The Romantic Fiction of Mills and Boon, 1909-90's

This study to analyzes romantic fiction's depiction of women as part of the broader history of ideas about women. Given the success of the Mills & Boon romance, their portrayal of subjects like sex, love, marriage, class, motherhood and femineity are important cultural barometers and make interesting study. The author shows how all these themes have an historical trajectory and how these novels have come to reflect feminist concerns. Based on a study of over 1000 Mills & Boon romances the book provides analysis of plot types and shows how these have changed in response to women's own changing position within society.