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<p><i>List of Illustrations viii</i></p> <p><i>Acknowledgments ix</i></p> <p><i>Notes on Contributors x</i></p> <p><i>Introduction 1</i></p> <p>1. Ancient Romance 10<br /> <i>Elizabeth Archibald</i></p> <p>2. Insular Beginnings: Anglo-Norman Romance 26<br /> <i>Judith Weiss</i></p> <p>3. The Popular English Metrical Romances 45<br /> <i>Derek Brewer</i></p> <p>4. Arthurian Romance 65<br /> <i>W. R. J. Barron</i></p> <p>5. Chaucer’s Romances 85<br /> <i>Corinne Saunders</i></p> <p>6. Malory and the Early Prose Romances 104<br /> <i>Helen Cooper</i></p> <p>7. Gendering Prose Romance in Renaissance England 121<br /> <i>Lori Humphrey Newcomb</i></p> <p>8. Sidney and Spenser 140<br /> <i>Andrew King</i></p> <p>9. Shakespeare’s Romances 160<br /> <i>David Fuller</i></p> <p>10. Chapbooks and Penny Histories 177<br /> <i>John Simons</i></p> <p>11. The Faerie Queene and Eighteenth-century Spenserianism 197<br /> <i>David Fairer</i></p> <p>12. ‘‘Gothic’’ Romance: Its Origins and Cultural Functions 216<br /> <i>Jerrold E. Hogle</i></p> <p>13. Women’s Gothic Romance: Writers, Readers, and the Pleasures of the Form 233<br /> <i>Lisa Vargo</i></p> <p>14. Paradise and Cotton-mill: Rereading Eighteenth-century Romance 251<br /> <i>Clive Probyn</i></p> <p>15. ‘‘Inconsistent Rhapsodies’’: Samuel Richardson and the Politics of Romance 269<br /> <i>Fiona Price</i></p> <p>16. Romance and the Romantic Novel: Sir Walter Scott 287<br /> <i>Fiona Robertson</i></p> <p>17. Poetry of the Romantic Period: Coleridge and Keats 305<br /> <i>Michael O’Neill</i></p> <p>18. Victorian Romance: Tennyson 321<br /> <i>Leonée Ormond</i></p> <p>19. Victorian Romance: Medievalism 341<br /> <i>Richard Cronin</i></p> <p>20. Romance and Victorian Autobiography: Margaret Oliphant, Edmund Gosse, and John Ruskin’s ‘‘needle to the north’’ 360<br /> <i>Francis O’Gorman</i></p> <p>21. Victorian Romance: Romance and Mystery 375<br /> <i>Andrew Sanders</i></p> <p>22. Nineteenth-century Adventure and Fantasy: James Morier, George Meredith, Lewis Carroll, and Robert Louis Stevenson 389<br /> <i>Robert Fraser</i></p> <p>23. Into the Twentieth Century: Imperial Romance from Haggard to Buchan 406<br /> <i>Susan Jones</i></p> <p>24. America and Romance 424<br /> <i>Ulrika Maude</i></p> <p>25. Myth, Legend, and Romance in Yeats, Pound, and Eliot 438<br /> <i>Edward Larrissy</i></p> <p>26. Twentieth-century Arthurian Romance 454<br /> <i>Raymond H. Thompson</i></p> <p>27. Romance in Fantasy Through the Twentieth Century 472<br /> <i>Richard Mathews</i></p> <p>28. Quest Romance in Science Fiction 488<br /> <i>Kathryn Hume</i></p> <p>29. Between Worlds: Iris Murdoch, A. S. Byatt, and Romance 502<br /> <i>Clare Morgan</i></p> <p>30. Popular Romance and its Readers 521<br /> <i>Lynne Pearce</i></p> <p>Epilogue: Into the Twenty-first Century 539<br /> <i>Corinne Saunders</i></p> <p><i>Index 542</i></p>

“Acknowledging the difficulty of defining "romance," Saunders and the contributors collectively produce a volume that offers a more comprehensive survey of the literature--including its historical, national, and generic varieties--than have previous standard works on the subject…Some of the essays--e.g., Helen Cooper's "Malory and the Early Prose Romances" and Richard Cronin's "Victorian Romance: Medievalism"--are exemplary in the quality of their writing, scholarship, and critical perception…Highly recommended.” <br /> <i>Choice</i> <!--end--> <br /> <p>"... It would be worth acquiring for an academic humanities collection and, from my own experience, would be particulary useful for English literature students at undergraduate and postgraduate level."<br /> <i>Reference Review</i></p>

<b>Corinne Saunders</b> is a Reader in Medieval Literature at the University of Durham. Her previous publications include <i>The Forest of Medieval Romance</i> (1993), <i>Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England</i> (2001) and <i>Chaucer</i> (2001) in the <i>Blackwell Guides to Criticism</i> series.

Romance is a varied and fluid literary genre, notoriously difficult to define. This groundbreaking <i>Companion</i> surveys the many permutations of romance throughout the ages. Comprising 30 essays written by leading authorities in the field, it considers the historical and literary development of the genre from its classical origins to the present day. The focus is on English literature, although this is placed within the larger context of perceptions of romance. The book incorporates discussion of the changing readership of romance, particularly romance’s special relation to women readers. It challenges the idea that the appeal of romance is exclusively escapist, drawing on a wide range of specific and influential literary examples. <p>The <i>Companion</i> is suitable for general readers and for those beginning their study of literature, as well as for readers seeking more specialized information on the issue of romance or on the individual types of writing, writers, and works considered.</p> <p><b>Contributors to this volume:</b><br /> Elizabeth Archibald, W. R. J. Barron, Derek Brewer, Helen Cooper, Richard Cronin, David Fairer, Robert Fraser, David Fuller, Jerrold E. Hogle, Kathryn Hume, Susan Jones, Andrew King, Edward Larrissy, Richard Mathews, Ulrika Maude, Clare Morgan, Lori Humphrey Newcomb, Francis O’Gorman, Michael O’Neill, Leonée Ormond, Lynne Pearce, Fiona Price, Clive Probyn, Fiona Robertson, Andrew Sanders, Corinne Saunders, John Simons, Raymond H. Thompson, Lisa Vargo, Judith Weiss</p>

“Acknowledging the difficulty of defining "romance," Saunders and the contributors collectively produce a volume that offers a more comprehensive survey of the literature--including its historical, national, and generic varieties--than have previous standard works on the subject…Some of the essays--e.g., Helen Cooper's "Malory and the Early Prose Romances" and Richard Cronin's "Victorian Romance: Medievalism"--are exemplary in the quality of their writing, scholarship, and critical perception…Highly recommended.” <br /> <i>Choice</i> <!--end--> <br /> <p>"... It would be worth acquiring for an academic humanities collection and, from my own experience, would be particulary useful for English literature students at undergraduate and postgraduate level."<br /> <i>Reference Review</i></p>

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