ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 highlights the seminal place of the courtship narrative in the British novel’s evolution and sets forth a definition of the courtship novel as a genre reflecting the intertwined nature of comic courtship and tragic seduction scenarios focusing on both male and female protagonists’ love journeys. Besides introducing various danger and safety terms, this chapter lays the historical foundation for the book’s subsequent explorations of specific novels, by linking peril/protection language in courtship novels to both chivalric codes of behavior and conduct book warnings. Through presenting warnings addressed to young women and men, this introductory chapter spotlights tenets of gender ideology that remain prominent during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
