Regency England

Take a walk on the dark side of the street in this unique exploration of the fears and desires at the heart of the British Empire, from the Regency dandy’s playground to the grim and gothic labyrinths of the Victorian city. Enter a world of gin spinners, sneaksmen and Covent Garden nuns, where bare-knuckled boxers slog it out for dozens of rounds, children are worth more dead than alive, and the Thames holds more bodies than the Ganges. This is the Modern Babylon, a place of brutal poverty, violent crime, strong drink, pornography and prostitution; of low neighbourhoods and crooked houses with windows out like broken teeth, wraithlike urchins with haunted eyes, desperate, ruthless and vicious men, and the broken remnants of once fine girls: a grey, bleak, infernal place, where gaslights fail to pierce the pestilential fog, and coppers travel in pairs, if they venture there at all.

Combining the accessibility of a popular history with original research, this book brings the denizens of this vanished world once more to life, along with the voices of those who sought to exploit, imprison or save them, or to simply report back from this alien landscape that both fascinated and appalled: the politicians, the reformers, the journalists and, above all, the storytellers, from literary novelists to purveyors of penny dreadfuls. Welcome to the 19th century underworld…

Why Lydia Bennet is the True Feminist Heroine of Pride and Prejudice

Frequently overlooked as little more than Elizabeth Bennet’s annoying little sister, Lydia is not always characterized in the most favorable terms: “vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled” and “the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous” (Austen 135), are just some of the choice words her sister uses to describe her. However, I find, that these seemingly negative attributes are precisely what make Lydia a progressive female character as they radically break with the expectations on proper femininity at the time. Her vanity, for instance, can also be interpreted as valuable self-confidence at a time where modesty demanded women to be almost afraid of their own bodies. Similarly, her “idle” and ”uncontrolled” (135) tastes for pleasure and entertainment are significant when women were expected to be silent, self-sacrificing beings. Her Ignorance, too, also renders her ignorant of many of society’s oppressive norms, allowing her to act and speak her mind unabashedly. Finally, for a woman to be a “flirt” (135) and freely express her sexual desires can really only be considered negative in an antiquated society that will not permit her to be anything short of ‘pure’ and ‘angelic’. Lydia, thus, rebels against Regency constructions of femininity in a major way. Perhaps most importantly, her rebellion is never punished for after her elopement with Wickham (one of the most radical acts at a time were female purity before matrimony was near-sacred) she returns still “untamed, unabashed” and “fearless” (181). Therefore, Lydia Bennet, as I will argue, can be considered far more than just the comic side character of the “silliest [girl] in the country” (18), in fact she might well be the real ‘feminist heroine’ of Pride and Prejudice.

When one imagines a party in London during the Regency era, one tends to think of lavish rooms, pretty gowns and fancy dancing. Less thought is given to the work the hostess had to do to get her house ready for the party, which was considerable, even if she did have servants to help her.

Seaside environments in the early nineteenth century were environments of profound instability, strangeness and tension. Lurking behind the façade of pleasure and gaiety were the festering anxieties and conflicts of a nation thrown suddenly open to the forces of industrialism, capitalism, modernity and speculation. Old class distinctions broke down as the aristocracy – who were at first the primary patrons of seaside resorts – began to feel their influence wane, and the ascendant bourgeoisie was propelled ever higher up the social scale. As literary phenomena, seaside towns are crucibles for these societal pressures – places in which latent anxieties are made manifest. The seaside becomes a microcosm for an England at once tearing itself apart and making itself new. This paper considers three relatively obscure primary texts – Samuel Beazley’s little-known farce The Boarding House; or, Five hours at Brighton (1811), Jane Austen’s unfinished fragment Sanditon (1817) and Charles Dickens’s short story “The Tuggses at Ramsgate” (1836). The paper shows that in these texts, the environment of the seaside – whether Brighton, Bognor or Ramsgate – is a place which throws into question totalities and established systems. Systems which are ostensibly fixed, concrete or total – especially systems, such as class or language, which rely on the power of discourse and of networks signs – are pulled apart and scrutinised. Further, it is posited that such systemic crises are themselves both reflective of and inherent in the cataclysmic socio-political changes which pervade early nineteenth century England.

Proyecto de Investigación Los lugares del arte: del taller del artista al espacio expandido en la sala de exposición (HAR2010-19406) ¿Cómo redactar la biografía de alguien que no hizo nada de lo que la Historia, con mayúscula, ha considerado de forma tradicional como reseñable? ¿Que no reinó ni gobernó? ¿Que no ganó ni perdió batallas? ¿Que no decretó ninguna ley, ni firmó ninguna declaración? ¿Que no descubrió ninguna enfermedad, ni su remedio, ni ningún planeta, ni ninguna estrella, ni una isla todavía no cartografiada? ¿Que tampoco clasificó a una especie desconocida, ni solucionó un problema matemático, ni creó una fórmula física? ¿Que no concibió, ni patentó, ni registró ningún invento? ¿Que no escribió, ni compuso, ni pintó, ni esculpió, ni proyectó, ni construyó nada importante? ¿Cómo contar una vida en la que apenas hay acontecimientos sino que todo son anécdotas? ¿Cómo enfrentarse a esos hechos inciertos de los que no existen documentos que los certifiquen, que les den ese estatus necesario de verdad incuestionable, o casi? ¿De los que únicamente se conservan testimonios que suelen resultar siempre interesados, si no lo son todos? ¿De los que solo hay testigos que le envidiaban o admiraban, odiaban o adoraban? ¿Cómo aceptar esos rumores que iban de boca en boca y pasaban de página a página sin el rigor de la demostración? ¿Cómo asumir lo nimio, lo mínimo o lo minúsculo en el relato? ¿Aquello que se ha pensado banal, trivial y frívolo? Aunque puede que la pregunta adecuada no sea cómo, sino ¿por qué? Casi todo en él se basa en los recuerdos, falibles y poco fiables, de otros. En entrevistas cara a cara que, imaginamos, luego eran transcritas siguiendo las notas recogidas con rapidez en un cuaderno o que eran Los Lugares del Arte VOL2.indd 323 24/11/2014 11:31:10 1/ Viscusi, R., Max Beerbohm, or the Dandy Dante, Rereading with Mirrors, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1986, p. 28 [Texto original: «The dandy self, naked and fresh, is a figure in black and white. Completely dressed, almost completely monochrome, is (...) something written»]. 2/ En referencia a la afirmación de Lord Byron de que Brummell, él mismo y Napoleón, por este orden, eran las personas más importantes del siglo xix, Ellen Moers, que escribió el ensayo que se considera clásico para estudiar el fenómeno del dandismo, comentó: «Esta afirmación ha sido a menudo repetida como prueba de la fatuidad de Byron, pero hay un sentido, al menos, en el que el agrupamiento de estos nombres está justificado: los tres fueron figuras de leyenda, casi del mito, bastante antes de que murieran» [Texto original: «This statement has often been repeated as proof of Byron's fatuity, but there is one sense, at least, in which the coupling of these names is justified: all three men were figures of legend, almost of myth, well before they died»]. MoeRs, E., The Dandy: from Brummell to Beerbohm, Lincoln y Londres, University of Nebraska Press, 1960, p. 22. La idea de que el dandismo es un mito y Brummell su origen puede verse también en CaRassus, E., Le mythe du dandy, París, Armand Colin, 1971, y coblence, F., Le dandysme, obligation d'incertitude, París, Presses Universitaires de France, 1988, pp. 19-28, que habla de la invención de Brummell. Más recientemente, el filósofo Michel Onfray, le ha dedicado un libro titulado Vies & Mort d'un dandy. Construction d'un mythe, París, Galilée, 2012. 3/ baRthes, R., «El dandismo y la moda», en El sistema de la moda y otros escritos, Barcelona y Buenos Aires, Paidós, 2003, pp. 403-410. Los Lugares del Arte VOL2.indd 324 24/11/2014 11:31:10

Jane Austen portrays her novel heroines as outliers in the patriarchal society of Regency Britain. For example, in "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), Elizabeth Bennet chose to marry for love and not merely in pursuit of economic security, which is a flagrant violation of the standards expected of women. Due to strict inheritance laws, women are not able to inherit their family’s properties and so, must turn towards marriage for dependency (or as some critics argue, independency) and capital guarantee in their future. Families often see this as an opportunity to quickly accumulate wealth and push their daughters to marry a man of fine wealth, shaping the “universally acknowledged truth” that marriage is a critical step for women to survive and succeed unbeknownst of their inner desires for marriage shaped by true love and passion. Anyone who deviates from this norm is considered a radical and the voices of these activists are suppressed by the government. Jane Austen was one of the few critics who openly disagrees with the patriarchal expectation of an ideal woman who is to serve the man. She acquires the views of Mary Wollstonecraft’s version of an accomplished woman – one who is seen to be of a rational equal of men and able to make her own independent decisions. In this annotated bibliography, I will explore the arguments of six different critics of Jane Austen’s works, illustrating the main principles that they believe Austen was trying to push through the portrayal and personality of her characters. Some arguments will overlap and I will point out the similar and contrasting understandings between critics to develop a more comprehensive picture of Jane Austen’s liberal feminist ideas of marriage in the novels’ social environments and the thorough examination of the heroines will show that they represent rather unconventional views of marriage.

If a writer has one duty towards society, it is to be its witness, for only then can the past transcend time and become history. Jane Austen, a non-conformist novelist, went beyond her obligation. She looked to nature rather than society or traditional authority for the basis of her judgements, and believed with conviction that the social conditions of her era were terribly amiss. Her renowned novel Pride and Prejudice is a tale in which two lovers of unequal social status overcome obstacles and misunderstandings in order to realize their suitability to marriage. With the intention of promoting social change among the 19th century English society, Austen depicts in Pride and Prejudice a Regency Era Britain that manifests profound gender discrimination, class snobbery, and suffocating etiquettes.

The figure of the hero has been present in literature and popular folklore since their inception. Over the years, the role of the hero has evolved, leaving behind its semi-divine connotations to emphasize the characteristics that make them referential and inspiring beings. This evolution has also resulted in the appearance of a new category of characters, the antihero, in which great qualities coexist with imperfection. This category has followed its own evolution in various genres and, at present we not only can find examples of this type of characters in literature, but also in audiovisual products. More than two hundred years ago, when Jane Austen wrote Emma, she chose as protagonist a character of great complexity, in which the negative characteristics stand out above the positive ones during a large part of the work. This has led to the questioning of whether the protagonist is a heroine or an antiheroine. In the present article, an analysis of the character of Emma Woodhouse is carried out in order to offer an answer to this question. KEY WORDS Literary analysis, character development, regency novel, Jane Austen.

In 1823, William Hazlitt published his erotic memoir, Liber Amoris, and a polemic against royalism, "On the Spirit of Monarchy." This essay assesses the sadomasochistic nature of the royalist imagination in "Monarchy" and the psychological violence of Liber Amoris in order to illuminate Hazlitt's theory of the imagination, which, I demonstrate, posited that the expansive imagination, though driven by antisocial impulse, as a regulating force that enables sociability in a society held together by print culture.

An insight into the 18th century European interpretation of "The Chinese Style" that was based on fantasy alone, in particular the English viewpoint - using an 1862 "chinoiserie" silver épergne by the London silversmith Thomas Pitts as inspiration

The flower painter Margaret Meen (Dec 1751-Jan 1834) also taught painting: pupils included Queen Charlotte and the Royal Princesses; the four Smith sisters of Erle Stoke Park: Maria, Eliza, Augusta and Emma. Little about Meen's life has been uncovered -- until now. Four letters lead to some surprisingly full biographical details of the life of a woman artist in Georgian England, including the years of the Regency.

Jane Austen portrays her novel heroines as outliers in the patriarchal society of Regency Britain. For example, in "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), Elizabeth Bennet chose to marry for love and not merely in pursuit of economic security, which is a flagrant violation of the standards expected of women. Due to strict inheritance laws, women are not able to inherit their family’s properties and so, must turn towards marriage for dependency (or as some critics argue, independency) and capital guarantee in their future. Families often see this as an opportunity to quickly accumulate wealth and push their daughters to marry a man of fine wealth, shaping the “universally acknowledged truth” that marriage is a critical step for women to survive and succeed unbeknownst of their inner desires for marriage shaped by true love and passion. Anyone who deviates from this norm is considered a radical and the voices of these activists are suppressed by the government. Jane Austen was one of the few critics who openly disagrees with the patriarchal expectation of an ideal woman who is to serve the man. She acquires the views of Mary Wollstonecraft’s version of an accomplished woman – one who is seen to be of a rational equal of men and able to make her own independent decisions. In this annotated bibliography, I will explore the arguments of six different critics of Jane Austen’s works, illustrating the main principles that they believe Austen was trying to push through the portrayal and personality of her characters. Some arguments will overlap and I will point out the similar and contrasting understandings between critics to develop a more comprehensive picture of Jane Austen’s liberal feminist ideas of marriage in the novels’ social environments and the thorough examination of the heroines will show that they represent rather unconventional views of marriage.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that marriage was a critical element in a woman’s life in Regency England. In the patriarchal society, only men can inherit the wealth of their parents, forcing women to marry to climb the stairs of social status and wealth. Marriage became an instrument through which families could quickly gain capital and parents were desperate to marry their daughters to rich young men, leaving women with no choice but to bow to society’s demands and be a slave to the system. But Elizabeth Bennet is a woman ahead of her time. Through the romantic and comedic scenes in Pride and Prejudice (1813), Jane Austen orchestrates the heroine could live a life which finds herself marrying not for money, but for love and in so, setting herself apart from the traditionalist culture which has done so much to suppress a woman’s right to choose who she wants to marry. She is different in that she refuses to be an object through which her cousin could use to gain her family’s wealth despite there being no sons of her parents and the diminishing possibility of her finding a man who could secure her financial independence. Despite Collins’s repeated attempt to push Elizabeth to accept his poor-thought marriage proposal and her own mother’s disapproval of her actions, she stands her ground for what she believed to be true and free. But by refusing what might’ve been her only chance to escape her precarious position in a family with no sons and with an aging father, she is playing a game which sees her as the player who is willing to gamble her future to stand for her feminist values. This paper will attempt to assess the situation Elizabeth is in, the pressures inflicted upon her to make choices against her will, and how Austen’s views of a postpatriarchal ideal woman influenced this single scene to paint a woman who is not only intelligent and brave but also willing to defy others whom she believes to hold opinions detrimental to the advancement of women. In this analysis, I will be explaining how Austen illustrates her liberal feminist views through Elizabeth and the other characters which contrast her progressive views and, will focus on this proposal scene which I believe best illustrates the liberal feminist views of Austen and Elizabeth through a game of chance, marriage, and integrity.

Judith Stove's second book, Jane Austen's Inspiration: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy (Pen and Sword Books, 2019), outlines, for the first time, the life and works of Jane Austen's friend Anne Brydges Lefroy (1747/8-1804). In the belief that study of great writers is enriched through awareness of their social and artistic contexts, this book examines the life and works of the woman who was arguably a role model for the writer second only to Shakespeare in English literature.

In Jane Austen's novels we can find varied characters, although all described with realism and coherence, according to the sociohistorical context of this author. Through these characters, Austen offers us a faithful reflection of the society of her time and highlights some of the social injustices that limited the lives of women of that period.
This article offers a detailed analysis of Miss Bates, from the novel Emma, with which it is intended to demonstrate that this character, apparently secondary and ridiculed, is of great relevance for the development of the plot, and is also the resource that Austen uses to show the socioeconomic predetermination of her time. Before carrying out this analysis, first we will offer a section on the role of the spinsters in the works of Austen and in her historical context, and later, another section dedicated to the definition and characteristics of the flat characters. This theoretical framework will allow us to appreciate in more detail the historical realism with which Austen describes the character of Miss Bates and the relevance of that character for the development of the plot.

Austen’s ability to represent psychologically plausible characters poses the question of what she would have known about the mind and its disorders. An answer requires insight into the ways the mentally afflicted were treated during the Regency and mind and madness understood by some of Austen’s literary influences (William Shakespeare, James Boswell, and Elizabeth Hamilton). Austen’s depiction of mind and madness in her novels contrasts with what she knew and wrote about medicine and medical practices for physical illnesses and injuries. The tenor of the times and the circumspect treatment of mind and madness in her novels, in turn, suggest that whatever firsthand knowledge she would have had from witnessing mental impairment in two family members was scrupulously hidden.

Visit any American restaurant or shopping mall, and you are likely to run into her: Karen, the contemporary Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Over two hundred years ago, Jane Austen captured the essence of Karen in the overbearing form of Lady Catherine. Like Karen, Lady Catherine is used to getting her way. Her self-seeking hostility and privileged lack of manners mirror modern Karen’s self-righteous habit of seeking the manager at any minor infraction of her perceived rights. In a darker vein, the twenty-first century Karen does not hesitate to call the police when people of color enter what she perceives as her territory. Desperate to be taken seriously, both Karen and Lady Catherine make poor decisions, not pausing to trample over others in their quest for satisfaction.

Thomas Rowlandson's 'English Dance of Death' is quite rightly famous. However, not many people know the derivative, slightly later edition entitled 'The British Dance of Death', based on drawings by Benedictus Antonio Van Assen (born c.1767 – died c.1817). This later work was published in two editions between 1822 and 1823, i.e. after the artist's death. The text by an anonymous author is in prose (compared to William Coombe's verse text for Rowlandson's 'Dance'). The comparison throws in relief the values in Rowlandson's 'Dance' compared to the later interpretation.

El presente trabajo parte de la premisa de que la literatura puede ser empleada como fuente histórica. Abordamos nuestra investigación con un doble objetivo: por una parte, comprender el modo correcto de utilizar la literatura como fuente y por otra, utilizar esta teoría para realizar un estudio sobre la sociedad en la que vive Jane Austen a través de sus novelas. Partiendo de Orgullo y Prejuicio como hilo conductor, hemos confrontado y tratado casos de todas sus novelas conclusas para estudiar el matrimonio en esta época, como constructo social central en la sociedad en la que se ambientan las novelas.

The aim of this article is to provide new information about a collection and a collector regularly cited in scientific publications, but little-known after all. It seeks to assess the degree of importance of the Watson Taylor Sèvres porcelain collection regarding preciousness and connoisseurship along with the degree of originality or conformity with the taste of the time.

***PLEASE DO NOT ASK FOR A PDF OF THIS BOOK. It is available to buy through the usual channels, including the linked URL, or can be borrowed from a library***

This lively book brings to life the clothing and fashion of the world depicted in Jane Austen’s beloved writings, focusing on the long Regency between the years 1795 and 1825.  During this period, accelerated change saw Britain’s turbulent entry into the modern age, and clothing reflected these transformations.  Starting with the intimate perspective of clothing the self, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen moves outwards through the social and cultural spheres of home, village, countryside and cities, and into the wider national and global realms, exploring the varied ways people dressed to inhabit these environments.  Jane Austen’s famously observant fictional writing, as well as her letters, provide the entry point for examining the Regency age’s rich complexity of fashion, dress, and textiles for men and women in their contemporary contexts.

Lavishly illustrated with paintings, drawings, historic garments, and fashion plates – including many previously unpublished images – this authoritative yet accessible book will help readers visualize the external selves of Austen’s immortal characters as clearly as she wrote of their internal ones. The result is an enhanced understanding of Austen’s work and time, and also of the history of one of Britain’s most distinctive fashion eras.

The sick person, both real and imaginary, has been present in literature since its inception and has been approached from different perspectives. In Jane Austen's novels, we find frequent references to diseases and discomforts, which pervade them with realism. Austen often resorts to hypochondria to characterize some of her characters in several of her novels. One of the most representative cases is Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father. By means of this character, health and illness have an almost constant presence in the story and, for this reason, several articles have been published that revolve around Mr. Woodhouse as a hypochondriac. In the present article we will approach this question from a different perspective of great relevance: the attitude of the different characters towards the sick person and how this attitude entails a greater knowledge of each character on the part of the readers. Austen's books are novels of characters, in which the main thing is the study of the personality of all those who appear in the plot. By introducing a sick person into a leading role, Austen provides contrasts that allow readers to discover personality traits of the protagonists that otherwise would have gone hidden. In this novel, therefore, the patient can be considered as a resource to show the truth of each character, a "Magic Mirror" as we find in the novel The Neverending Story, which shows not only the exterior, but also the interior of each person, confronting them with their true personality. In this article, we offer an analysis of the attitude of the various characters towards Mr. Woodhouse, we also explain how this attitude provides new information about his personality. In addition, we assess the consequences of each attitude and, finally, we offer some reflections on how the attitude towards a sick person can lead to self-knowledge.

Cornish tenor Charles Incledon (1763-1826) was a prominent figure in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, entertaining patriotic crowds with popular naval ballads. But unlike other nationalistic singers of the period, Incledon did not merely masquerade in a sailor's costume on stage -Incledon was an authentic sailor. He had served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary Wars, seeing action at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. Incledon took every opportunity to make the public aware of his naval service, and they in turn saw him as an authentic embodiment of Jack Tar. His audiences knew that he had experienced war and shipwreck, so when he sang about such topics his performances were interpreted as first-hand accounts of a brave sailor.

Marina Cano, author of Jane Austen and Performance, discusses how Austen's legacy lives in many unexpected and imaginative forms...
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Celebrating 200 Years of Jane Austen
2017 commemorates 200 years since the death of Jane Austen. To mark this anniversary, Palgrave Macmillan has brought together a bespoke collection of scholarly research, celebrating the insurmountable impact made across two centuries by one of the greatest authors of all time.
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Historical and literary narrative discourses from the 1790’s surrounding interpretations of English identity were symptomatic of the inherited Augustan and Johnsonian social customs that posited cultural reevaluation as a nation-wide identitive endeavor. Though part of the critically neglected juvenilia, in Love and Friendship (1790) Austen’s satiric portrayal of her heroine’s upbringing reveals a shrewd perspective that mocks her culture’s anxiety to be forward thinking about its past lessons. The text judges the conservative character celebrated in the fiction and values of her childhood, positioned alongside a developing model of progressive Englishness. I recommend that the story’s first-person narrator’s nonalignment with either the conservative or progressive societal prescriptions that permeate the novel validates Jane Austen as an agentive, not reactionary, participant in the culture war she inherited. I argue that the text offers modern readers a new perspective for literar...

The coincidence of the appearance of two Circassian women as wives of ambassadors on the Anglo-Persian diplomatic stage has generated more than passing interest in academic and lay literature. Though the story of Sir Robert Sherley and Lady Teresia Sherley is better known in British circles, and has even generated renewed interest with two simultaneous exhibitions in 2009 in London, the story of Fath `Ali Shah's Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Abol Hassan Khan, has not received sufficient attention, and has certainly not been fully explored in the context of the politics of Regency England. The present article revisits key moments of the life of the Sherleys and of Abol Hassan Khan and Delaram, his Circassian wife, but goes beyond the retelling of their journeys to focus on how the latter two's visit to England generated bawdy depictions in the popular press and became the vehicle for political satire quite unconnected to their persons.