Preview

Reviews and Commentary

"At last - a critical work on romance that I can recommend as a balanced, knowledgeable and informed read!" - Kate Walker, author of over 50 Harlequin Mills & Boon romances

"This book is [...] both clever and honourable in its approach -- a rare and admirable combination. The cleverness lies in Vivanco's use of Northrop Frye's literary modes [...]. The honour is in the book's readability and friendliness to anyone interested. Much contemporary litcrit [...] has [...] an unrelenting elitism in the use of very polysyllabic and abstract jargon with which even specialists struggle and which is for the general reader usually an insurmountable barrier. Vivanco, contrariwise, makes her clever thinking seem straightforward, and writes easily and well." - John Lennard (my editor)

"Readers of genre fiction often grow tired of justifying their particular taste against charges of literary inferiority. Not so [...] Laura Vivanco, whose closely reasoned and wide-ranging academic defence of Harlequin Mills & Boon novels – For Love and Money – was published this week." - Spurtle

For Love and Money in the Classroom

"My sense so far, based on class discussion, is that For Love and Money not only introduces students to some very useful ideas about the genre, but also models the application of those ideas in the form of good, thoughtful close readings. So far, in short, so good!" - from the second of Professor Eric Selinger's blog posts about his experiences of using For Love and Money in ENG 383 (Women and Literature: Popular Romance Fiction) at DePaul University. Posts (1) and (2).

The Cover

When I started to think about the cover of For Love and Money I knew I wanted it to include an image which would symbolise Harlequin Mills & Boon. Obviously I couldn't use any of their logos: they belong to Harlequin Mills & Boon and I didn't want to imply that the company endorses my book. I did, however, draw inspiration from them.

J. Herrera's 3D "rosa roja" (made available under a Creative Commons licence) was a little more shiny than what I had in mind, but once I'd printed it onto white paper and cut it out, it was just the right texture.  I then took another piece of white paper, cut a rhombus-shaped hole in it and folded back the edges. My rose could then 'grow' out of the rhombus-shaped hole, as though it were emerging from the book itself. With the white paper placed over a black background, low lighting to create shadows, and a tiny bit of digital manipulation, I ended up with this photo:

My publisher then added the text and changed the colour of the background to make it a more eye-catching shade of yellow/orange.

Both the Harlequin and the Mills  & Boon logos draw on existing iconographic traditions. Harlequin's is clearly based on the Commedia dell'arte character of Arlecchino, who wears a "diamond-patterned costume". The Mills & Boon rose has changed over the years but was presumably chosen because of the flower's romantic associations. As for the rose on my cover, the way it which it emerges from a slit in the paper seems rather apt in the context of the sexual symbolism I discuss in Chapter 4.

Blogging about the Book

Rules and Romance - at Liz Fielding's blog

Mass Production and Formula - at the Pink Heart Society

For Art or Money? - at Read React Review

Medievalism, Me and HM&B - at She-Wolf

Australian Romance - at the Australian Women Writers blog

Where to Buy

Ebook (PDF): ISBN 978-1-84760-195-7 from Humanities Ebooks

Print (paperback): ISBN 978-1-84760-196-4 from Amazon .com .de .fr .uk, The Book Depository.co.uk, The Book Depository.com and Lulu

Kindle: ISBN 978-1-84760-197-1 from Amazon .com .de .es .fr .it .uk