Reddit mentions of Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained: Expanded Edition

Novels as a device were actually originally targeted at women and considered low brow trash. Because women. If you've ever read Northanger Abbey there's a line where Jane Austen actually addresses this:

>“It is only a novel... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language”

People of substance read histories and philosophy and things to "better" themselves, and you wouldn't dare let a gentleman catch you doing anything as untoward as novel reading, heaven forfend!

There's an ebook called "Dangerous Books for Girls" that actually really gets into this.