Courtship novels, whose heyday was between 1740 -1820, are defined as stories that feature the classic marriage plot, in which a young woman enters society, meets some suitors, goes through some stuff and then resolves everything by marrying a man who is both financially and emotionally sound. Huzzah! So romantic!
Okay, I know that’s not the sexiest description in the world, but trust me, as you get older, you begin to appreciate someone who is fiscally responsibly while also being a beast in the sack.
But, back to our discussion of courtship novels.
They are traditionally framed as “for, by, and about women.” This feminist phrase is both important to understanding the historical significance of the genre, and, well, outdated, especially as this same phrase is used in the romance genre more widely today. Originally, this was a genre that centered on women’s lives, essentially advocating that the domestic or private sphere, was worthy of star treatment. Now? Romance novels do the same thing, though it’s important to point out that it’s not just for het-cis women' readers or writers anymore, and really never was—they’re just the ones who get the most attention.
Still, this genre really took off because it focused on all juicy, gossipy fun stuff that we like to talk about: dating, social dramas, broken hearts and hearts in love, social duties versus personal desires, sexytimes…they were like telenovelas before there were telenovelas.
Becoming a Heroine
Of course, courtship novels and the marriage plot are nothing without the central figure of the heroine. If there are a few lines that have always stuck with me in the fifteen-odd years I’ve been studying courtship novels, they’re from Rachel M. Brownstien’s Introduction to Becoming a Heroine: Reading About Women in Novels (1994). She writes, “[N]ovel heroines, like novel readers, are often women who want to become heroines…To want to be a heroine is to want to be something special, something else, to want to change, to be changed, and also to want to stay the same” (xv).
This is the most magical part about the genre to me: centering ourselves in narratives that will ultimately lead to happiness, even as we stumble, struggle, and figure out how to live deeply, authentically in a world of shallow living…okay, I’m getting swept away with all this, I know!
But who doesn’t want to be the heroine of their own life? Or, to strip this of gendered terms, who doesn’t want to be the protagonist of an epic story? What book lover doesn’t frame their experiences in terms of a storybook narrative?
Domestic Spheres, Intimate Spaces
The appeal of the courtship novel is in how it centers our domestic and internal lives. I first fell in love with courtship novels by watching Jane Austen adaptations with my mom and later, in college, when I learned that there was a whole genre dedicated to the marriage plot. To be honest, I was less interested in the marriage plot itself, and more fascinated by the fact that these stories centered on women and domestic spaces.
I wanted to read stories about people figuring themselves out, of the importance of everything going on inside us, the stuff we can’t communicate or even know how to articulate out loud. And I wanted the guarantee of an HEA (Happily Ever After). When so many narratives about women of color amounted to trauma porn, I was trying to carve my way out of generational and ancestral trauma long before I even had the vocabulary for it or consciously knew what I was doing. All I knew was that I needed a space to explore what it meant to find happiness even when you felt hemmed in on all sides by a society that didn’t have your best interest in mind.
I devoted 18th- and 19th-century courtship novels that spent pages upon pages of unpacking the internal monologue of the characters, reveling in how one look, one phrase, can be mulled over, analyzed, picked apart for meaning. Didn’t I do just that after a date or other encounter? It was a revelation to see people moved, transformed, stirred internally and so deeply the outside world couldn’t even see it happening. And yet, those ephemeral revelations lead to concrete personal transformations in the external world. Elinor Dashwood’s internal struggles in Sense & Sensibility are things readers feel deeply, just as she does, though she isn’t allowed to express it because she’s trying to keep her family together—until the end, when she goes to another room to cry, with the knowledge that the man she loves is free to marry her (finally!).
These are the stories that show us what people look like with their hair down—the messy realities behind courtship and dating, the anxieties of being “out in society” in any era, the sweet satisfaction of knowing someone truly gets you…these are the emotional parts of our lives, the stuff people often say aren’t important. But really, what is more, important than meaningful relationships, romantic or otherwise?
The Legacy of the Courtship Novel
Now, to be clear, it’s a real problem that I had to go to Dead White People Stories to find this heroine’s journey with the promise of an HEA. And I’m not saying there were happy stories written by authors of color. What I am saying is that I grew up before the internet and remained a technophobe through most of graduate school (hilarious seeing the trajectory of my work now, I know). That means it was much, much harder to find those stories—and I did, slowly but surely thanks to persistence and the internet. But the courtship novels came first.
Of course, their appeal was in the fact that they felt so far away from the actual life I lived, a genteel universe untouched by the world around it. Pauses typing to look back at 20-something me with a pitying glance. In reality, I later learned that these books were, in fact, very much of their time, and ours, as they dealt with social and political issues that the modern audience often overlooked or, sometimes, erased.
Let’s face it, the heroines of these books couldn’t live that genteel life without Imperialism, colonialism, classism…all sorts of -isms. In fact, they are so deeply entrenched in their own systemic oppression, it’s hard for a modern reader to notice unless they seriously situate these books within their historical context—and beyond upper and middle-class het-cis white feminism. We also have to acknowledge that the many romance novels that were born from the courtship novel, especially historical romances, can perpetuate these terrible -isms by framing the past as a rich white utopia.
And I still a sucker for a night of scandal at Almack’s or a visit to the socially questionable city of Bath? Yes, totally. The enjoyment of these things is dependant only on the quality of the writer. And, looking back, it makes total sense that my work on courtship novels would eventually lead me to write about, read, and adore romance novels, too.
But it’s important to remember that the narrative we’re often sold about courtship novels and historical romances is that they take us back to a “simpler time” where things were “more genteel.” Not so! There was still plenty of sex, drugs, rock and roll…and system oppression which authors and the general public were (and still are) either reinforcing, resisting, or, frankly, doing a bit of both. History and the literary canon also aren’t as white, hetero, or ableist as people often make it out to be. But that’s a story for another time.
My advice? Enjoy your courtship novels. Enjoy your romances. Just read responsibility…and have your smelling salts nearby. Fainting fits are so last century!
The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.
If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.
Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!