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What is the Regency?
The differences between
Regency romances and Regency-set historicals
The Appeal of Regency Romances
Other articles:
Ranks, Titles, and Forms of Address
Five reasons why writing Regency
romances is such fun
Harps and Harping
Strictly speaking, the period of British history known
as the Regency began in 1811, when King George III was declared irrevocably
insane and his oldest son, George, the Prince of Wales, became the
Prince Regent, and ruled the country in his father's stead. It ended
until 1820, when King George III died and the Prince Regent became King
George IV.
King George III's illness had almost led to a Regency on
two other occasions, the first in 1788. It was then that the Prince
of Wales became an important figure in government, although his father
recovered before a regency could be created. The period from 1788
to 1830, when King George IV died, is often called the "extended Regency."
The Regency was an era of elegance and upheaval, which
saw great changes politically, socially, militarily, and technologically.
It was also the beginning of the industrial revolution, agricultural
reform, and a general movement of much of the populace from the countryside
to the cities. Also, during this period, we can see hints of the development
of social consciousness and women’s rights.
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The differences between
Regency romances
and Regency-set historical romances
People often ask me what the difference is between Regency
romances and Regency-set historical romances. Here is a list of some
of the differences. Please keep in mind that if you ask twenty authors,
you will get twenty different opinions. <g> This is just my
opinion, not a definitive list.
Traditional Regencies have the words "Regency Romance"
on the cover. They are published by Signet and Zebra (and by Mills
& Boon in England). They are usually set in England between about
1800 and 1820, but books with military themes might be set in Spain
or Brussels or Vienna.
Traditional Regencies are shorter than Regency-set historicals
-- about 75,000 words for Signet and Zebra Regencies, compared to
100,000 for historicals. As a result, traditional Regencies have fewer
subplots than historicals.
Traditional Regencies are almost always comedy of manners
romances. They can be lighthearted romps or full of angst, but the
rules of Society and polite behavior govern the characters' actions.
If the hero and heroine break the rules, they will suffer the consequences,
and they must deal with those consequences within the constraints of
Society. For example, if an unmarried man and woman are discovered alone
(i.e, without a chaperone), the woman is compromised in the eyes of Society.
An honorable man would feel compelled to propose. The woman would have
to accept or else be ruined. It doesn't matter if they can't stand the
sight of one another; the wedding satisfies the conventions. Society
and societal expectations play a very strong role in traditional Regencies
-- almost as if Society were a character.
In traditional Regencies, the hero or the heroine or both
are almost always members of the aristocracy. One might be of the landed
gentry (a country squire's son or daughter, for example), or genteel (a
clergyman's son or daughter), but it's rare to have a servant or tradesperson
as the hero or heroine. There are some Regencies in which the hero or
heroine is the offspring of a wealthy member of the middle class (a "Cit"),
but the majority have aristocratic or genteel main characters. If one of
main characters isn't an aristocrat, it's nearly always the heroine who
is not. (Readers like handsome, wealthy, titled heroes. <g>)
Traditional Regencies are a lot richer in details of etiquette,
customs, clothing, and scenery than historicals. Traditional Regencies
also tend to be wittier and have more repartee, and the sentence structure
is often more complex. Traditional Regencies frequently have real people
as characters: Beau Brummell, Prinny, the patronesses of Almack's,
etc. In other words, traditional Regencies capture the elegance and
the "glitter" of the era; historicals are more likely to deal with social
ills or the more "gritty" aspects of life.
In traditional Regencies, it's very unusual for the hero
and heroine to make love before marriage. If they do make love, either
before or after marriage, little detail is given. And whatever is described
isn't graphic, concentrating more on the emotional than the physical.
Common plots for traditional Regencies are: marriages of
convenience, compromising situations, arranged (or forced) marriage
becomes a love match, love match between an employer and his governess,
a guardian falling in love with his ward, an evil or disapproving guardian
who must be gotten round, huge gambling losses, mistaken identities,
house parties that lead to love matches, young ladies trying to disguise
themselves as boys, lost heirs or inheritances, unexpected heirs or inheritances,
war/military stories, spying or smuggling or highwaymen themes.
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The Appeal of Regency
Romances
A good book is like a favorite dessert: rich or sweet or
savory and a wonderful way to end the day. Romance novels, like desserts,
are expected to adhere to a recipe or formula. In the case of romances,
that recipe is boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl
overcome obstacles, boy and girl marry and live happily ever after.
A good romance will have enough variation on the formula to stand out
from others in its genre.
It's no secret that I like Regencies. One of the main reasons
I find Regency romances so appealing is because they provide such a
lovely framework for the standard romance formula. In Regency England
(and for several hundred years before and nearly a hundred years after),
there was a fairly standard procedure for upper-class men and women to
meet and become better acquainted with each other. The daily activities
of the upper-class -- riding, shopping, visiting, gossiping, eating, driving
in the park, flirting, dancing, gambling -- support and enhance the
plot, whatever that plot may be. The morals and mores of the era were,
shall we say, somewhat flexible, allowing a plethora of distinctive characters:
virginal misses, hoydens, originals, diamonds of the first water, Corinthians,
dandies, fops, rakes, rogues, dashing military men, and honorable gentlemen.
Regency romances are rich in details of etiquette, customs,
clothing, and scenery. Although I enjoy these descriptions very much,
I read the novels for the characters and their conversations. Regencies
have more secondary characters than most other romances. This is because
the hero and heroine have servants and relatives -- lots of relatives.
Parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins;
some have a step-parent and step-siblings or half-siblings. To my great
delight, all of these people talk: some are witty, some are arrogant,
some speak eloquently, some irreverently, some eruditely, some foolishly,
some speak without listening, or speak before thinking, but they all talk.
I love the conversations, especially the witty ones and the eloquent ones.
The dialogue in Regency romances is, in my admittedly prejudiced opinion,
far superior to that in most romance novels.
As for the plots, Regency romances have mistaken identities,
long lost heirs, long lost spouses, unexpected inheritances, expected
inheritances which don't materialize, love at first sight, or marriages
of convenience. About the only consistent thing about the plots is
that regardless of the circumstance under which the hero and heroine
meet, they will fall in love by the end of the story. That ending is
an important part of why I read Regency romances. At the beginning I
don't know how they will get to that happy ending nor do I know what will
happen along the way, but I know that somewhere, somehow they will fall
in love and that I'll find their route to happily ever after amusing.
Although it is difficult to generalize since Regency romances
vary as much as the books in any other genre do, most Regencies are
witty and light-hearted. They are comedy of manners stories that capture
the elegance of this glittering but fleeting romantic era.
Have I convinced you yet? <g> If you have never read
a Regency romance, I hope you will give them a try. I especially
hope you will try reading one of mine. : )
Susannah
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