LOOKING FOR REALITY IN ROMANCE lives. This we have to accept. It is no use denying that we are left searching for romance in reality. An interminable search that will go on forever. NOTES An earlier version of this paper was written in Bangla and presented at Bikalpachinta, Women's Studies, Jadavpur University under the supervision of Sibaji Bandyopadhyay. Jasodhara Bagchi encouraged me to write this enlarged and altered version in English. I am greatly indebted to Aniruddha Lahiri and Sunandan Chakraborty for their comments and corrections. I refer mainly to Mills and Boon because it is the most widely read romance series in India. This is true at least in Calcutta. Though one may occasionally come across Silhouette, Candlelight, Fawcette, Avon, Worldwide or Harlequin romances, they are not frequently available. Moreover, from my experience, I gather that Silhouette follows almost the same pattern as Mills and Boon, the main difference is while the former is an American Canadian company the latter is English. Harlequin, of course, is a sister concern of Mills and Boon, which publishes the Mills and Boon titles in America. Rosalind Coward, "Are Women's Novels Feminist Novels?", The New Feminist Criticism Essays on women, literature and theory, edited by Elaine Showalter, Virago Press, London, 1993. Ibid. John and Caitlin Matthews, A Fairy Tale Reader: A collection of story, Lore and Vision, The Aquarian Press, 1993. Radway Janice A., Reading the Romance Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Verso, London, 1987. Ibid.