bodice-ripper (1978), bodice-ripping (1979)

[Laurence Horn]

Don't bodice-rippers have to be set in the past, whence the "'hot' historical novel" paraphrase?  A "sexually explicit romantic novel" isn't necessarily a bodice-ripper if it has a contemporary bodice-less setting, such as (I'm told) the "50 Shades of Gray" franchise.

LH

On May 6, 2014, at 9:59 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> OED has "bodice-ripper" = 'a sexually explicit romantic novel' from
> Sept. 1979. Slightly earlier:
>
> ---
> Charitey Simmons, "Dizzying Passion Ruffles the Pages of 'Hot' Historical Novel"
> Chicago Tribune, Feb. 8, 1978, Section 2, p. 4, col. 1
> Publishers call them hot historicals as opposed to either the virginal
> variety Barbara Cartland writes or to the bodice rippers "because
> that's usually what happens to the heroines," Price [sc. Linda Price
> of Bantam Books] explained.
> ---
>
> And here's the verbal noun "bodice-ripping":
>
> ---
> Suzanne Dolezal, "Sizzling Formula for Selling Books"
> Boston Globe, Feb. 21, 1979, p. 59, col. 1
> [Barbara Alpert of Ballantine Books:] "The books are geared to women's
> sensitivities -- ideal love with a little bodice-ripping. You don't
> take them seriously."
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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