We’re back with another promo bookmark, this time a classic from a 1981 bodice-ripper. I must have picked up the bookmark at the same time, as it’s been in my collection forever. How could I throw out such a beauty? It’s ravishing!

Looking at it again made me curious about the book. Was it even still in print? I did some digging and found out the following.

(1) The fact that I’d never heard of the author only betrays my ignorance of the genre. Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (1939-2007) “is credited with spawning the modern romance genre” with her 1972 novel The Flame and the Flower, which introduced sex into historical fiction (this comes from Wikipedia). Apparently her novels sold more than 36 million copies and were translated into many different languages.

(2) This particular book is still in print. I found it listed on Amazon, along with a half dozen other historical romances also titled A Rose in Winter. I guess you can’t copyright something so generic.

(3) The Amazon page has the top three “selected highlights” by readers of the Kindle edition. These are the passages that readers thought most worth flagging:

From a time long ago, when her dreams had held such grand illusions of a prince offering a single rose to vow his love to his lady fair, she recalled a legend that a rose found in winter brought the promise of true love found.

“Were a twisted, scar-faced, hunchbacked cripple the only other man on earth, I would surely choose him over you!”

“There is revenge, then there is justice. Sometimes the two are met as one.”

It does my heart good to see that great writing is still being appreciated in the digital age.

Book: A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

Bookmarked Bookmarks