English Contemporary Historical Fictions - Essay Example

terary genre, Romance depicts a style of narrative verse or heroic prose that was very much used in Europe during the Middle Ages right up to the time of Renaissance. This literary genre includes passionate love stories which can be fiction or reality or it could be highly adventurous tales about heroic deeds and secret love by knights and passionate ladies. Good examples of Romances are – Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Tempest”. There are yet others who are of the opinion that it is a name that is given to the various languages and people associated with the Latin language.

It is also described as –“A type of narrative fiction characterized by the fanciful, often idealistic, treatment of subject matter; love and adventure are often its principal themes. [. . .]î (Guerin et al. 326). The romantic period spans over the time during which Wordsworth and Coledridge (1798) lived to create wonderful Lyrical Ballads of love and adventure and goes right up to the time Charles Dickens career to 1832. (Holman 405) According to Guerin, Realism is the opposite of Romance, he says –“A manner of presentation in literature that stresses an accurate, perhaps even factual, treatment of subject matter.

Ý The emphasis is on the rational and probable, as opposed, for example, to the romantic” (Guerin et al. 326). Therefore we find that Romance is more fictional than realistic and depends largely on imaginary, fictitious and mysterious characters and settings. Romances as opposed to Realistic stories use passionate love and adventure as a base in writing novels and poetry. Sarah Dunant was born in 1950 and completed her education at Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith, London. Her novel of “The Birth of Venus” (2003) is an inspiring tale of art, politics, danger and passion.

She worked as an actress for some time and then became a novelist, critic and a broadcaster on BBC radio in 1974. She had won many awards for her writing which