Hello, this is the first author review posted on Review Carnival.
Barbara Cartland- Have you ever heard this name?
Some might have vaguely heard it while others have no clue about this person. She is not a very recent writer so many of you might not be knowing about her.
Let's start with biography.
Barbara Cartland was born on 9th July, 1901 (a cancerian). She is a British author and the highest selling romance novelist (shocking data. Wait until you hear the next line). She has sold one billion books worldwide and is outsold by only Shakespere, Agatha Christie and the bible. She is famous for charity and fought for better salary and living conditions for nurses and midwives. She was a very popular celebrity during her golden years and is noted for her preference to pink, heavy makeup and fast writing speed. She was once the author who released the most number of books in a year (25, I think) certified by Guinness. She was described by Vogue Magazine as the 'True Queen of Romance' (no argument there. She died in 2000 at the age of ninety eight or ninety nine.
I started reading Barbara Cartland when I was eleven or twelve. Though I did not like the first book I tried, I liked the second one. As I expanded my Barbara Cartland collection, I grew more and more fond of her books. Now, she is my favourite author.
Her genre is historical romances. Some of you might stop reading at the sight of 'historical' since she was from the victorian era. However, her language though pleasing and sophisticated is simple and she does not complicate the story with too many references to history.
Most of her heroines are pure and innocent while a small potion of them are rebellious and bold. Her heros are usually rich and perfect and even if they are poor, they become rich eventually by acquiring a dead relative's property. Lots of her books have stories of governesses and Marquises.
She has writen over seven hundred novels in her career so many of her stories are similar. Also, her novels are very predictable and have that happy ending we all love.
Idealism is prevelant in all her novels.
Her novels are filled with emotion and that is why I like them very much. Even if half of her novels are copies of the other half, they still never lose the magic, the beautiful feeling of love, joy, satisfaction, discovery and happiness (which Stephanie Meyer's novels greatly lack).
Her novels are clean and contain no adult rated matter.
Rating
Story- 2 (rehashed plots)
Writing style- 4.9 (wonderful!)
Overall- 4.7 (recommended)
However, I must tell you about the cons too.
Thirty percent of her novels are nothing special and you might begin to hate her if you read that 30 percent.
Her plots as I alrady said are too repetitive. They are only wonderful because of the feeling and emotion Barbara Cartland stuffs into the story.
Most of her heroines are extremely weak and innocent. Although innocence is refreshing, weakness is not very encouraging especially coming from a feminist like her.
Her novels are very short (150-230 pages)so, not particularly memorable that's why I reviewed the author and not individual books.
Her novels emphasize on innocence and true love as spiritual and fulfilling and not physical.
Overall, I would recommend this author. She is much better than Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Janet Daily and other recent romance writers who do not live upto her standards. If you want to try romance, she is the right author to start with. She absolutely deserves to be the highest selling romance writer because she is, as Vogue said, 'The True Queen of Romance' and delivers quality. If there's a shining star in the world in the world of romance, it is Barbara Cartland.
Pros
Emotion
Her deep perception of love
Short novels
Great cover art
language/expression
And of course, the happy endings
Cons
Repetitiveness
Slight inconsistency
Weak heroines
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