More Blasts From The Past

Most Regency lovers cut their teeth on Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Although I'm a huge fan of Regencies, I started out reading more modern authors like Mary Balogh and Mary Jo Putney - authors that focus primarily on the emotions of the hero and heroine, even though they're writing within the Regency format. I sometimes find it hard to read older Regencies, because they don't focus on the hero and heroine's emotions - I've never been able to read Heyer, for example, because I find her characters too remote and unemotional. I want more insight into the characters' hearts.

The Regencies from the early 1980's are a bit of a hybrid. Some of them are the traditional "comedies of manners" while others are beginning to develop the emotionalism of later authors.

The Lady Next Door by Elizabeth Neff Walker
(1981, Georgian) 8/8/07
Grade: 3.5

Marianne Findlay has mostly retired from York society, after a scandal in her past. She lives quietly with her aunt and takes in boarders. But when the Earl of Latteridge takes residence next door, Marianne finds her life turned upside-down, even though he’s the son of the woman who caused her disgrace years before.

A surprisingly enjoyable “slice of life” story. It was interesting to read a book in the Regency “style” that was set in the earlier Georgian period. (After hundreds of books about Empire dresses and the ton, it was fun to read about lace cuffs, coffee houses and wigs.) This isn’t exactly a typical romance - the relationship between Marianne and Pressington is only part of the story, and we barely get a glimpse of their emotions. They’re one pair in a large set of secondary characters. But the author does a great job in depicting all of the secondary charcters with great vividness, and bringing them to life in an entertaining way. The second half of the book was less enjoyable than the first half - once all the wheels had been set in motion, it was clear how everything would play out and it was just a question of watching all the couples come together - but the well written characters made it worth reading.

(I include this as a "Regency" because it's written in the same style and format as the traditional Regency - just set a few years earlier.)

The American Duchess by Joan Wolf
(1982, Regency) 8/10/07
Grade: 4

When American Tracy Bodmin arrives in England, she has no intention of staying. She’s an American and a republican, through and through! But her dying father wants her to marry the Duke of Hastings, and she’s not indifferent to His Grace either. But it’s only after they’re married that she realizes just how much her American life has changed...

A well written and intriguing Regency. I was a little bit skeptical of Tracy’s super-Americanism (the US in 1800 wasn’t as classless as Tracy insists, and she’s also lived a privileged life) but the author shows Tracy’s gradual understanding of her husband’s position and responsibilities. She also depics Adrian as a truly dukely Duke. I wasn’t sure how to grade this book, because it didn’t have the emotional resonance of other Regencies, and there was a misunderstanding that marred the last section. But it was very readable, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Although it's hard to draw a bright line between the "Regency" and the "Regency Historical", there's definitely something different about a book like The American Duchess and the typical Regency-set historical that you find on the shelves today. Although Harlequin Historical is keeping the Regency alive to some extent, I think the romance world has lost something valuable with the demise of the Regency.