Was reading about Boris Akunin this morning (Russian writer of retro detective stuff - pen-name of serious academic), & writer of article said this:
"Hugely successful pulp, marketed as serious fiction and produced by writers from an elite background, would be an anomaly in the West, if we except a single bestseller, never repeated, from Umberto Eco"
I think he's wrong - doesn't that describe Tolkien? (though don't know precisely how Lord of the Rings was "marketed" back when it first came out)
- and isn't it plumb exactly the niche Kate Mosse was aiming for?
And, no expert, but isn't there masses of that sort of thing in French writing?
What do you think, booky people?