Regency England



The time of simplicity, sly rebellion, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Home of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte heroines who assert their inner strength and independence by marrying dark, obscenely rich mercurial men. Said rich men usually wear long frock coats, wispy hair with sideburns and live in big stone mansions which take up nearly half the planet. Women wear Greco-Roman inspired muslin gowns, which are popular from France, with high waistlines which they can actually breathe in (but which tend to look like nightgowns or maternity gear in the hands of a poor costume designer).

In a strict historical sense, the "Regency era" only encompassed the years 1811 through 1820, during which time the future King George IV held the title of Prince Regent due to his father, George III's, growing mental instability. In its broader literary sense, the term can be used to describe any period in British history ranging roughly from the end of the Seven Years War (known to the Americans as the French and Indian War) to the coronation of Queen Victoria.

During the time of George III, the regency and the reign of George IV, public morals were a lot looser than in the Victorian age. Many famous men openly had mistresses and/or visited brothels. (For instance, George III's third son William lived with an actress for twenty years and fathered 10 children with her. It wasn't until twenty years after his death that his liaison was considered shocking enough to be censored.) Fortunes were won and lost at cards, dice and the races. Duels were fought and bare-knuckle boxing was at its height with champions like Belcher, Gull and Cribb.
 * Although this work makes the case that the beginnings of values considered "Victorian" can also be found in this period; in particular, the threat to the nobility from the French Revolution was seen by some as God's judgement on a depraved aristocracy in both France and England.

A quote whose origin has been lost describes a tomcat as being a Regency Gentleman on the grounds that he roisters all night, enjoys rollicking love-affairs and bare-knuckle fighting but always looks elegant.

A Nostalgia Filter during the late Victorian period, particularly with The Gay Nineties and The Edwardian Era.


 * Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: This period clashed two idealistic views whether they would look onwards to a futuristic perspective or a revolutionary and simplistic life.
 * Gothic Horror: Often a good setting to the period.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: those popularly white, high-waisted muslin dresses and riding coats. They were often criticized as "undress" and their children tried to forget that their mothers have ever worn them during the early Victorian era.
 * The later years of The French Revolution and Napoleon's reign might overlap the period, as neoclassicism stirs ideas, culture and Mediterranean revivals in full swing.


 * Jane Austen's 6 novels, as well as the numerous film and television adaptations (including the ones with zombies and sea monsters).
 * Jane Eyre is meant to be the fictional memoir of a woman looking back at her youth; the main action is set in about 1810. In addition to the mention of Walter Scott's 1808 novel Marmion as a recently published book and the frequent mentions of politics more appropriate to Georgian than Victorian times, Jane's travels lead her to a coach house in an Expy of Leeds where a portrait of the Prince Regent is displayed prominently. Not only had the Prince Regent (or King George IV) been dead for almost twenty years by 1847, the coach houses had been closed for over fifteen years. Had Jane Eyre been set any time after 1835 or so, Jane would have taken a train, and the station would have held a portrait of Queen Victoria.
 * This of course doesn't stop writers and producers from assuming that the novel was set in Victorian times and dressing Jane in a governess's wardrobe more appropriate to the mid-Victorian era than the Regency.
 * Speaking of Regency England in the broad literary sense, this also encompasses Wuthering Heights, which spans from the 1770s to 1801.
 * Also in the broad literary sense, Anne Bronte's novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall takes place in the 1820s.
 * Blackadder the Third. It's actually about the Prince Regent (specifically his butler), but it's not exactly a costume drama. It also includes many events that happened before the Regency era.
 * Two entire genres of Romance Novels. "Regency romances" are cerebral comedies of manners, usually rather brief, with scarcely a hint of sex (see: Jane Austen, as listed above). "Regency historicals" are bodice rippers that just happen to be set during the period.
 * Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a fantasy novel written as a Jane Austen pastiche and set in the same general time period.
 * Several real life figures from the time period even provide cameos, most notably King George III and Lord Byron.
 * George Macdonald Fraser's Black Ajax is a fictionalsed account of the career of the first great black heavyweight, Tom Molineux, who fought in the bare-knuckle ring at this period and twice contested Cribb for the title. The Prince Regent himself makes two brief appearances.
 * The seaminess of the period is represented in the art of Thomas Rowlandson whose watercolours and cartoons range from picturesque to quaint to ribald to pornographic.
 * The Luck of Dennis St Michel Viscount Stokington is set just before the historic Regency, in the 1790s. There's plenty of mentions of balls, fiery-spirited heroines, Byronic heroes, and frock coats. Lots of frock coats.
 * The Gardella Vampire Chronicles. Yup, vampires plus Regency.
 * The musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever has many flashback sequences set in late 18th-century England (1796 is one year mentioned).
 * The various Sharpe works fit broadly within this era.
 * Both the Master and Commander film and the books that inspired it tend to look like this, especially in the film, where Stephen Maturin has the sideburns distinctive to the period. This is likely partly due to the Frozen in Time nature of the installments following seven, where 1813 went on for the next ten books. Justified in that the Napolenoic War ended in 1815, which would have made him unable to write the later books.
 * The Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik are set in the early 19th century, though the main characters are British and travel all over the place. What if the Napoleonic Wars were fought with dragons?
 * The Matthew Hawkwood novels are set squarely in this era. The ongoing war with Napoleon forms an important part of the backstory and drives several of the plots.
 * Shades of Milk and Honey, a gentle Regency fantasy by Mary Robinette Kowal offers a much less intrusive but perhaps more thoroughly integrated view of magic in early 19th century English society.
 * Sorcery and Cecelia is a Historical Fantasy that tells the story of two cousins of the gentleman class as they navigate the social scene of the Ton and the politics of the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.