The women of this generation and over the last few generations have grown up reading romance novels, the Mills and Boon variety with great interest. Have the expectations of what women want in the ideal man changed due to the strong influence of the genre of the romantic novel? Literature has been a powerful medium of change over the centuries. Have romance novels changed the minds and the attitudes of women towards men for the better or for the worse?
When women search for the ideal man, do they search for the story book personalities which seem so perfect and romantic? The traits of the story book lover and hero is so exciting in the mind of the young school girl, who gradually transforms into the young lady, from the rebellious teenager at College and the strong-minded university student. The novel romantic hero is the type who is usually an outsider, a man with dark shadows lurking in his past, the man who is ready to protect his woman, the man who is blameless to the young woman he loves, the man who only can exist in the realm of the romance book.
What is the secret formula which is necessary for every novelist who sits down to create her romantic hero? The hero is an outsider who enters the world of the heroine, he turns her world upside down, saves her from the evils she has to face, vanquishes the villain who strives to capture her and then finally triumphs to have the fair lady in wrapped in his arms, as their world is bathed in the warmth of romantic glow and sunshine.
It may not be too long now before men start putting pen to paper and writing romantic novels through the male perspective. At least then men will have an idea about what it takes to become a romantic book hero who would appeal to every romantic woman who has grown up on a staple diet of romantic Mills and Boon novels.
