Romantic Fiction

Between the sickly sweet of Nicholas Sparks and the pure raunch of bodice rippers, romance novels have fallen into disrepute. They're considered (in most cases, rightfully so) to be unrealistic, shallow and poorly written. Such representations of the romantic bond between a man and woman lead invariably to expectations that not only will never, but can never be fulfilled. Why fill our minds with such drivel? More to the point, why let our kids fill their minds with such drivel?

Yet men and women fall in love and get married all the time. Or get married and fall in love, as the case may be. Our best literature examines and chronicles the realities of existence—do we make an exception for matters of the heart? Do we cut out all the bad romance novels....and with them, the works of Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott and George MacDonald?

Just because something can be misused doesn't mean we also need to dispense with its good manifestations. Really, anything can be misused, including those things we value most. Hands aren't bad because people kill each other with them. Words aren't bad because people lie. It's the same with literary genres. Because certain "writers" abuse the romance genre doesn't mean we shouldn't read good romance novels, and even (horror of horrors!) enjoy them.

There are few more universal stories than that of a boy and girl in love. As much as we want to keep our children pure (especially in our debauched society), we also want them to see and appreciate the beauty of true romance. We also want them to understand the difficulties love entails, the self-sacrifice and the frustration, the pain as well as the joy. That's why you won't find any books by Nicholas Sparks or Danielle Steele here, that celebrate one element of love over others, that honor love as a feeling or impulse, but not as a choice or decision.

For that reason, Jane Austen may be the best romance writer of all time. Nothing terribly exciting happens to any of her characters (just as nothing terribly exciting happens to most of us), there are always obstacles to happiness (no romance is truly easy), and yet each honorable romantic attachment ends where it should—in marriage. You'll find all of Austen's books in this section, and many others like them, books that promote purity and honor and humility over the lust and blind passion that fills the romance novels of today.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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45 Items found Print
Active Filters: 4th grade (Ages 9-10)
Dear Enemy
Thrushwood Book
by Jean Webster
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Dear Enemy
by Jean Webster
from Yearling
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Dobry
by Monica Shannon, illustrated by Atanas Katchamakoff
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
1935 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Dobry
by Monica Shannon; illustrated by Atanas Katchamakoff
15th printing 1967 from Viking Press
for 4th-8th grade
1935 Newbery Medal winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$20.00 (2 in stock)
Eight Cousins
by Louisa May Alcott
from Whitman Publishing Company
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Gabriel and the Hour Book
by Evaleen Stein
from Yesterday's Classics
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.95 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Gabriel and the Hour Book
by Evaleen Stein
from Unknown Publisher
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Heidi Grows Up
by Charles Tritten
from Golden Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Heidi Grows Up
by Johanna Spyri, Charles Tritten
from Dell Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Heidi Grows Up
by Johanna Spyri
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Women
Puffin Classics
by Louisa May Alcott
from Puffin Books
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$10.99
Little Women
Whole Story Series
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by James Prunier
from Viking Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Louis Jambor
from Grosset & Dunlap
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Little Women
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Reisie Lonette
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
Sterling Classics
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Anna Marie Magagna
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Derek James
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Kate Aldous and James McGairy
First Edition from Parragon Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Judith Cheng
Special from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Louis Jambor
from Grosset & Dunlap
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Little Women
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Louis Jambor
from Grosset & Dunlap
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Women
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Louis Jambor
from Grosset & Dunlap
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Dinah Dryhurst
Reprint from Breslich & Foss
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by M.E. Gray
Unabridged from Everyman's Library
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
$16.95
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, Illustrated by Frank Merrill
from SeaWolf Press
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Reisie Lonette
from Literary Guild of America
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Clara M. Burd
from John C. Winston
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Tasha Tudor
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
Penguin Clothbound Classics
by Louisa May Alcott, edited and introduced by Elaine Showalter, with notes by Siobhan Kilfeather and Vinca Showalter
Unabridged from Penguin Classics
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Louisa May Alcott
by Louisa May Alcott
from Octopus Books Limited
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
by Eloise J. McGraw
from Puffin Books
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
by Eloise J. McGraw
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Old-Fashioned Girl
Puffin Classics
by Louisa May Alcott
from Puffin Books
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Old-Fashioned Girl
by Louisa May Alcott, Illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith
150th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$10.95
Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by Leon Garfield, William Shakespeare
First Edition Thus from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Rose in Bloom
Puffin Classics
by Louisa May Alcott
from Puffin Books
for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.99
Rose in Bloom
by Louisa May Alcott
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Rose in Bloom
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by George Lawson
from Saalfield Publishing Co.
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Rose in Bloom
by Louisa May Alcott, Illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards
150th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
for 4th-9th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Rose in Bloom
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Clara Burd
from John C. Winston
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Secret Garden
Books of Wonder
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by S. Saelig Gallagher
from HarperCollins
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
These Happy Golden Years
Little House Series #8
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction/Pioneers for 3rd-8th grade
1944 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$19.99
Under the Lilacs
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens
from SeaWolf Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95