The Telegraph has a very interesting article on romantic fiction - exploring the genre from Jane Austen to Joanna Trollope to Danielle Steele. Here's one of the clarifications and apparent "saving grace" (in the eyes of critics and highbrow scholars) of some romantic novels:
Of course, in great literature, love is not the only feature that counts: half of Anna Karenina is about running a Russian farm; Emma and Middlemarch are portraits of rural life in England; Jane Eyre describes the education of an orphaned governess; and Lolita provides an itinerary of American motels invaluable to the casual traveller. Yet love with its pains and passions is always at the heart of the story, and it is not an interest in farming techniques that drives us to follow the protagonists' fates.Jane Eyre is a love story and
that? "The education of an orphaned governess". Where to start to put this to rights?
Categories: Jane_Eyre
What you need is a Cluebat of Brontëite Righteousness. *nods*
ReplyDeleteHaha! You're probably right. Perhaps we'll be hearing "whacks" at BrontëBlog sometime soon too :P
ReplyDelete*evil grin*