The Wedding | Literary Precedents

The Wedding Literary Precedents

In many ways, Steel fits firmly into the same literary circle occupied by Jayne Ann Krentz, Jude Devereaux, and Nora Roberts— romance novelists. A romance typically has a predictable plot, which takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride. (Incidentally, in the nineteenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne classified some of his great novels such as The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables as romances, and one defining characteristic, to him, was the excess of emotion, or, in other words, the focus on "heart" rather than "head".) The structure of the plot is marked by love, tragedy, loss, healing, and new love, and in the end, the fairy tale "happily ever after" sentiment prevails.

Undoubtedly, The Wedding follows this plot structure, for Allegra did think she had found love with Brandon, but his infidelity ended their relationship. However, this loss awakened her to reality and to the...
(read more)