| p:abstract
| - A romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late 20th and early 21st centuries, these novels are commercially in two main varieties: category romances, which are shorter books with a one-month shelf-life, and single-title romances, which are generally longer with a longer shelf-life. Separate from their type, a romance novel can exist within one of many subgenres, including contemporary, historical, and paranormal.
One of the earliest romance novels was Samuel Richardson's popular 1740 novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, which was revolutionary on two counts: it focused almost entirely on courtship and did so entirely from the perspective of a female protagonist. In the next century, Jane Austen expanded the genre, and her Pride and Prejudice is often considered the epitome of the genre. Austen inspired Georgette Heyer, who introduced historical romances in 1921. A decade later, British company Mills and Boon began releasing the first category romance novels. Their books were resold in North America by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, which began direct marketing to readers and allowing mass-market merchandisers to carry the books.
The modern romance genre was born in 1972 with Avon's publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower, the first single-title romance novel to be published as an original paperback. The genre boomed in the 1980s, with the addition of many category romance lines and an increased number of single-title romances. Popular authors began pushing the boundaries of the genre and plots and characters began to modernize.
In North America, romance novels are the most popular genre in modern literature, comprising almost 55% of all paperback books sold in 2004. The genre is also popular in Europe and Australia, and romance novels appear in 90 languages. Most of the books, however, are written by authors from English-speaking countries, leading to an Anglo-Saxon perspective in the fiction. Despite the popularity and widespread sales of romance novels, the genre has attracted significant derision, skepticism and criticism. (en)
- La novela romántica es un género literario narrativo occidental, conocido como romance novel en inglés, y roman sentimental o roman à l'eau de rose en francés. Guillermo Cabrera Infante consideraba ambiguo el término novela rosa y proponía a cambio romance para definir este género en castellano. (es)
- Der Liebes- und Familienroman bezeichnet ein umfangreiches Genre der Trivialliteratur, das sich vorwiegend an das weibliche Lesepublikum wendet und in seinem Aufbau meist einfachen Grundmustern folgt. Häufig liegt es in Form von Heftromanen vor. (de)
- Le roman d'amour est un type de roman appelé aussi « romance », « roman sentimental » ou, de manière péjorative, « roman à l'eau de rose ». C'est . (fr)
- Viene detto romanzo rosa quel genere di romanzo che narra vicende amorose e passionali a lieto fine venate di romanticismo e dedicate soprattutto ad un pubblico femminile.
Il romanzo rosa ebbe grande successo soprattutto nei primi decenni del Novecento con la numerosissima pubblicazione in Francia di Delly, pseudonimo di Jeanne-Marie (1875-1947) e Frédéric Petitjean de la Rosière (1876-1949), fratelli, e in Italia con i romanzi di Liala(1897-1995).
Una delle collane rosa più recenti che ha ottenuto un vero successo di vendita è Harmony nata una ventina di anni or sono diretta da Laura Donnini, direttore di Harlequin Mondadori.
Considerato un genere letterario di second'ordine alla sua nascita. (it)
- 恋愛小説（れんあいしょうせつ）は、男女間もしくは同性間での恋愛を主題とした小説のこと。 (ja)
- Kjærlighetsroman er en av de eldste litterære tradisjonene innenfor litteraturen og fikk en spesiell oppblomsting under middelalderen. Tradisjonen er dessuten også den litterære tradisjonen som har vært mest i forandring og blitt sett på ulike måter mellom kjønnene (no)
- 愛情小說 （英語：）又稱言情小說或音譯為羅曼史小說，是小說一種類型，廣義的愛情小說泛指以愛情故事為主體的小說。
愛情本身容易牽動人的情緒，小說又常以人物的衝突情節來反映人物性格，愛情往往存有衝突性，便成為小說作家常用的題材。古今中外不少經典小說作品都是廣義的愛情小說。 (zh)
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| rdfs:comment
| - A romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. (en)
- La novela romántica es un género literario narrativo occidental, conocido como romance novel en inglés, y roman sentimental o roman à l'eau de rose en francés. Guillermo Cabrera Infante consideraba ambiguo el término novela rosa y proponía a cambio romance para definir este género en castellano. (es)
- Der Liebes- und Familienroman bezeichnet ein umfangreiches Genre der Trivialliteratur, das sich vorwiegend an das weibliche Lesepublikum wendet und in seinem Aufbau meist einfachen Grundmustern folgt. Häufig liegt es in Form von Heftromanen vor. (de)
- Le roman d'amour est un type de roman appelé aussi « romance », « roman sentimental » ou, de manière péjorative, « roman à l'eau de rose ». C'est . (fr)
- Viene detto romanzo rosa quel genere di romanzo che narra vicende amorose e passionali a lieto fine venate di romanticismo e dedicate soprattutto ad un pubblico femminile. (it)
- 恋愛小説（れんあいしょうせつ）は、男女間もしくは同性間での恋愛を主題とした小説のこと。 (ja)
- Kjærlighetsroman er en av de eldste litterære tradisjonene innenfor litteraturen og fikk en spesiell oppblomsting under middelalderen. Tradisjonen er dessuten også den litterære tradisjonen som har vært mest i forandring og blitt sett på ulike måter mellom kjønnene (no)
- 愛情小說 （英語：）又稱言情小說或音譯為羅曼史小說，是小說一種類型，廣義的愛情小說泛指以愛情故事為主體的小說。 (zh)
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