by Jackie Barbosa

For most of us, I think reading romance novels feels more like a guilty pleasure than an educational experience. That’s not to say that romance aficionados consider the books they love to be worthless trash—far from it—but that we tend to look at them as “pop” literature, to be consumed more for pure entertainment than for any practical information we might gain from them.

The thing is, I think we’re wrong. When Bev asked me if I’d like to do a regular feature on The Season for Romance blog, my first instinct was to decline, simply because I have a hard enough time coming up with topics to post about on my own blog. But then I started thinking about blogging about how I came to be a romance reader, some ahem-odd years ago, and perhaps touching on some of my “old skool” favorites. That, in turn, got me thinking about how reading romance as a teenager changed me and my outlook on the world in really practical, useful ways.

All of which is a preface to the first post in a series of (you guessed it) ten.  And so, without further ado:

Lesson 1: History Is Boring—NOT!

I have to admit it—I hated high school History classes. All those dates to memorize, all those dry, dull narratives about who did what to whom where. Gah! Having to learn all that stuff seemed like a form of torture. How boring could it be?

And then I discovered historical romance novels. I did so by a fairly circuitous route, because I dipped my toe in the romance waters with contemporary category romances, but I have to admit that those books didn’t leave much of an impression on me since I can’t remember any of them. The books I remember were all historicals, and they were the ones that truly pitched me headlong into my romance with romance novels.

One of the first historical novels/series I remember reading and absolutely adoring is Angelique, by the husband/wife writing team of Sergeanne Golon. Strictly speaking, I’m not sure these books can be termed romances; they were more like the urban fantasy series we have today in that they followed the heroine’s adventures all over the world (Angelique was exceptionally well-traveled for a 17th century French girl, lol, even making it to Barbary in one book) but each book didn’t necessarily end with an HEA. Angelique did have “one true love”—the terribly scarred yet still hot and charismatic Joffrey de Peyrac—and as far as I can remember, she had some HFNs with him, but each book threw new obstacles in their path. There were eight or nine books in the series, at least, and I read every one of them.

By today’s standards, these books are actually kind of shocking and certainly far from feminist or politically correct—there’s a lot of forced seduction, sexual slavery, etc.—but something about them grabbed me when I was 15-16 and wouldn’t let go. Part of it might have been that the heroine was about my age in the first book, and thus, I really related to her (and thought her life was miles more fabulous than my own). But the other element that drew me into these books was the historical detail about life) in the late 1600s. I loved the gowns, the bodices cut so low that nipples were rouged but to show even a hint of ankle would be considered scandalous. I loved the descriptions of King Louie the 15th’s court, which I knew included real people and events. The books made history come alive for me because now it wasn’t just names and dates and events, but CHARACTERS I felt were friends (or, in some cases, enemies).

Another book I remember vividly for its historical details is Touch the Sun, by Cynthia Wright. This book (originally published in 1978) was set mainly in Philadelphia just after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and the hero, Lion Hampshire, was running for a seat in the first Senate. Real people I was learning about in U.S. History were players in the story, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Not only was Touch the Sun a great love story that I read ragged, but it gave me a real appreciation and understanding of the foundation of our nation that history textbooks just couldn’t provide.

It’s also a book that wouldn’t stand a chance of being published today—sadly, post-Revolutionary American settings are “out” with the reading public unless they’re Westerns (and even Westerns are hard to come by). I’d love to see a renaissance of post-Colonial American romances; I don’t know why they went out of fashion as I’m sure I read tons of them in the late 70s/early 80s and I know they had a positive effect on my US History grades. Maybe the publishers can think of the children and pick up a few?

Over the years (okay, decades!), I’ve read tons of historical romances and learned a lot about history as a result. Some of it was probably not 100% accurate, but in general, I think the writers tended to adhere pretty closely to the facts of history where they intersected with the plot of the story. Like most historical romance readers, I fancy I know a lot more about the English monarchy, Parliamentary systems of government, and the evolution of democracy than the average person as a direct result of my reading habits. It would be impossible for me to enumerate the tidbits of historical data I’ve gleaned, but there have been many times when I’ve mentioned some obscure historical fact and realized that the only reason I know it is because I read it in a romance novel.

So, if you read historical romances, don’t think of it as merely entertainment or a guilty pleasure. Consider it as an opportunity to connect in some way to the past and to learn something about a time and place most people never even give a second thought. Romance is good for your head–and your brain, and your mind, too !

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