The Flame and the Flower
Encyclopedia
The Flame and the Flower (published 1972) is the debut work of romance novel
ist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. The first romance novel to detail physical intimacy between the protagonists, the book revolutionized the historical romance
genre. It was also the first full-length romance novel to be published first in paperback rather than hardback.
for a Christmas present, Woodiwiss appropriated the machine to begin her novel in earnest.
gained visibility in the United States, female sexuality became more open. The United States Supreme Court effectively gutted the nation's obscenity laws in 1966, ruling in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that the state could not ban the reprint of John Cleland
's erotic novel Fanny Hill
. Attitudes toward premarital sex also relaxed considerably. In 1972, less than 40% of American women fully or conditionally endorsed premarital sex; by 1982, 58% of women had adopted this attitude.
Woodiwiss's finished work, The Flame and the Flower, was 600 pages long. It was rejected by multiple agents and hardcover publishers for its length. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, Woodiwiss instead submitted it to paperback publisher Avon Books. Avon editor Nancy Coffey pulled the manuscript from the slush pile
and liked what she read. Avon purchased the publication rights from Woodiwiss for $1,500 and agreed to pay her 4% of the royalties.
The encounter left Heather pregnant, and a magistrate forces Brandon to marry her. Neither is pleased with their new situation. Over the next few months, as they prepare for and undertake a voyage to Brandon's home in Charleston, South Carolina
, their feelings for each other begin to soften.
Once in the United States, Heather is plagued by Louisa Wells, Brandon's jealous former betrothed, who attempts to drive a wedge between the couple. Other jealous girls, including Sybil Scott, also try to cause problems between Heather and Brandon. Heather and Brandon continue to misunderstand each other's motives, leading to much tension between them. Heather eventually gives birth to a healthy son, Beau. Several months later, Heather and Brandon resolve their differences, profess their love to each other, and share a bed for the first time as husband and wife. The following morning, Sybil Scott is found murdered. Although Brandon is accused of the crime, Heather is able to provide him an alibi.
Soon after, Heather is blackmailed by Thomas Hint, the former assistant to William Court. He threatens to tell the authorities that Heather had killed Court. Hint also informs Louisa that Brandon had discovered Heather on the streets. Louisa believes that Heather was a prostitute, and confronts Brandon and promises to forgive him for his dalliance if Brandon will send Heather back to London and allow Louisa to take her place as wife and mother of Beau. Brandon threatens Louisa and sends her away. When she is found dead the following morning, Brandon is arrested.
Heather confronts Hint, who confesses to killing both women and then tries to rape her. She is saved by her husband, who had been released from jail. During the ensuing confrontation, Brandon is shot in the arm. Hint escapes, but the skittish horse he chose bucked him to the ground. A tree limb collapsed on him, killing him immediately. The charges against Brandon are dropped, and he and Heather live happily ever after.
In many romances, heroines generally did not have strong personalities, and were more submissive to the heroes. Heroines of gothic romances often displayed more spunk, but were still dependent on a wealthy, handsome hero. Woodiwiss developed her female protagonist, Heather, more along the lines of a gothic heroine, as slightly more independent but still occasionally needing a stronger man to rescue her. However, rather than being completely dependent on her hero, Heather acted in a manner that earned his respect along with his love.
Woodiwiss's hero, Brandon, was initially depicted as ominous and dangerous, "darkly tanned" with black hair and a willingness to imprison the heroine to get his way. As the book progressed, the hero was instead subjugated by his love for the heroine. In the novel's climax he was described as "pale" and "trembling", the antithesis of his initial description. In her book The Dangerous Lover, Deborah Lutz labels this reversal a "grandness of contradiction distinct from other romance formulas, particularly earlier ones".
In another departure from romances of the time, The Flame and the Flower took the reader on journey to multiple locales, some exotic for their time. The travel was routine for the hero, but allowed the heroine to have a grand adventure.
The book was scheduled for an initial print run of 500,000 copies. By 1978, it had been through 40 printings and had sold over 4.5 million copies. It was still in print as of 2000.
Publishers wished the cover to reflect the new style of this novel. The book cover was designed by Robert McGinnis
, who had decades of experience with romance novel illustrations. Breaking from traditional romance covers, McGinnis's design made the image much smaller and provided a solid color background. To reflect the more sensusal content of the novel, the cover depicted a couple in a full-embrace rather than subtly hinting at physical contact. The title was displayed in a larger-than-normal font. The standards McGinnis set with this cover were used for subsequent sensual historical romances.
. In 1975, Publishers Weekly reported that these four "Avon originals" had sold a combined 8 million copies. Avon's "extraordinary success" led other paperback publishing firms to begin featuring original works by new authors. Avon became known as the premier publishing company for new writers of romance novels.
Between 1972 and 1974, the popularity of gothic romances began to wane. The roots of this decline may lie in the sexual revolution
and the feminist movement and are likely entwined with the success of The Flame and the Flower. Women were more accepting of, and possibly actively looking for, increased sensuality in novels. This novel–along with Woodiwiss's second and the two Rogers books–essentially established a new style of romance writing, the sensual historical romance. In 1976, over 150 historical romance novels, many of them paperback originals, were published, selling over 40 million copies. These novels were historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. This new type of novel, also occasionally referred to as an epic romance, featured longer plots and more intimate and steamy sex scenes. Female characters often travelled to exotic locations and historical incidents or issues were often used as plot points.
The Flame and the Flower directly inspired LaVyrle Spencer
and Jude Deveraux
to begin their own careers as historical romance novelists. According to Deveraux, she began work on The Enchanted Land the day after finishing Woodiwiss's novel.
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
ist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. The first romance novel to detail physical intimacy between the protagonists, the book revolutionized the historical romance
Historical romance
Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...
genre. It was also the first full-length romance novel to be published first in paperback rather than hardback.
Author
As a child, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss relished creating her own stories, and by age six was telling herself stories at night to help fall asleep. After she married, Woodiwiss continued to think of plots. Several times she attempted to write a novel, but each time stopped in frustration at the slow pace of writing a novel longhand. After buying her husband an electric typewriterTypewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
for a Christmas present, Woodiwiss appropriated the machine to begin her novel in earnest.
Society
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the feminist movementFeminist movement
The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...
gained visibility in the United States, female sexuality became more open. The United States Supreme Court effectively gutted the nation's obscenity laws in 1966, ruling in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that the state could not ban the reprint of John Cleland
John Cleland
John Cleland was an English novelist most famous and infamous as the author of Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure....
's erotic novel Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748...
. Attitudes toward premarital sex also relaxed considerably. In 1972, less than 40% of American women fully or conditionally endorsed premarital sex; by 1982, 58% of women had adopted this attitude.
Publication
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were two routes to publication for romance novels. Short novels which followed a conventional plot pattern and were set in contemporary times were known as category romances. These were distributed to drugstores and other mass-market outlets and were generally available for only one month before being pulled from the shelves. Longer novels, set in either contemporary or historical times, were published in hardback.Woodiwiss's finished work, The Flame and the Flower, was 600 pages long. It was rejected by multiple agents and hardcover publishers for its length. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, Woodiwiss instead submitted it to paperback publisher Avon Books. Avon editor Nancy Coffey pulled the manuscript from the slush pile
Slush pile
In publishing, the slush pile is the set of unsolicited query letters or manuscripts sent either directly to the publisher or literary agent by authors, or to the publisher by an agent not known to the publisher....
and liked what she read. Avon purchased the publication rights from Woodiwiss for $1,500 and agreed to pay her 4% of the royalties.
Plot summary
The novel is set at the turn of the 19th century. After Heather Simmons, a penniless orphan, kills a man named William Court who was attempting to rape her, she flees the scene. Near the London dockside, she is accosted by two men who mistake her for a prostitute and escorted onto a ship. Heather believes she has been arrested for murder. Unaware of the misconceptions on both sides, the captain of the ship, Brandon Birmingham, has sexual intercourse with her. The following morning he discovers the truth and offers to make Heather his mistress. She declines.The encounter left Heather pregnant, and a magistrate forces Brandon to marry her. Neither is pleased with their new situation. Over the next few months, as they prepare for and undertake a voyage to Brandon's home in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, their feelings for each other begin to soften.
Once in the United States, Heather is plagued by Louisa Wells, Brandon's jealous former betrothed, who attempts to drive a wedge between the couple. Other jealous girls, including Sybil Scott, also try to cause problems between Heather and Brandon. Heather and Brandon continue to misunderstand each other's motives, leading to much tension between them. Heather eventually gives birth to a healthy son, Beau. Several months later, Heather and Brandon resolve their differences, profess their love to each other, and share a bed for the first time as husband and wife. The following morning, Sybil Scott is found murdered. Although Brandon is accused of the crime, Heather is able to provide him an alibi.
Soon after, Heather is blackmailed by Thomas Hint, the former assistant to William Court. He threatens to tell the authorities that Heather had killed Court. Hint also informs Louisa that Brandon had discovered Heather on the streets. Louisa believes that Heather was a prostitute, and confronts Brandon and promises to forgive him for his dalliance if Brandon will send Heather back to London and allow Louisa to take her place as wife and mother of Beau. Brandon threatens Louisa and sends her away. When she is found dead the following morning, Brandon is arrested.
Heather confronts Hint, who confesses to killing both women and then tries to rape her. She is saved by her husband, who had been released from jail. During the ensuing confrontation, Brandon is shot in the arm. Hint escapes, but the skittish horse he chose bucked him to the ground. A tree limb collapsed on him, killing him immediately. The charges against Brandon are dropped, and he and Heather live happily ever after.
Genre
At the time of this novel's publication, romance novels, especially those distributed in mass-market format, were generally very chaste, with minimal physical intimacy between the protagonists. Heroines remained virgins–or chaste widows–throughout the novel. The Flame and the Flower departed from this notion quite early in the book,The initial sex scene took place on page 28. (Frum (2000), p. 193.) becoming the first romance novel to explicitly detail sexual conduct between the protagonists. The sexual encounters were not only more graphic, but also more violent. The heroine was not only raped by her future husband, but two other men attempted to rape her. The initial rape was used as a plot point to overcome the societal norms which frowned on premarital sex. Instead of being described as a completely violent act, the rape was depicted as an "erotic fantasy" of subjugation.In many romances, heroines generally did not have strong personalities, and were more submissive to the heroes. Heroines of gothic romances often displayed more spunk, but were still dependent on a wealthy, handsome hero. Woodiwiss developed her female protagonist, Heather, more along the lines of a gothic heroine, as slightly more independent but still occasionally needing a stronger man to rescue her. However, rather than being completely dependent on her hero, Heather acted in a manner that earned his respect along with his love.
Woodiwiss's hero, Brandon, was initially depicted as ominous and dangerous, "darkly tanned" with black hair and a willingness to imprison the heroine to get his way. As the book progressed, the hero was instead subjugated by his love for the heroine. In the novel's climax he was described as "pale" and "trembling", the antithesis of his initial description. In her book The Dangerous Lover, Deborah Lutz labels this reversal a "grandness of contradiction distinct from other romance formulas, particularly earlier ones".
In another departure from romances of the time, The Flame and the Flower took the reader on journey to multiple locales, some exotic for their time. The travel was routine for the hero, but allowed the heroine to have a grand adventure.
Publication
Like most paperback publishers, Avon chose one book each month to receive extensive advertising and a larger than normal print run. In 1970, Avon had broken with tradition by selecting Burt Hirschfield's Fire Island, which had not previously been published in hardback, as a featured title. After reading The Flame and the Flower, Coffey believed that it, like Fire Island, could be a successful original feature. With its April 1972 publication as an "Avon Spectacular" book,, the novel became the first single-title romance novel to be published as an original paperback.Category romances were always published originally in paperback; romances that did not fit into a category line debuted in hardcover. Like category romances, it was distributed in drug stores and other mass-market merchandising outlets. Paperback books generally were not reviewed by critics. The novel's more erotic content probably contributed to it being a better candidate for initial paperback release rather than hardcover.The book was scheduled for an initial print run of 500,000 copies. By 1978, it had been through 40 printings and had sold over 4.5 million copies. It was still in print as of 2000.
Publishers wished the cover to reflect the new style of this novel. The book cover was designed by Robert McGinnis
Robert McGinnis
Robert McGinnis is an American artist and illustrator. McGinnis is known for his illustrations of over 1200 paperback book covers, and over 40 movie posters, including Breakfast at Tiffanys , Barbarella, and several James Bond and Matt Helm films.-Biography:Born Robert Edward McGinnis in...
, who had decades of experience with romance novel illustrations. Breaking from traditional romance covers, McGinnis's design made the image much smaller and provided a solid color background. To reflect the more sensusal content of the novel, the cover depicted a couple in a full-embrace rather than subtly hinting at physical contact. The title was displayed in a larger-than-normal font. The standards McGinnis set with this cover were used for subsequent sensual historical romances.
Influence
Avon followed its release of The Flame and the Flower with the 1974 publication of Woodiwiss's second novel, The Wolf and the Dove and two similarly themed novels by newcomer Rosemary RogersRosemary Rogers
Rosemary Rogers, née Rosemary Janz is a best-selling author of historical romance novels. Her first book, Sweet Savage Love, was published in 1974. She was the second romance author, after Kathleen Woodiwiss, to have her novels published in trade paperback format...
. In 1975, Publishers Weekly reported that these four "Avon originals" had sold a combined 8 million copies. Avon's "extraordinary success" led other paperback publishing firms to begin featuring original works by new authors. Avon became known as the premier publishing company for new writers of romance novels.
Between 1972 and 1974, the popularity of gothic romances began to wane. The roots of this decline may lie in the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
and the feminist movement and are likely entwined with the success of The Flame and the Flower. Women were more accepting of, and possibly actively looking for, increased sensuality in novels. This novel–along with Woodiwiss's second and the two Rogers books–essentially established a new style of romance writing, the sensual historical romance. In 1976, over 150 historical romance novels, many of them paperback originals, were published, selling over 40 million copies. These novels were historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. This new type of novel, also occasionally referred to as an epic romance, featured longer plots and more intimate and steamy sex scenes. Female characters often travelled to exotic locations and historical incidents or issues were often used as plot points.
The Flame and the Flower directly inspired LaVyrle Spencer
LaVyrle Spencer
LaVyrle Spencer is an American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers...
and Jude Deveraux
Jude Deveraux
Jude Deveraux is an American Romance novel author who is well-known for her historical romances. As of 2010, 36 of her novels had been on The New York Times Best Seller list according to Forbes, including among the dozens such titles as 2009's Lavender Morning and Days of Gold...
to begin their own careers as historical romance novelists. According to Deveraux, she began work on The Enchanted Land the day after finishing Woodiwiss's novel.
Sequels
- "The Kiss", an anthology from Three Weddings and a Kiss, 1995
- "Beyond the Kiss", an anthology from Married at Midnight', 1996
- A Season Beyond a Kiss, 2000
- The Elusive Flame, 1998