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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Anne of Green Gables
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Anne of Green Gables
by L. M. Montgomery, illustrated by Elizabeth R. Withington
1934 Printing from L. C. Page & Company
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Anne of the Island
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by L.M. Montgomery, illustrated by Mark Graham
from Grosset & Dunlap
Orphan Stories for
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Anne of the Island
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by L.M. Montgomery, illustrated by Mark Graham
from Grosset & Dunlap
Orphan Stories for
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Anne of the Island
Anne #3
by L.M. Montgomery
from Tundra Books (NY)
Orphan Stories for
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$19.99
Anne of the Island
by L.M. Montgomery
from Grosset & Dunlap
Orphan Stories for
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Autumn's Brightness
by Daisy Newman
Special Family Bookshelf Edition, 1989 from Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Black Rose
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Cluny Brown
by Margery, Sharp
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Complete Novels of Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
from Canterbury Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Daddy-Long-Legs
Thrushwood Book
by Jean Webster
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Dear Enemy
Thrushwood Book
by Jean Webster
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Dot and the Line
by Norton Juster
from Chronicle Books
for 1st-2nd grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$10.99
Emma
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jane Austen
Reader's Digest ed
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Fair Barbarian
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
from International Association of Newspapers and Author
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gift of the Magi
by O. Henry
from Picture Book Studio
Realistic Fiction for Nursery-2nd grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
Girl of the Limberlost
by Gene Stratton-Porter
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Golden Road
by L.M. Montgomery
1955 reprint from Ryerson Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Harvester
by Gene Stratton-Porter
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
High Towers
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
In Connection with the DeWilloughby Claim
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
In This Mountain
Mitford Years Book 7
by Jan Karon
from Viking Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Jane Eyre
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Charlotte Bronte
from Grosset & Dunlap
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
from International Collectors Library
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Jane Eyre
Rainbow Classics
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Nell Booker
from World Publishing Company
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights - 2 Volume Set
by Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Minister
World Juvenile Library
by James M. Barrie
from World Publishing Company
for 5th-7th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Little Minister
World Juvenile Library
by James M. Barrie
from Books, Inc.
for 5th-7th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
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)
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 Jessie Willcox Smith
from Little, Brown & Company
for 5th-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Lousia May Alcott, illustrated by Harve Stein
from Garden City Books
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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)
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 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 Jessie Willcox Smith
Centennial Edition from Little, Brown & Company
for 5th-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Hilda Van Stockum
Centennial Edition from World Publishing Company
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Women
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Louisa May Alcott, illustrated by Hodges Soileau and Louis Jambor
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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)
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
from Penguin Classics
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Papa's Wife
by Thyra Ferre Bjorn
from Rinehart & Company, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Pride and Prejudice
Macmillan Classics
by Jane Austen, illustrated by Bernarda Bryson
from Macmillan
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
from International Collectors Library
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pride and Prejudice
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Jane Austen
from Grosset & Dunlap
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pride and Prejudice
Rainbow Classics
by Jane Austen, illustrated by Edgard Cirlin
from World Publishing Company
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Road to Yesterday
by L. M. Montgomery
from McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
for 5th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Romance of Tristan and Iseult
by Joseph Bedier (reteller), translated by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld, introduction by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Serge Ivanoff
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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 Clara Burd
from John C. Winston
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
from Everyman's Library
for 8th-Adult
$20.00
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)
Sense and Sensibility
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jane Austen
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Shepherd of the Hills
by Harold Bell Wright
from Shepherd of the Hills Historical Society
for 9th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Shepherd of the Hills
by Harold Bell Wright; illustrated by F. Graham Cootes
from A. L. Burt Company
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$16.99
To Have and to Hold
by Mary Johnston
from Vision Forum
Historical Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Wuthering Heights
Everyman's Library
by Emily Bronte
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Wuthering Heights
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Emily Bronte, illustrated by Percy Tarrant
from Portland House
for 12th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Wuthering Heights
Everyman's Library
by Emily Bronte
from International Collectors Library
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte, illustrated by Nell Booker
from World Publishing Company
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wuthering Heights with Related Readings
by Emily Bronte
from McGraw-Hill
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00 (1 in stock)