Classic Romance Novels: A Starter Pack

These vintage books introduce the archetypes, settings and lavishly bonkers sensibility that are the hallmarks of great romance.

By Olivia Waite

Feb. 5, 2025

Every now and again some starry-eyed optimist tries to craft an all-time best-of romance canon, and the gods laugh and make popcorn for the ensuing discourse fiasco. Romance is a slippery genre — in so many ways — and frequently there’s a seismic shift in the conversation that instantly dates everything that came before. Any individual reader’s perspective is therefore tangled in the cobwebs of time: A Kindle Unlimited reader is going to have a wildly different journey than someone who stole Violet Winspear from the shelves of their mothers and grandmothers. This is true of any genre, of course, but romance has a nonstop fire hose of material.

But the very worst thing about a best-of list is that it’s fatal to the joy of discovery. “Best of” implies that once you’ve read those titles, it’s all downhill from there.

So this list is simply a place to begin. Think of it as a chef’s selection, designed as a balanced meal. All of these books have some quality I consider emblematic of great romance — an archetype or a setting or a lavishly bonkers sensibility.