What is the definition of romance?
I think it goes beyond sex, or companionship, or marriage, or love.
It goes beyond all of these things put together.
Romance has that mystical quality. It is indefinable. It is accidental.
My own parents are divorced and have been for many years. Coming at a young and impressionable age, it may not have been the best preparation for my own life and marriage, and of course now I wonder at the impact on Meredith.
To think of our parents in romantic terms is difficult, for we know them too well.
Romance is the meeting of two minds, the coming together of two people in a relationship that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Romance is, in short, a love affair.
It is an ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people in love.
It is a strong, sometimes short-lived attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something. To fall in love with an idea or ideal.
It holds a mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful, for example the ruins of an ancient abbey and the ghosts that dwell within.
It is a long medieval narrative in prose or verse that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes, the Arthurian tales of old, a long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place.
It is a class of literature constituted by such tales.
It is an artistic work, such as a novel, story, or film, that deals with sexual love, especially in an idealized form.
It is the class or style of such works.
It is a fictitiously embellished account or explanation. It is a lyrical, tender, usually sentimental song or short instrumental piece. It is, in many words, the Romance languages which developed from Latin, including Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.
It is to invent, to write, or to tell romances.
It is to think or to behave in a romantic manner, i.e., to be ‘a romantic.’
It is to make love to; to court or to woo.
It is to have a love affair with someone that we otherwise may have never known.
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