"This also increases the drive towards universally-applicable themes [...], which is why you see them as being less challenging." I doubt this. The Sorrows of

"This also increases the drive towards universally-applicable themes [...], which is why you see them as being less challenging." I doubt this. The Sorrows of Young Werther is about unrequited love, after all. I think it is the emotional, moral, intellectual and psychological content of literature that challenges. Not the theme. Pride and prejudice is considered the epitome of the romance novel by many, after all. 55% of the novels in America are sold in the genre. And here's what the Romance Writers of America say about the genre: "the main plot of a romance novel must revolve around the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship together. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love. Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Others, including Leslie Gelbman, a president of the Berkley Group, use a more shortened definition, that a romance must make the "romantic relationship between the hero and the heroine ... the core of the book." In general, romance novels reward characters who are good people and penalize those who are evil, and a couple who fights for and believes in their relationship will likely be rewarded with unconditional love." [1] In this way, reality is sanitized for mass consumption. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel