Jane Austen
Some authors are formula writers, even some great authors like e.g. Jane Austen, although nobody would call her that as the term is considered derogatory. Someone like e.g. Philippa Gregory, who has published a lot of historical romances, also is a formula writer: Each one of her books always has a fixated gallery of main characters, namely a Whore and an Angel. The fixated gallery of Jane Austen will be the smart, but not the most beautiful girl who - sometimes to her own surprise - conquers the richest, but very demure and even unpleasant hero, like, for instance, Mr. Darcy of "Pride and Prejudice". When conquered, he changes into a loving husband who simply adores his bride.
Actually, one will meet this very same formula in e.g. the works of the late "Queen of Romance", Barbara Cartland. To me, the consistent formula writings of many female authors signals something very interesting as to the use of these books. They have been the favorite literature of "taken women", i.e. the non-feminist readers, who need to find confirmation of ideologies they have been taught since early childhood: YOU are the ultimate prize of the love game in Patriarchy, not the helpless victim to the ruses of men. Even though you may seem to be suppressed by society, you will always win because you, morally and in other ways, are the one who score the highest.
The predictable storylines of formula fiction is not a coincidence, but what it's all about: Get hold of a confusing world which not always takes too kindly to women.
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