Harlequin Romance: Reading America Through Romance Novels

I never thought the day would come when I would read "Harlequin Romance."

The reason I started reading this romance series at my age was, of course, out of research necessity. My specialty is the history of American paperback publishing. The industry's peak was in the 1950s, and from the mid-1960s onward, every publisher was struggling. However, Harlequin Romance alone saw its sales skyrocket during this period. Why was a burgeoning romance series published by a small Canadian publisher selling so incredibly well in America from the mid-1960s onward? That was the reason I wanted to find out.

So, for the time being, I tried reading several books in this romance series one after another... and well, I was shocked. After all, every single one of them had the exact same plot—namely, a young female office worker heroine, for some reason or another, ends up living under the same roof as a super-rich, handsome hero. Although they do nothing but fight at first, they eventually become attracted to each other, and in the end, the hero proposes! The heroine successfully marries into wealth. It was nothing but these kinds of absurd plots. Are adult women really reading these ridiculous love stories with such devotion?

However, this romance series has sold a cumulative total of 6.7 billion copies since its launch in 1949. Surprisingly, there are many female readers all over the world who never tire of this kind of Cinderella story, and even though they know that every book they read is the same, they continue to buy this series.

So why is that? Why do these women never tire of romance novels? What I strove to elucidate in my book is precisely this simple "why."

But as the saying goes, "even a dog that walks will hit a pole." While deciphering this romance series for women, which is considered to have no literary value whatsoever, I caught a glimpse of a female reading culture that is completely different from male reading culture. For those who lean in and ask, "Female reading culture? What's that?" I invite you to give it a read.

Harlequin Romance: Reading America Through Romance Novels

Shunsuke Ozaki

Heibonsha Shinsho

252 pages, 880 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.