V.V. (1) Picaresque novel

[Thomas Eckhardt]

I assume that it is still the plot and stereotypes of medieval romance, as
ridiculed in Cervantes, which holds people in its grip. I wouldn't know about
the hero of American pulp romance, but in Germany it seems that the knight is
either an aristocrat or a physician, and sometimes both, the white horse has
turned into a Porsche or a Mercedes Benz, the castle into a country-seat, the
maiden endangered by the dragon into a middle-class girl (who sometimes, as
turns out in the end, is of noble birth, too) imprisoned by her social
surrounding (this is a very simplistic view, and I may certainly be wrong,
having no first-hand knowledge). These novels are indeed mostly read by women,
as observations during countless rides on the underground have sufficiently
proven to me - the men are usually reading computer magazines. It may well have
been so in the 18th century, too, I think. The topic turns up in M&D's framing
narrative (to put it bluntly: Euphrenia imagining being captivated by pirates
while her husband is concentrating on clock-time and making money, if I remember
correctly).

Thomas