In these books, a plucky young woman, often in some dire predicament, strikes romantic sparks with an enigmatic, arrogant, aristocratic older man. To its lovelorn doctors and nurses, the company added period love stories, which took the templates set by Jane Austen and the Brontes and added pulp-fiction oomph. (Indeed, Mary's genteel tastes spelled the end of those "savage mismatings.") By 1964, Harlequin focused exclusively on romances, usually penned by Brits. In 1958, Bonnycastle and his trusted secretary, Ruth Palmour - now primary stockholders - partnered with the British firm Mills & Boon, which specialized in the chaste medical romances beloved by Richard's wife, Mary Bonnycastle. The company's rather sensationalistic debut, The Manatee by Nancy Bruff, was "the bold, nakedly revealing story of savage mismating… of the strange children he sired… of the unspeakable act that sealed his fate." Harlequin was founded in 1949, when Winnipeg businessman Richard Bonnycastle, along with two partners, began issuing paperback reprints of cookbooks, westerns, detective yarns and love stories. She can also find a comfortable "level of sensuality," as the company discreetly calls it. With a little practice, a regular reader can locate her preferred ratio of fantasy to reality - from urban werewolf to small-town teacher, from Saxon lord to struggling single dad. ((Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.))Īccording to the Toronto-based Bridges, every Harlequin romance has to deliver "entertainment and emotion," but beyond that, the books divide into an exquisitely calibrated array of sub-genres. Those models are valid: on the Harlequin website, you can find The Wife He's Been Waiting For (listed in the Tender Romance category) or you can snag a copy of A Long, Hard Ride, a Harlequin Blaze title that promises "superheated sex" with a half-zipped mechanic.Ī Harlequin novel from the 1990s, featuring cover model Fabio. People who don't read romances often peg them as sweet, sappy stories or hotsy-totsy erotica. "Sometimes, the preconceived notion of a Harlequin romance is about 30 years out of date," says Kate Bridges, who has been writing western-themed Harlequins for seven years. But as the stories adapt to the wayward desires of 21 st-century readers, the routes to that romantic finish can be surprising. Those spirited heroines and secretly wounded heroes are still getting their Happily Ever After endings - or "HEAs," as they say in the biz. Like all successful genre fiction, the Harlequin romance must walk the tricky line between familiar and fresh. Harlequin Enterprises is Canada's largest publisher, shipping over 120 titles a month, in 29 languages, to markets from Warsaw to Rio de Janeiro. The Harlequin romance may be turning 60 this year, but its heaving bosom is still remarkably firm. A selection of Harlequin romance novels from the 1950s, 1980s and today.
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