It’s a new pink library: romance novels are exploding on the sales charts in Quebec. Books by Colleen Hoover, Danielle Steel, Sarah Rivens and Julia Quinn propelled the genre (by 53%), in literature, to the Bilan Gaspard of the 2023 book market. As the Quebec International Book Fair begins today, The duty examines, in a series of three articles, contemporary romance, which attracts many, many, many readers, women and girls. First text: Passion pink novels.
“The reason is that romance is read more when there is a need for more love…” explains straight away, with a smile in his voice, the sociologist Jean-Philippe Warren. For her part, the Quebec author Amélie Dubois, who navigates between romance, chick reads and comedy to explain this phenomenon, reminds us that “the quest for love is the most universal quest, whatever the country or culture in which you live”.
“The pandemic may have pushed us to return to the heart of our existence,” she says while reflecting. We want to love and be loved. »And we want to read about love: since 2021, the sentimental novel has regained momentum, indicates researcher Marie-Pier Luneau, director of the Group for Research and Studies on Books in Quebec.
A momentum that prepared the big bang in sales last year. “Now, pink novels can be bought in bookstores,” explains M.me Luneau. My aunts, in the 1980s, bought this in Jean-Coutu. »
At the Bibliothèque et Archives nationaux du Québec, on the contrary, we are seeing a drop in borrowings of these books. From 12,622 in 2019-2020, they are estimated at 9,260 in 2023-2024. Should we understand that readers are now buying more?
Absolutely, believes Rebecca Lecours. “There is a shift in public opinion,” believes the director and publisher of the very new Éditions Maison Rose in Quebec. “For a long time, Harlequins were considered Kleenex literature. »
“We read it in secret, we got rid of it afterwards,” adds Mme The lesson. Today, readers have libraries full of sentimental books, and entire collections. »
Readers interviewed by The duty also talk about serial readings. Sometimes even compulsive, even bulimic. “Fans of the genre hide it much less than before,” continues the editor. They take responsibility for themselves much more. »
Getting out of the pink trash can
Historically, and still today, “of all popular genres, the most despised, shunned, reviled is sentimental literature,” affirms Marie-Pier Luneau. “It’s seen as the trash of literature. It’s never criticized, it goes under the radar of the media, researchers, literary people. »
Which is why she looked into the subject: “because it hardly interests anyone else. Even though it has always been a great read.” In the 1980s, there was a research group on Harlequin novels at UQAM. TELUQ offers a course on sentimental novels. But these are exceptions in literary studies.
“We’ve been saying for years that the women who read this are stupid,” says M.me Luneau. This is what I see in all literature: when it is read by women, when it is written by women, it is devalued from the start. » To counter this, she signed, with Jean-Philippe Warren, Love like a novel. The sentimental novel in Quebec, from yesterday to today (Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2022).
“You should also know that these novels, which invariably end with a happy ending cannot achieve literary consecration,” adds Mme Luneau by email.
” THE happy ending is itself a discriminating factor, because we consider that happy endings suffer from a lack of realism, fall into a fairy tale, in short, are the result of recipes and hardly compatible with “real life”. » And with Great Literature.
My favorite recipe
In the charts, English-speaking authors are leading the way in red and pink. Surprising, when we know that sales phenomena in Quebec almost always include local publishers or authors.
Logical, if we recall that the tradition is Anglo-Saxon, as M doesme Luneau. Pamela or virtue rewardedby Samuel Richardson, published around 1740, would be the root of this flower which never ceases to make new branches.
“It’s the story of a girl forced to work for an execrable man,” summarizes M.me Luneau. In the end, he falls in love and ends up marrying her. »
We recognize the plot: “two people fall in love, are very quickly separated by a series of obstacles; finding each other at the end, they will finally be able to love each other”, as defined Love like a novel.
Because, yes, it’s always the same story, confirms Professor Luneau. That of a passionate love, where the woman is more vulnerable than the man, financially, career-wise, and sometimes personality-wise.
Élisabeth Desbiens, 36 years old, who reads new and some dark romance for ten years, confirms: “I know how it will end. This is what I want, and I know I’m going to like it. »
Sex, smutthere soft porn
What’s new in pink novels in the 21st centurye century ? Sex. And the lesson that lies there: from now on, “love [y] is based on fulfilled sexuality and [on y lit qu’une] dazzling sexuality needs love. This link with carnal desires strengthens the place of love, while weakening it,” note the two essayists.
The scenes there are much more sulphurous than in Harlequin – a Canadian publisher, which continues to monopolize a large share of sales, especially digital.
“It’s always the funTHE smut », Indicates a reader, using this contraction of sexual material that manga and fanafiction have popularized.
” It’s our soft porn to us,” says Élisabeth Desbiens, “where men go on the Internet. When you find a good author, sex is described the way women like it. It has nothing to do with the porn guys.” We talk a little more about the context, the preparation, the unsaid things, etc., she explains.
Wattpad and Booktok
The way in which writings circulate is also different. The books are collected chapter by chapter on Wattpad, this social media where subscribers can publish stories and read them — sometimes also followed there by editors. They are shared on BookTok, TikTok’s community of readers. These very Anglo platforms perhaps explain why it is Anglo books that are the most popular.
The very strong attachment of female readers is also a tinge of the genre. “Often, I am in mourning at the end of a series. It’s really a heartbreak,” says Kim Gauthier-Pelletier, a big reader of romanticasy and librarian at the Pointe-de-l’Île School Service Center. “I miss the universe, the characters. I no longer feel like reading or listening to TV,” she continues.
What does the librarian recommend for discovering today’s romance books? His heart goes towards mixing with fantasywhich she likes: Fourth Wings by Rebecca Yarros, Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas, author of the very popular series A palace of thorns and roses.
And in French, by Élisabeth Lim, the “duology”Six scarlet crowns And The Dragon’s Promise, “for teenagers or adults. It’s Chinese mythology reinvented, it’s super good,” comments Mme Gauthier-Pelletier.
Despite the recipe, it is difficult to predict what the next love stories have in store for us, say sociologists Luneau and Warren. “Will they succeed in once again revolutionizing our understanding of love? »
“If there is one thing that the history of the sentimental novel in Quebec teaches us,” it is its fabulous capacity to renew itself, they continue. Another kind of never-ending story, but with a happy endingsomehow…
Tomorrow: Romance made in Quebec.