Scandal Sheets and Gossip Columns
The more things change the more they stay the same. Celebrity gossip columns are nothing new.
Continue reading →Category Archives: Regency Life
What makes a gentleman?
If one wanted to marry a gentleman, one must identify said elusive creature first. So how exactly could one pick out a gentleman from the rest? The nuances of social class and what makes a gentleman a gentleman remains a perennial source of confusion for Austenesque and Regency readers. The pages of Austen’s stories are littered with gentlemen, but offer absolutely no explanation of what that title actually meant. Of course, her readers knew exactly … Continue reading →
Home Medicine in Jane Austen’s Day
William Buchan’s book Domestic medicine or the family physician was the backbone of home medicine in Jane Austen’s day. During Jane Austen’s day, the practice of medicine as we know it today was still in its infancy. Formally trained doctors were unavailable to many either because of cost or distance. Consequently many of the curative arts were practiced at home. William Buchan’s book Domestic medicine or the family physician. Buchan’s Early Life William Buchan was … Continue reading →
Widows of Jane Austen’s World
What was life like for the widows of Jane Austen’s world? When a woman’s husband died, she was expected to spend a full year (long enough for a baby conceived in her marriage to be born) in full or deep mourning. During this time she was expected to dress in all black, refraining from public appearances. Movie adaptations of Sense and Sensibility portray Mrs. Dashwood in widow’s weeds. The next six months she would wear subdued colors like … Continue reading →
What’s wrong with a little romance?
So what’s wrong with a little romance? According to a regency era perspective, nearly everything. It’s Valentine’s Day and there’s romance in the air. What’s wrong with a little romance, right? Especially in the pages of a good book. A regency romance; the hero and heroine looking longingly into each other’s eye, declaring their deepest love for one another. She weeps as she lets him know how she was waiting for this moment, as everyone … Continue reading →