ABSTRACT
Leon Garfield's The Book Lovers is one of a cluster of books for adolescents that feature characters who are skilful and committed readers and who are also successful in love. Most children's books that contain a love story perpetuate the stereotype of the romantic inadequacies of the 'bluestocking' girl and the 'nerdy' boy reader. In the group of books considered the characters are depicted as admirable lovers. In the case of the first courtly lovers, readers are encouraged to regard the young man's condition as ennobling, since in striving to demonstrate his worth and win her love cultivated. The final extract in the volume is presented to the pair by an elderly scholar who has been observing their progress. Although The Book Lovers stays safely within the traditions of courtly love, subsequent books featuring adolescent reader-lovers are more inclined to trust characters who have done their homework by studying love on the page before moving on to real life.
