The Bluestocking

Indeed, that's what they categorized women who adored reading in the past. The men were scholars but the women, they were merely bluestockings. Unimportant and completely mundane. *makes a face* Seriously, sometimes I'm thoroughly ashamed to be part of the evolving human race when I look into our history.

I read a lot. In fact, I'll read almost any book that perks even the slightest interest in me. For preference though, I've always loved fantasy novels. My favorite motto: why read about reality when you can soar through dreams? Lately, I've gone into a romance phase, despite the dry period in my life, and have come to pick up a fair amount of books under the historical romance genre. See, can't help it. Even when I'm reading other genres I still prefer a little bit of otherworldliness in the stories. After a while, I find that there's a pattern in all the books of this genre. Aside from the happily ever after part, I have discovered that the heroine usually always has to suffer immensely at the hands of the hero - because he is blinded by his pride and insensitivity - before they find true love and happiness. In my confusion, I had a little discussion with my sister: was it just me or does the whole thing seem immensely ludicrous? I'm not saying that the book isn't well written because it is; as is the plot but in terms of reality, is it altogether there? The book I've just finished goes like this...

The heroine is of noble birth and is engaged to another man. The engagement is abruptly broken and she finds herself sold in marriage to his rival who doubly insults her by offering a handfast marriage instead of a proper one. To add criminal insult to injury, given that he suspected (although untrue) she was no virgin and perhaps carried his rival's child, he ravished her on the night of their marriage. Since it was a handfasting marriage, both parties are free to leave the agreement at will. If it were me, I would have ran as far as possible away from him from that spot onwards. The author had already claimed that she hated him at that point, what was to stop her from doing so?

Going forward with the argument that heroine stayed to try and make things work between them, why would she then plan to trap the hero with seduction as her "woman's revenge?" This is not even halfway into the book but I'm going to give up trying to make sense of it now. If I think any more on this subject, my head will explode from all the contradicting facts...

Oh yeah... and then there's my exams on Monday...