This critical analysis of the popular romance novel genre offers an evaluation of the field through the subgenre of the lesbian romance novel. A history of the lesbian romance novel is followed by analyses of both individual works by authors writing in the genre as well as the ways in which lesbian romance novels reflect and transform the techniques of heterosexual romance novels.

Phyllis M. Betz is a professor emerita of English from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lives in Burlington, New Jersey.

Phyllis M. Betz
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 227
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3836-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5438-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Preface      1
Introduction: Reading Lesbians Reading Romance      5

1. From Stephen Gordon to Molly Bolt      21
2. Speaking the Unspeakable      55
3. Coding the Erotic      79
4. Erotic Achievement      111
5. Practicing Romance      138
6. Reading Between the Sheets      169

Conclusion: Escape Clause      194
Chapter Notes      199
Works Cited      209
Index      217