Of all the romance books ever written, which has the most surprising depths?
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult? No. The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton? No.
The Romance of Pepperell, Being a Brief Account of the Career of Sir William Pepperell, Soldier, Pioneer, American Merchant and Developer of New England Industry, for Whom the Pepperell Manufacturing Company was Named, and the Towns of Saco and Biddeford in the State of Maine, Wherein the First Manufacturing Unit of the Pepperell Company was Established? No.
None of those books approaches the depths of Charles Elton Blanchard‘s 1938 classic, The Romance of Proctology….
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.