Amatory Fiction

Amatory fiction is a genre of British literature popular during the late 17th century and 18th century. Amatory fiction predates, and in some ways predicts, the invention of the novel. Amatory fiction was written by women and for women. As its name implies, amatory fiction is preoccupied with sexual love and romance. It is an early predecessor of the romance novel. Indeed, many themes of the contemporary romance novel were first explored in amatory fiction.

Themes of amatory fiction

Amatory fiction is a formulaic genre which always depicted an innocent, trusting woman who was deceived by a self-serving, lustful man. For the women of amatory fiction, love typically ends in misery.

Related Topics:
Innocent - Love

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Authors of amatory fictions often detailed extramarital affairs, which conveniently allowed them to avoid the complications of property, which was a strong motivation for marriage when amatory fiction was popular.

Related Topics:
Affairs - Property - Marriage

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Some works of amatory fiction were amoral, and allowed their characters to commit scandalous love affairs without being "punished" based on themes of Christian, social, legal or other forms of poetic justice.

Related Topics:
Christian - Poetic justice

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