Harlequin Romances

Harlequin Romance is what I decided to get more information on. It is ironic how I picked this topic because my older sister used to read these novels when I was younger but I never took any time to read any of them. When looking up this topic I had difficulty because I kept getting repeated errors saying that this topic did not exist but I did not give up and finally found my five sources needed to complete my research.

I was so tempted to go onto google.com since that is my favorite website but I had to resist. I first found out that harlequin was common during the eighteenth century in Italian comedy culture ( Delpiano 1). A harlequin was a supposed to be this poor character in comedy who wore colorful costumes that were costumes that were richer in culture (Delpiano 1). Harlequin is also a noun which is derived from the Italian language (Webster). It is also from the Middle French which it meant demon in the French language (Webster). A character that was in comedy who would wear tights, with a clean shaven head and a masked face was qualified as a harlequin (Webster).

The Harlequin Romance era came around after World War II in 1949 (Osborne 1). This period was the beginning of the romance fiction era (Osborne 1). The main audience was geared towards white Americans when these novels first came out (Osborne 1). Other races did not feel this was right particularly the African Americans and decided to publish their first novel in the 1960’s (Osborne 1). It is true that the typical Harlequin Romance reader is a middle aged woman that is married and who lives in a small town in the south (Marsh 2). Now society is trying to cater more to a younger crowd who is willing to spend money on these books (Marsh 2).

During the 1980s most of the romances that were on television were like traditional harlequin romances (Wagner). Most of these films had romances that were filled with romances that centered on exotic locations, glamorous characters, happy endings, and romantic adventures (Wagner). Now this kind of novels sound like the kind of books that I enjoy reading. I would mind reading one of these novels on my leisure time.