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 | | Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon by Joseph McAleer ISBN-10: 9780198204558 ISBN-10: 0-19-820455-8 ISBN-13: 9780198204558 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-820455-8 Hardcover 2000-02-03 Oxford University Press, USA Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description This is the first history of Mills & Boon, the British publishing phenomenon that has become a household name, synonymous with romantic fiction. On the firm's 90th anniversary, Joe McAleer has written the first history of Mills & Boon, drawing upon a long-lost archive of over 50,000 letters which reveal the intricate relationship between editorial policy, social attitudes, and sales. | ||
Reviews | ||
Mills & Boon by itself, to 1972 McAleer's history of the Mills & Boon publishing firm takes full advantage of the firm's own archives, rediscovered in 1992. The title is literal: this is a history of Mills & Boon from its founding in 1908 until it's sale to (or takeover by) the Canadian firm of Harlequin in 1972. It devotes as much time to the non-romance-genre books of the early years (including a title by P.G. Wodehouse and the British rights to Jack London as well as a substantial amount of non-fiction) as to the romance genre focus subsequent to the 1930s. From the 1930s onward, McAleer emphasizes the sheer quantity of production: "Between 1937 and 1953, for example, 1,027 new romances were published, an average of 67 per year, or five each month." (p. 4) For the earlier period, from 1908 through the 1920s, he emphasizes that many of the "romances" published by this firm were similar to those being written for other major hard-cover publishers by authors such as Elinor Glyn, E.M. Hull, and Ethel M. Dell (p. 47). This is the history of a business firm. Consequently, it also focuses on Mills & Boon's innovative marketing techniques. Unlike Jay Dixon's book on Mills & Boon, Passion's Fortune is not defensive in regard to the romance genre, nor does the author argue with other writers in regard to the value of the romance genre. Overall, for the product of an academic publishing firm, the writing is marked by common sense and good humor, backed with many direct quotes from the publishers themselves and from authors who wrote for the firm. That said, McAleer's objective presentation leaves no doubt that by the late 1960s, the firm did deliberately enourage "escapism" and definitely limited the authorial preferences of even such a staid staple of the firm as Betty Neels when the publisher felt that the heroine's desire for a large family after she married might offend fans who were worried about overpopulation (pp. 264-266). Additionally, by the 1960s, Mills & Boon objected to the inclusion of divorce as a theme for fear of offending its Irish readership (p. 267) and was dubious about the inclusion of non-Caucasians, even as secondary characters (pp. 268-270). McAleer shows this unapologetically while simultaneously pointing out that even with these restrictions, quite a number of Mills & Boon plots went well beyond what magazine editors of the era would agree to serialize. This balance is a hallmark of the book as a whole. | ||
What a wonderful book! This is a well-written and extraordinarily well-researched book about the history of the popular British publishing house of Mills & Boon (Harlequin romances, etc.). Joe McAleer has written a book appealing to romance-lovers and non-romance-lovers alike (I'm the latter!). The wonderfully-named "Passion's Fortune" is entertaining, informative, and eye-opening, as it sheds glowing light on a niche (albeit large) business within publishing. You will not view "cheap, summertime romance novels" the same after reading this book! | ||