One of a few books that deals with history of romance novels is Červená knihovna, Studie literárně historická by Dagmar Mocná. In this work, Mocná tried to map the history and tradition of the genre from the beginning of the 20 century to 1945.
According to Mocná, expansion of romance novels in the Czech Republic started in the second part of 19 century and reached its top point before WWII. The Common name for romance novels was "Red Library". "Red Library" is a specific Czech designation for books that are determined for women. "Red Library" was a name of certain edition of romance novels published by joint-stock company "Family" during the 1920's and 1930's. The books were bound in a red canvas with an emblem "R" (rodina, which means family). Red colour of canvas binding should represent heart and therefore love (Mocná 1996: 14).
In the 1920's and 1930's romance novels were based on three models. Social story dealt with love between two people who came from different social classes, model of grudge described hostility between the main hero and heroin that eventually become lovers and the third model depicted how the poor, unsophisticated girl worked her way up and became successful and independent. As far as the third model is concerned the love story between the couple was less important and stressed. Attention was focused on the successful career and the independence of the main heroin. The third model represented the new trend that started to appear in romance novels after the WWI. (Mocná 1996: 97)
Swift changes of life style after the WWI influenced the style of writing of romance novels. The authors had to adapt their stories to reality and to the needs of their readers. They started to pay attention to the individual hero and his or her feelings. Those who managed to combine all three models became the most popular authors of that time. (Mocná 1996: 99)
Many female authors before WWII focused not only on adult women and their problems but also on female teenagers and started to concentrate on the life of teenagers. This is also connected to the change in society, especially in the change of system of education. New types of schools as secondary grammar schools or vocational schools were opened for young girls and that change brought new possibilities for young female generation. They did not have to spend their lives at boarding or monastic schools or at domestic education where strict nuns or governesses had watched them. Love, problems at school and relations among students were the main topics of these novels. As far as the writers are concerned, Jarmila Hiintlová was a typical represent who wrote for both adults and teenagers (Mocná 1996: 153).
Popularity of this kind of romance novels reached its top during the WWII. Then after the 1948, this literature was considered "pulp fiction" and their publishing was stopped for almost forty years. Those readers who were interested in sentimental romance novels had to search for these books in second-hand bookshops, attics, cellars or in their "Granny's library". (11-12)
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An abstract I found and ran through Google Translate gives the following description of the book:
Studies mapping the focal points of the development of Czech consumer literature for women;with chapters devoted to works, among others: Pittnerová Vlasta, Biliánová Popelka, Krásnohorská Eliška, Vyskočil Quido Maria, Šárecká Maryša, Radoměrská Maryna, Merlínová Lída, Blažková Marie, Javořická Vlasta, Hüttlová Jaromíra, Neubauer Vilém, Háj Felix (owner: WagMarie, nee Černá Marie) etc .;with a brief overview of sources and literature (pp. 238-240).
A summary of this can be found in a 2008 dissertation by Jolana Cechová titled "Women's Education in Czech and American Romance Novels" (however, I haven't given this dissertation its own entry, because it seems to be more about "women's fiction" than "romance." The focus with regards to American works is on a novel by Danielle Steel. An archived version can be found here.):
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An abstract I found and ran through Google Translate gives the following description of the book: