Rewriting the Wallflowers: Revisionist History

from Shelf Love: Romance Novel Discourse · host Tehyah Carver

Have you read Lisa Kleypas's neogothic duology: Devil in Winter and It Happened One Autumn? Tehyah Carver shares her provocative claims about Kleypas’s Wallflower series, including how St. Vincent is a gothic heroine. We also discuss the revisions the author made to the texts around 2021, theories on why the changes were made, and how we feel about them.What differentiates a villain from an interesting character in romance and how have contemporary romance readers' expectations evolved and what are the broader implications of rewriting problematic elements in historical romance fiction?00:00 Tehyah’s Romance Credentials03:57 Lisa Kleypas's Novels07:07 The Magic of Stony Cross Park11:23 Romance Genre and Reader Response18:26 Neogothic Romance and Social Anxieties23:52 Revisions in Romance Novels51:18 What kind of dog is Sebastian St. Vincent?51:55 Sebastian's Villainous Nature and Reader Perspectives53:47 Gothic Elements in Devil in Winter55:48 Sebastian as a Gothic Heroine57:44 Cam's Role and Racial Elements01:06:42 Sebastian's Masculinity and Gender Roles01:15:01 Revisions and Reader Perceptions01:27:01 Don’t be Boring: Concluding Thoughts on RomanceGuest: Tehyah CarverPhD student at Teachers College Columbia University, “real” romance fan and legit scholarInstagram | PhD ProfileDiscussed:Lisa Kleypas Wallflower series: Devil in Winter & It Happened One Autumn: Neogothic Duology, plus Secrets of a Summer NightRoutledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction (2021): Edited By Jayashree Kamblé, Eric Murphy Selinger, Hsu-Ming TeoChapter 4: Gothic Romance by Angela Toscano Shelf Love:NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeEmail: [email protected]

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This episode is 1 hour and 39 minutes long.

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This episode was published on October 14, 2025.

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