Regency romance
Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set in England during the early 19th century; usually, during the regency of the future George IV when George III was insane, 1811-1820 (also called the Georgian era).
The genre is largely based on Jane Austen's work, with significant evolution from Georgette Heyer. From Jane Austen, the basic form; Georgette Heyer standardized it and bled the social critique from it. Some Regency romances are also comedies of manners, with the attendant critiques implicit in that form; other Regency romances merely work as historic fiction. The genre may also cross forms with other forms suited to romance, such as a literary version of screwball comedy or mystery. Fundamentally, however, the genre is a (heterosexual) romance genre, thus defined by its basic plot: girl meets boy; mishaps prevent them from fulfilling an initial attraction, or help them realize an initial dislike was really attraction; girl marries boy.
Regency romances are virtually always defined by the class of their characters, which is virtually always "high society": the peerage (so-called "nobility") of England, with occasional forays into monied non-peer classes or the "gentle classes" (aka the "gentry", landowners, which included nobility, barons, and esquires).
Classically, the female protagonist is of somewhat shaky social and/or financial status, often feisty or with some other characteristic that renders her slightly "outsider" from the rest of the "beau monde". She is certainly a virgin. Her male romantic lead is often somewhat older than her, socially and/or financially better off, and often a "rake".
Novels often include "witty" dialogue a la Jane Austen and lots of description of various aspects of the historical era: countryside, leisure pursuits, clothing, manners, habits, etc.
Other common features that may be present include
- a Napoleonic war background (although the stories themselves rarely leave London or occasionally Bath)
- A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (a SFnal retake)
- Ursula K. Le Guin's parodies the English system of nobility and its role in celebrity culture ("The Royals of Hegn")
- Naomi Novik's dragon books, beginning with His Majesty's Dragon; although not Regency romances, they begin as a Napoleonic-era naval story (a la Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series). However, the world of the Regency romance is occasionally glimpsed, from an altogether different perspective.
- a small number of lesbian press Regency romances have revisited the Regency but with lesbian characters