Books that changed our life: Every girl’s right of passage

By Leica R. Carpo, Publisher
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

I COULD say it was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby,” Dickens’ “Great Expectations” or even Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” that turned me onto reading. But that would be a lie. I must confess that historical novels were my secret passion and I was a Barbara Cartland girl first and foremost. I fell in love first with the opulent 18th century Regency settings and later with the witty repartee between the spitfire heroines and the handsome cynical heroes. Cartland’s ladies often found themselves living in beautiful windswept Scottish moors, trapped in decadent Moorish kasbahs or bored silly by the London season of whirlwind balls and soirees. The heroines almost always turn out to be long lost daughters of Dukes and Marquis who had to work as governesses to make ends meet or who happened to stow aboard pirate ships disguised as deck hands seeking freedom from wicked guardians and arranged marriages.

I don’t remember the exact title of the Regency Romance that made the biggest impact in my life, but the courage of the heroines and the chivalry of the gentlemen in the novels translated into my daily life by making me expect ‘romance and gentlemanly behavior’ from all my future suitors.

Moreover this was a secret I shared with my Abuelita (grandmother) who was my main supplier as I was only 10 years old at the time and my mom was still buying me Nancy Drew books. I still remember Abuelita reclining in her chaise lounge near a big picture window overlooking the garden at three in the afternoon enjoying the latest Cartland installment. She believed in taking time to enjoy life, traveling as an integral way to round out one’s education and reading romance novels as every girl’s right of passage. She was from an era when “happily ever afters” was the norm and not just found in books.

I no longer read Cartland novels or expect “happily ever afters,” but to this day I don’t expect chivalry — I demand it.

From this week on, the intrepid staffers of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine will share their thoughts on all sorts of ideas arising from the week’s forthcoming issue of SIM. It is available exclusively on INQUIRER.net and will serve as an appetizer for the Sunday lineup.

For more books — life-changing, uplifting or plain entertaining — check out the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Summer Reading Issue this Sunday, March 30.