Assembly Rooms = a list of links to blogs and articles of interest to members of the Beau Monde.
Dovecotes! http://www.madamegilflurt.com/2015/01/dovecotes-not-just-quaint-buildings.html
Tag: Beau Monde
Regency Turns 80 — The Corinthian
Next in order of publication is Georgette Heyer’s Regency, The Corinthian. Romance author, Renée Reynolds, shares how she read this story for the first time and what this story means to her. She also explains how she views Heyer as a Regency romance author in comparison to authors writing today. If you have never read a Heyer Regency before, Reynolds makes it clear why The Corinthian would be a good first choice.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about this delightful novel in comments to this post.
Gimmel Ring: The Puzzle of Love?
A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:
Though seldom used today, gimmel rings had been in use since the late Middle Ages as wedding or betrothal rings. And they continued to be used for that purpose right through the Regency. Long before the Regency began, a variation on this type of ring had become even more complex, these more elaborate versions being most commonly known as puzzle rings.
A basic background of how the bands embodying the bonds of love became nearly as much a puzzle as love itself …
Regency Turns 80 — The Spanish Bride
Today, romance author, Judith Laik, shares her views on the third of Georgette Heyer’s Regency-set novels, The Spanish Bride. This is a substantive novel for which Heyer did a great deal of research. Laik gives us a peek into the scope of research in which she is engaging in preparation for her upcoming Regency novel and the part which The Spanish Bride plays in that research. In this article, she also compares her feelings about the novel when she read it as a young woman to how she felt when she read it again more recently.
As we will continue to do throughout our celebration of the 80th anniversary of Regency romance, we welcome comments by our visitors.
Regency Turns 80 — The Black Moth
Almost a century ago, a teenage boy, suffering from hemophilia, was ordered to bed for an extended period of rest. To a bright, eager thirteen year-old, this was a devastating sentence of unutterable boredom. At this time, there were no game consoles, computers, the Internet, or even television. The radio had only recently become available to the public, but the sets were expensive and stations only broadcast a few hours each day. Most of the time, the air waves were silent. Oh, the tedium of it all!
Fortunately, this boy had an older sister who was very fond of him. Like him, she was an avid reader, especially of adventure stories by authors such as Baroness Orczy, Rafael Sabatini and H. Rider Haggard. The children’s father had always encouraged them to read, and there were many books in the house, but after a time, the teenage boy was running out of new stories. His sister decided to write a story for him in the form of a serial, producing multiple new installments for his amusement, which she usually read aloud to him as they were finished. This story was set in the mid-eighteenth century and was filled with much swashbuckling and derring-do. The boy’s name was Boris, and this special gift from his sister, Georgette, would be edited to become her very first published novel, The Black Moth.
Regency Turns 80 — An Infamous Army
The next "Regency" novel which Georgette Heyer published after Regency Buck was An Infamous Army. But it was a radical departure from her first Regency-set novel. Today, romance author Shannon Donnelly explains how An Infamous Army differs from Regency Buck as well as how it is connected to it, and other historical novels in Heyer’s oeuvre.
We invite our visitors to share their impressions of this important Heyer novel in comments to this post.
Regency Turns 80 — Regency Buck
The Beau Monde is pleased to begin our year-long celebration of the 80th anniversary of Regency romance with an article by Alina K. Field on the very first Regency romance novel, Regency Buck. Alina is a Regency romance author herself, as well as a Regency romance reader, and she brings both viewpoints to her discussion of this seminal Regency romance novel.
We invite our visitors to post comments sharing their views on this article and the book which gave us our favorite romance genre.
The Beau Monde Celebrates the 80th Anniversary of Regency Romance
Eighty years ago, in 1935, the very first Regency romance novel went to press. That novel, Regency Buck, was written by Georgette Heyer. It was not her first novel. In fact, Heyer had been writing historical fiction for more than fifteen years, and Regency Buck was her seventeenth novel. She had set her stories in a number of different time periods before she chose the scant decade of the Regency for her new book. Though few people, beyond a small number of historians, knew much about that period of time prior to 1935, before the year was out, many readers of historical romance were seeking to return to that so very elegant period in the pages of more Regency novels. Over the course of her career, Heyer would go on to write more than twenty-five novels which were set during the Regency. They sold so well that other authors began doing the same, and thus was born the Regency romance genre.
As most visitors here know, the Beau Monde is the specialty chapter of Romance Writers of America which is dedicated to the Regency. We simply cannot let this important anniversary of our favorite romance genre pass unnoticed. Therefore, throughout 2015, we will be posting articles here, each one written by one of our members, about Heyer’s Regency novels. These articles will be posted in the order in which the novels were originally published. We will also be posting articles about several of Heyer’s other historical novels, since many of our members write historical romances set in periods other than the Regency. These articles about Heyer’s books will not be standard reviews. Rather, they will serve as a point of departure to discuss her work and Regency romance in general. We also hope each article will generate discussions on the topic among our blog visitors as well, and we invite everyone to post comments to the articles with their own thoughts and opinions.
Happy 80th Anniversary, Regency Romance!
The Beau Monde would like to thank Mari Christie (who writes Regencies as Mariana Gabrielle) for our lovely new Regency Turns 80 image. In addition to writing romance, Mari also provides a number of services to authors above and beyond her talents as a designer.
Brandy? — In a Breeze or a Sneeze?
A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:
How many Regency novels have you read in which the hero and his cronies share one or more rounds of brandy, drowning their sorrows, or in celebration? And how many times is that brandy served in a snifter, or a balloon? Yet that simply was not possible during the decade of the Regency or for many decades thereafter. It may surprise you to know that the brandy snifter was an American creation introduced near the end of the Victorian era. It did not become common in England until the middle of the twentieth century.
The word "snifter" had entered the English language by the second half of the eighteenth century, but it had other, quite different meanings having nothing to do with drinking vessels. So what was a "snifter" in the Regency decade, and how was brandy most probably served during those years?
After "Dripping Pudding" Went Yorkshire
A cross-post from The Regency Redingote
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding are on the menu for traditional Christmas dinner in many homes in Great Britain and in parts of the former British empire, even today. They were, of course, a regular part of many British Christmas dinners during the Regency. But just what is Yorkshire pudding, where and when did it originate, and how was it made?
The rise of Yorkshire pudding …
Sally Orr – Featured Beau Monde Author
Sally Orr is today’s featured Beau Monde Author
After her graduate education at the University of California Irvine and Caltech, Sally worked for thirty years as a Ph.D. scientist specializing in the discovery of gene function. Several years ago, she joined an English message board, where she posted many, many examples of absolute tomfoolery. As a result, a cyber-friend challenged her to write a novel. Since she’s a hopeless Anglophile, it’s not surprising that her first book is a Regency-era romance. Today she’s writing three novels for Sourcebooks. The first one, The Rake’s Handbook: Including Field Guide, was published on November 4, 2014. The second, When a Rake Falls, will be published on April 7, 2015. She lives with her husband in San Diego, surrounded by too many books and not enough old English cars.
What do you love best/interests you most about the Regency Era? Continue reading “Sally Orr – Featured Beau Monde Author”
Birds of a Feather Hate Fall by Regina Scott
The holiday of Thanksgiving as it is known in America was not celebrated in England during the Regency. Nevertheless, large game birds were an important part of the autumn season, for many English gentlemen devoted a great deal of time to shooting them. In today’s article, Regency romance author, Regina Scott, whose most recent book is The Bride Ship, gives us the details the annual autumn practice of shooting birds during the Regency. In between parties, of course.
Continue reading “Birds of a Feather Hate Fall by Regina Scott”
Kathryn Kane — Featured Beau Monde Author
Kathryn Kane is today’s Featured Beau Monde Author.
Kathryn is a historian and former museum curator who has enjoyed Regency romances since she first discovered them in her teens. She credits the novels of Georgette Heyer with influencing her choice of college curriculum, and she now takes advantage of her knowledge of history to write her own stories of romance in the Regency. She now has a career in the tech industry but she has never lost her love of the period and continues to enjoy reading Regency romance novels and researching her favorite period of English history. Though she was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Kat now lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. She misses the warm sunny winter days of the desert southwest, but access to the rich research collections of the libraries of Boston is some compensation for the snow and cold of New England. Kat is occasionally assisted (or impeded) in her writing by a furry feline friend whose primary responsibilities are neighborhood surveillance and cuteness, at both of which she excels, along with exuberant purring.
Deflowering Daisy is Kathryn’s debut Regency romance. As a play on the title, she has woven a number of snippets of floral history into the story, some of which may be unknown even to life-long Regency aficionados. Others maybe known to some readers, though probably not used in the contexts in which they will be found in this story. An extended excerpt can be found at Kat’s web site.
Find her at KathrynKane.net — The Regency Redingote — Kathryn Kane Romance
Below stairs at Belton House — Lincolnshire by Jane Lark
Jane Lark, author of a number of historical romances, spent some time at historic Belton House, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire. This great seventeenth century house played the part of the many-windowed mansion of Rosings Park, Lady Catherine de Burgh’s country estate in the 1995 series of Pride and Prejudice. Today, Jane tells us about her tour of the servants’ areas of the great house.
Continue reading “Below stairs at Belton House — Lincolnshire by Jane Lark”
The Unruly Queen: A Review by Cheryl Bolen
Caroline, Princess of Wales, was not a highly visible presence during the Regency. She had long since separated from her husband, the Prince of Wales by the time he became Regent. In the late summer of 1814, Caroline left England and did not return until her husband had become king. In today’s article, award-winning Regency author, Cheryl Bolen, reviews Flora Fraser’s biography of the Prince Regent’s estranged wife.
Continue reading “The Unruly Queen: A Review by Cheryl Bolen”
The Regency Sport Utility Vehicle
A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:
In her debut novel, Deflowering Daisy, romance author, Kathryn Kane, lets her heroine, Daisy, put her importunate suitor in his place by use of a dog-cart. In today’s article, you can learn more about this very handy Regency vehicle.
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How many times have you been reading a novel set in the Regency and come upon characters who ride in or discuss riding in a dog-cart? I have run across a great many over the years, and the descriptions of these vehicles varied widely. So much so I could never get a clear mental picture of a dog-cart. I decided to do some research to learn more about the appearance, use and construction of dog-carts during the Regency. The more I read about them, the more I realized they were often used rather like the SUV of today.
Nineteenth Century House Party by Regina Scott
It is August, which means days are getting shorter, summer is coming to a close and soon it will be time for lots of children to go back to the schoolroom, if they are not there already. In today’s article, romance author, Regina Scott, whose boxed set, Timeless: Historical Romance Through the Ages, is available now, tells us about the country house parties which often took place in the month of August during the Regency. But these parties were not all bucolic pleasure. Once you know about the many requirements for a guest at one of these parties, would you look for an invitation, or would you settle for the hot and smelly metropolis in August?
Continue reading “Nineteenth Century House Party by Regina Scott”
Stilton Cheese (for Abigail) by Susanna Ives
Susanna Ives, author of Wicked Little Secrets, provides us with two different sets of instructions for making Stilton cheese, one from the Regency and another from the early Victorian period. This quintessentially English cheese now enjoys protected status by the European Commission based on its location of origin. But before the twentieth century, Stilton was made at many farms across much of England, certainly in the north. Once you have read these instructions for Stilton, would you make some yourself, or might you have one or more of your characters make it in an upcoming novel?
Continue reading “Stilton Cheese (for Abigail) by Susanna Ives”
Some Secrets of Sash Windows
A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:
Over the course of many years, I have had occasion to visit and/or study a number of historic buildings. Many of these structures were built prior to or during the English Regency, and thus the design and construction of their windows would have been known during that decade. Most buildings today incorporate windows which are downright dull and boring when compared with the complexity of windows to be found in Regency buildings. In the hope that one or another of these idiosyncratic window treatments might one day feature in a novel with a Regency setting, I offer some of the more interesting here.
And so, secrets of sash windows for the edification Regency authors and their readers …
Addressing Younger Sons of the Peerage by Ann Lethbridge
Those who enjoy Regencies look forward to meeting all those titled characters who inhabit that world. But for those of us not born into the nobility, keeping track of members of the family beyond the main title-holder can be very confusing. Fortunately, in today’s article, Regency romance author, Ann Lethbridge, whose latest romance is Falling for the Highland Rogue, gives us a primer on how to address the minor nobles who may make an appearance in the next Regency romance we read, or, perhaps, write.
Continue reading “Addressing Younger Sons of the Peerage by Ann Lethbridge”