The termination of the Victorian Era marked a sharp turn in British history, and, at the same time, the beginning of the new development of all kinds of British popular fiction. Especially historical romance, at the first years of the 20th century, maintained new, powerful momentum of development, not only in quantity but also in quality. The flourishing of “new” historical romance was interlinked with historical transformations. The scourge of the World War, the independence of Ireland, the outbreak of the big strike, the collapse of the stock market, and the rocketing of the unemployment rate, all led to people's desperate desire to escape the harsh reality, and back into faraway history. And numerous popular writers, in order to satisfy such an escapist inclination, began to use “new” devices to increase the “escapist values” of their stories, which gradually evolved into a new subgenre known as new historical romance.
Compared with early historical romance, new historical romance differentiates itself by setting its stories in various imaginary kingdoms, castles and mysterious countries, and by developing its themes through action packed adventurous plots. Usually, the hero was a gentleman from the upper class, or a nobleman from the royal family, who exhibited exceptional courage and swordsmanship, with a strong chivalric sense of honor and justice, and a capacity for wit, style, and resourcefulness under pressure. What's more, a new plot pattern—rescue pattern—was produced, in which, the hero often rescues a weak person's life, particularly a helpless woman's life, from evil forces, and finally wins the heroine's heart by gallantry, or fights against evil forces to save social security, regardless of his personal dangers.