A romance novel or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primary focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the development of this genre include Maria Edgeworth, Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë.
Romance novels encompass various subgenres, such as fantasy, contemporary, historical romance, paranormal fiction, and science fiction. Women have traditionally been the primary readers of romance novels, but according to the Romance Writers of America, 16% of men read romance novels.
A thriving genre of works conventionally referred to as "romance novels" existed in ancient Greece. Other precursors can be found in the literary fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Samuel Richardson's sentimental novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) and the novels of Jane Austen. Austen inspired Georgette Heyer, the British author of historical romance set around the time Austen lived, as well as detective fiction. Heyer's first romance novel, The Black Moth (1921), was set in 1751.
The British company Mills & Boon began releasing romance novels for women in the 1930s. Their books were sold in North America by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, which began direct marketing to readers and allowing mass-market merchandisers to carry the books.
An early American example of a mass-market romance was Kathleen E. Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower (1972), published by Avon Books. This was the first single-title romance novel to be published as an original paperback in the US. Nancy Coffey was the senior editor who negotiated a multi-book deal with Woodiwiss. In the UK, the romance genre was long established through the works of prolific author, Georgette Heyer, which contain many tropes and stereotypes, some of which, have recently been edited out of some of her novels. In the 1950s emerging bestselling British romance writers included Catherine Cookson, followed in the 1980s, by Marion Chesney (pen name M.C. Beaton), who was known more widely for her detective series featuring Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin.
Strong sales of popular romance novels make this the largest segment of the global book market. The genre boomed in the 1980s, with the addition of many different categories of romance and an increased number of single-title romances, but popular authors started pushing the boundaries of both the genre and plot, as well as creating more contemporary characters.
