The bodice ripper is not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can suppose. (With apologies to JBS Haldane.) This episode, we look at how the bodice ripper emerged, glistening, out of the primordial soup of its various predecessors (Gothics, historical epics, family sagas, and coming-of-age stories) only to beget progeny of its own, which in turn begat many, many more--some of which now bear almost no resemblance to the bodice ripper.

CONTENT NOTE: This episode contains discussions of sexual violence.

The texts we discuss:

The Old School/First Wave: 1972-1984

The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss: The big bad mama who kick-started it all. Also mentioned in the first episode.

Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers: Featuring Ginny and Steve, who are not, contrary to what their name suggests, middle-aged swingers from the 1970s.

Devil's Embrace by Catherine Coulter: The bodice ripper that scarred all of us.

The Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux: Kicked off the epic Montgomery/Taggert series, which encompasses 33 books and counting.

Second Wave: 1984-1994

The Windflower by Laura London (Sharon and Tom Curtis): A gentler, kinder bodice ripper! No rape, with misogyny for flavor instead of the main course.

Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught: Yes rape, but also: a lot more hero interiority, and a somewhat more gormful heroine. A crucial bridge book; the two that followed (Once and Always and Something Wonderful) were fully in the second wave: no rape, with the hero's point of view getting equal time on-page as the heroine's.

Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey: Utterly unmemorable, except for the incredible cover.

BONUS: Savage Thunder by Johanna Lindsey, which is also utterly unmemorable except for one Particular Scene, and one Particular Scene only.

Not a Bodice Ripper But....

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of Romance, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz: Collection of essays by many of the biggest names in historical romance that collectively talk about the appeal of the genre, the place rape has in it, the roles heroes and heroines play in the reader imagination, and the direction the genre was headed.

Responses and Reworkings: 1994-2005

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase: Inverts every single bodice ripper trope with great glee and verve.

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas: Lots of attempted rape, but...not by the hero? The hero STOPS the rapes? What's going on here? What happened to our bodice rippers??

To Have and to Hold by Patricia Gaffney: It's like Gaffney went, oh. Oh. You want a libertine hero? You want a true rake? Here. I'm gonna give you a rake. I'm going to show you exactly how repulsive and empty yet strangely compelling he is. And the result is stunning and harrowing.