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)
Commentary
"Certain writers create worlds that readers do not want to leave, ever. Extreme devotees of Austen do not simply enjoy the novels, they want to sit in the living room at Longbourn with the Bennet sisters, drinking tea and analyzing Darcy’s behavior. An entire subliterary genre, the Regency romance, exists to satisfy this desire. The fog-shrouded London of Sherlock Holmes is also enchanted territory, as well as Lewis Carroll’s dreamscapes, and it’s no coincidence that Holmes and Alice have attracted dedicated annotators." — William Grimes, 2007/3/16, "You've Read the Novels (Now Read the Footnotes)", NYT
- "subliterary genre"?
- 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
- Sorcery and Cecilia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and sequels by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer are regency romance with a bit of magic thrown in.