33, confirms: “These novels represented a refuge from stress, and also because it’s hard to find someone, to meet people. It gave me wings to dare to do things, to draw inspiration from these characters to go beyond appearances. These stories help me know what I want and what I don’t want anymore. »
For Michela Marzano, “each person’s reading depends on what we have experienced, what we fear to experience or what we would like to experience”. In his eyes, the success of romance is based on the great instability of contemporary sentimental relationships. “These young women dream of the couple as a protected space to get them out of their problems. They are waiting for a savior, Prince Charming. » She then warns: “The endings of these romances are a cheat, because the merger cannot lead to a happy outcome. »
Readers are not fooled. “I’m quite rational,” explains Élisa, who now reserves romance reading for vacations. “I know it’s still fiction. I don’t tell myself that a super handsome guy is going to show up for me tomorrow. » And if Sophia, who presents herself as a big 21-year-old dreamer, continues to buy romance every week, she admits: “The more I matured, the more I understood that romance could not serve as a guide for me. It gave a false idea of the couple, far too idealized. »
An escape source of friendship
Maintaining the pleasure of reading a beautiful story while detaching yourself is not easy for everyone. Morgane, who lives a bit of a hermit in Rouen in her own words, confides: “I’m quite a blue flower. In these books, everything is more beautiful. They raise my expectations and no real man will be able to live up to one of these heroes. Of course, this reading has an addictive and compensatory character. Real life is disappointing, and the more disappointed I am, the more I take refuge in my reading. »
Looking back, Mabilia, 64, believes that “it is read quickly, and it is forgotten just as quickly. » While tidying up, this young retiree came across her Harlequin collection. These sentimental novels that she started reading at 17 have stayed with her for a long time. “It made me feel good to read beautiful love stories with rich and handsome men. » His love life was complicated, and Harlequin represented “an escape, a reading to take my mind off things, but which I never really took seriously. »
If these books do not provide the keys to living a beautiful love story, they seem to be an asset for building strong friendships. All the readers we met tell how these stories allowed them to meet happy people, via social networks or around their bookstore. It is up to them to write sequels according to their hearts.
“Dark Romance”, the connection without the feeling
The media talk about it a lot, but “Dark Romance” is not the genre that attracts the most readers. And fortunately! His stories take place in dark environments, with toxic characters, a lot of violence and relationships of domination. For researcher Magali Bigey, Dark Romance is distinguished by the absence of consent in the relationships described.
Its success with young girls raises questions. “They are lucid and are not looking for toxic loves,” considers the specialist in popular literature. This craze generally doesn’t last very long, it’s a stage. On the other hand, if my daughter only reads this for several months, withdraws herself, does not discuss this subject with her friends, this may hide a deeper wound: harassment, heartache…”
“There is no point in banning,” adds philosopher Michela Marzano. Above all, you should be interested in what you read. We can borrow a volume from him and discuss our interpretations: “I wasn’t convinced by this character, what do you think?” There, we enter into dialogue. Young girls today have so much to teach us and they have so much to teach us. But if there is closure, refusal to dialogue, it is a symptom. » Because Dark Romance can reactivate trauma: “but no more than a Stephen King book”, according to Magali Bigey.
