The Aura of Regency Romances - I

Regency romances have seen a sudden spurt in recent years, thanks to the ‘writing back’ strategies and the ‘re-reading’ strategies, coupled with a desire to escape into the strangest and farthest of wonderlands of yore, that have helped make this rejuvenation of the Regency possible.

Well, a regency is described as a period of time when a country is governed by a ‘regent,’ because the king or queen is unable to rule over the country.

I thank Prof. Sharon for giving me a lead to this wonderful genre. Inspired much, I started delving deep into the various regency readers that have oft been bestsellers, and milor’ – I got myself impulsively hitting upon the idea of doing a series-feature on the Regency.

So here we go…

In the United Kingdom, the regency refers to the regency decade  between 1811 and 1820, when the Prince of Wales (George IV at a later date) acted as regent during his father's inability – bouts of insanity – that made it impossible for him to govern the nation.

Ever since, there have been a host of regency writers and generations of avid readers who have been addicted to the charm and the aura of the regency. The bestest known regency novelist who caps the cream, is Georgette Heyer, who has written the most novels in this ‘regency’ genre. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that, she pioneered the genre of the Regency romances.

The Regency romances singularly differ from their romance counterparts by a unique dozen traits, which makes them tick big-time!

First of all, the novelist has to do an extensive survey of the historical period in question – or rather a historicist inquiry – that brings increased validation and more of authenticity to the world of social realism that is depicted in their novels. The various aspects of Regency life, including regency architecture, regency culture, regency social life, carriage rides, dinner parties, operas, balls, plays etc are faithfully depicted with such finesse and such solidity of specification in the novels.

Mystery elements were interwoven in the fabric of the plot, to breathe an air of suspense throughout the novel. In addition, cross-dressing or mistaken identity was also an effective strategy that was the domain of most regency novels.

Moreover, like in Jane Austen’s novels, marriages of convenience were more often conducted, which highlight the huge prevalent differences in social classes.

Yet another feature of the regency – that also makes it claim a rechristening as ‘novels of manners’ – is the standard, patterned and codified gestures of communication, which the lead characters faithfully adhere to, which subsequently acts the yardstick to measure the success or debacle of those characters in the story.

To be contd…

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