As fans celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday and await the next season of Netflix's “Bridgerton” and planned six-part Pride and Prejudice series, the Regency era (1811–1820) is more popular than ever. Pride and Prejudice alone has inspired multiple film and TV versions—most notably, perhaps, in the 1995 British miniseries with its now-iconic image of Colin Firth's wet-shirted Mr. Darcy, a scene that has been referenced in almost all Regency-set period dramas since, including “Bridgerton.” But much of what readers and viewers know about the period comes from historical fiction. What is it about this brief period that fuels fantasy, sells millions of romance novels, and lures tourists to London and Bath, eager to retrace the steps of their favorite fictional characters?
Using the Austen adaptations and “Bridgerton” as starting points, historian Julie Taddeo explores the real world of Regency elites, known as the Ton, and the larger British culture of which they were part. Topics include the Georgian monarchy; slavery and sugar boycotts; fashion; the marriage market and the London season; the Napoleonic Wars; rakes, dandies, and the women who loved them; and how gossip enforced the rigid rules of behavior that made the Regency not as romantic as believed. Taddeo also discusses the nostalgia industry, and how the Regency lives on through social media and mass marketing, providing ways to add a bit of romance and history to 21st-century lives.
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