A scholarly analysis of romance's enduring popularity

The data on romance's recent rise

Romance novels have historically sold well, but since 2022, the genre has seen rapid growth, propelled by popular writers, like Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry, and a devoted readership active on TikTok. This study from statistician Daniel Parris runs through the numbers, demonstrating how the genre has become an industry powerhouse.

Why romantasy is so popular on social media

Much of romantasy's success is thanks to social media, especially TikTok, where posts tagged as #BookTok or #Romantasy often propel titles to mainstream popularity. This deep dive into the trend interviews fans and marketers to explain why the genre's steamy content does so well online.

The economics of romance novels

Romance is the publishing industry's most popular genre, with over 44 million units sold in 2025 alone. This episode of "The Economics of Everyday Things" podcast explores how the once-maligned form became the most reliable kind of book in the industry.

A detailed analysis of romance novel covers through history

A lot has changed in the romance genre over time, a fact that's clearest in the way that the books are marketed to consumers. This interactive data visualization surveyed decades of romance book jackets, finding that raunchy, realistic paintings of scantily clad models have largely been replaced by vibrantly colored illustrations, often with the characters drawn as cartoons.

Romantasy fans explain why they think the genre is so maligned

Romantasy grows more popular every year, but that doesn't mean it's taken seriously as literature. Hosts from KPBS' "The Finest" attended Comic Con 2025 to get romantasy fans' takes on the genre's unserious reputation.

Why some writers believe there's a new romanticism

Journalist and novelist Ross Barkan argues that a crushing political system and alienating technology have led people to become more interested in the offline, analog world and the beauty of nature and emotion. In this essay, he defines this as "the new romanticism," and predicts it will come to define the culture of the 2020s.

Romanticism continues to influence culture

The breadth and impact of Romanticism and its emphasis on individualism, embracing emotion, and the power of nature outlived the formal boundaries of the movement’s popularity and continue to linger in the public consciousness.

A comparative analysis of the romance and horror genres' overlap

Both genres aim to make their readers' hearts pound, albeit in different ways. Romance novelist Trilina Pucci argues that the gap between the two aims is much slimmer than it may seem, with some horror tropes (like a man enraged by the abuse of his wife) and romance tropes (like the subgenre of dark romance) blurring the line.

Diving into 'The Flame and the Flower,' the book that popularized 'bodice ripper' romance

The 1972 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel helped create the romance subgenre featuring historical settings and intense, steamy sex scenes. It was an under-the-radar sensation, quietly selling millions of copies while simultaneously courting controversy for its portrayals of rape. In this essay, Jeannette Cooperman revisits the book to see how it reads 50 years after its publication.

Why dystopian literature remains popular

Yale English professor Joe Cleary argues that dystopian literature’s continued relevance is due to a torrent of additional societal anxieties and that the streaming adaptations of dystopian classics "The Handmaid’s Tale" and "The Man in the High Castle" have expanded the genre’s popularity, introducing new audiences to its tropes.

A guide to the romance genre's major tropes

This guide breaks down romance's most prominent tropes, or narrative patterns, used by romance writers and adored by their fans. After you learn about "friends to lovers," "marriage of convenience," and "forced proximity," you'll start to see your favorite romance reads in an entirely new light.

A medievalist explains how romantic love emerged as a cultural concept

Many long-form stories written in English were originally considered "romances," a term derived from the Old French word for "the speech of the people." But changes in medieval culture, triggered by a number of 12th-century church reforms, led to a new interest in what we now consider romantic love, including a new view of marriage as a pursuit of love rather than a transaction. Those new perspectives were then reflected in the period's popular stories, including stories in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

Why so many romance stories take place in Regency-era England

The British Regency era lasted less than a decade, but it remains a popular setting for romance stories, including for Julia Quinn's "The Duke and I," the novel that became Netflix's "Bridgerton." Scholars note that the period's strict social hierarchy, high fashion, and aristocratic traditions are ripe for the romance genre's tropes.

Is the love song dying?

This visual essay, compiled using 65 years of industry data, is an entertaining trip through the history of pop music, exploring whether or not music has grown less romantic. But, at its heart, this isn't about the Billboard charts—it's about the many different ways we define romance.

A linguist argues Jane Austen's language is what defines her fiction

While many readers love Austen's novels for their characters and their romantic plots, Chi Luu argues that many people (including literary luminaries like Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, and Ralph Waldo Emerson) underestimate how her adept wordplay, sense of irony, and memorable turns of phrase are what have made readers fall in love with her fiction for centuries.

The history of Samuel Richardson's 'Pamela,' which some consider the first romance novel

The 1740 novel will likely strike modern readers as odd, to say the least. Its titular character, a 15-year-old maidservant, is harassed by her boss, who finally changes his ways and asks for her hand in marriage, which is presented as a happy ending. As this analysis of the text makes clear, though, "Pamela" established a template for the romance genre, even if contemporary writers have been happy to break it.

Why Emily Dickinson's poetry remains popular in the 21st century

Dickinson remains widely read and is often considered one of American literature's greatest poets. This short documentary from PBS uses a 2017 museum exhibition on the writer to explore her long-lasting impact, with input from Barbara Howe, a contemporary poet, and Marta Werner, a Dickinson scholar.

A literary critic on why classic Russian literature matters

Gary Saul Morson has spent his life studying Russian writers like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. In this 2022 talk at Hillsdale College, Morson focuses on classic texts like "The Brothers Karamazov" and "War and Peace," suggesting these Russian novels had as much to say about their home country as they did about the larger world. Most importantly, he argues, they still have much to offer modern readers.

Social scientists hold various beliefs about the role of marriage in our lives

Functionalists believe that marriage fulfills specific needs, while conflict theory highlights inherent power struggles within a couple’s relationship.

Soap operas are long-form, serialized melodramas

The genre was historically aimed at housewives, and its storylines often involve romantic entanglements and family dynamics that transpired over many years. Media scholar Robert J. Thompson called the soap opera “arguably the most unique contribution that broadcasting has made to the art of storytelling.”

The success of 'Fifty Shades' raised questions about fan fiction and copyright

James might've revised her "Twilight" fan fiction book "Master of the Universe" before it was republished as "Fifty Shades of Grey," but studies found that the two manuscripts were essentially the same text. Some wondered whether that meant Stephanie Meyer, author of "Twilight," was entitled to royalties, though Meyer never pursued legal action.

Valentine's Day's namesake is unclear

Valentine, which means "powerful" or "worthy," was a popular name in the Roman Empire. Considering that, it's no surprise that there's more than one St. Valentine. In fact, three different men named Valentine were martyred on February 14, and none of them, despite some unproven legends, were ever associated with love or romance.

Taylor Swift's songwriting resonated with teenage girls around the world

One fan recalls that the themes of Swift's early songs included hope, betrayal, and a sense of being unremarkable but wanting to be special. She argues that these themes were especially powerful to young girls, regardless of where they were from.

Sartre and de Beauvoir had an open romantic relationship

The two figureheads of existentialist thought were romantic partners, though they had a publicly open relationship and never lived together. As de Beauvoir says in the interview below, "third persons knew our relationship dwarfed any we could have with them."

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Cosplay isn't just costumes—it's deeply personal, say early fandom scholars

Cosplay began as a form of "embodying" beloved characters rather than performing for an audience. Cosplay is a deeply personal form of identity—more about internal connection than public performance.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.