Romance novels, to me at least, have always been about the same thing, some type of forbidden love and smut. A LOT of smut. The Virgin Lover and My Enemy the Queen are no different. The Virgin Lover shows the reader that Queen Elizabeth is a normal girl who is using her innocence of being of virgin, as well as her mother's reputation of sleeping around, to get herself ahead. But of course she falls in love with the one man she cannot have, and we deal with what the offer makes happen.
My Enemy the Queen does something similar, except it is from Lettice's point of view, and it details her plot to keep Robert Dudley to herself. She narrates that she is Robert's lover when the Queen does not want him, but he favors Queen Elizabeth when he is in her favor. Lettice does not like this, and her infatuation with Robert becomes so obvious to the point that Elizabeth sends her home to her family (husband and children), because she needs to focus on what should be important to her. Instead, Lettice plots revenge on the Queen, intending to keep Robert for herself. Her husband dies, she conceives a child with Robert, and then convinces him that they need to get married regardless of how the Queen will feel. This romance novel is about how one of Queen Elizabeth's court maidens steal away the love of her life, preventing her from ever being with him.
Sound like another case of forbidden love to anybody else?
I gotta say though...I don't think "My Enemy, The Queen" was actually ABOUT Elizabeth. I really feel like it was ABOUT Lettic, but the story was driven by her relationship with the queen. Dr. MB said something similar in class when we were looking at the comic book. That guy remembered it as the comic ABOUT Queen Elizabeth but it actually had very little to do with HER, but the actions of other characters were drive by her. Interesting how even when characters are shown in a certain light (in this case, a bad one) we still remember them as the most important....
ReplyDeleteCorissa,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you mentioned about these two romance novels containing a lot of smut, I was thinking the same thing while I was reading it. I also thought that the novel was about Lettice and her relationship with the queen.
Hey Corissa!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I respectfully disagree. I would have to say that the majority of the books I read in a year are "romance" novels (Erotica, new adult, historical, paranormal, etc. etc. ) so I'm biased.
The reason that love triangles show up so much in literature, television, and movies are because they are so friggin' interesting. Love triangles rarely happen in life but they DO happen and shining a light on them grabs people's attention.
And forbidden love is one of the BEST types of loves to read about, in my opinion. It makes things interesting and makes reading addicting when you read a bunch of authors' different takes on the topic. I'd bet money that forbidden love is a factor in what made this book so successful in the 70's, and factor in a love triangle with royalty mixed in? That would be a bestseller today just on that alone! Ramp up the sex a bit and you'll probably find it on thousands of people's shelves (Mine included)!