Well! :D I'm happy to be of service, and also to talk about one of the few things in the world about which I have slightly more than a layman's knowledge.
First of all, do you want only fiction, or would you like some nonfiction? Not history books exactly. Like, How-People-Lived-In-The-Regency kind of stuff. There are quite a few of them, and some are geared specifically to Regency novelists.
As for fiction, no one, really and truly, is better than Georgette Heyer for social milieu--the language especially is meticulously accurate, and she's also really good for details of the Napoleonic Wars (see Arabella and Cotillion for the former, and An Infamous Army and A Civil Contract for the latter. Hahahahah, and The Unknown Ajax and Sylvester, besides being two of my very favorites, have the most wonderful examples of dandies gone awry, if you want Fashion in the Extreme. And I'd also read Frederica while I was at it, because it's such a complete delight, and also because one of the boys in particular is like a little dictionary of early 19th-Century science. (One rule of thumb to follow: Heyer wrote over half a century's worth of books, and her early ones are heavily mannered and sometimes hard going. The later her books are written, the more accessible her writing style is.)
But there are some modern writers who do their work carefully and thoroughly. They aren't quite as much fun to read, and of course the heroines and heroes are having sex all over the place which is just not done, but they're all fine and trustworthy writers. I'd look for Mary Jo Putney's Fallen Angels series--see the list here (http://www.maryjoputney.com/completebooks.htm)--as well as The Rake and The Diabolical Baron. Any of Mary Balogh's books, since I think almost all of them are Regencies. Jane Feather's V series (Virtue, Vixen, Velvet, Valentine, Violet, Vanity, and Vice). Ooh, and see Edith Layton's Love in Disguise, The Game of Love, and Surrender to Love for accounts of life on the fringes and in the Regency underworld. Carla Kelly's books aren't quite in the same tier, I don't think, but she's accurate and does her homework, and her Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career is a nice encapsulation of women's educational options and Oxford life during the Regency.
(A caveat, though. I don't know what it is about modern historical novelists who feel the urge to purposefully make their characters "revolutionary" by putting ideas in their heads that weren't actually articulated until years later--Patrick O'Brian is guilty of this, and so are a lot of the above novelists--so beware any sort of breakthrough perpetrated by a main character.)
And a lot of the books above might be out of print, since they were written over a period of years, and so, you know, if you make it over to alibris, you should search for Clare Darcy, who wrote (I think) in the seventies and who comes closer in spirit to Heyer than anyone else I've ever read.
That should be enough to get you going, yes? I can give you more authors if you like, and if you just want to be entertained, there're authors who're thrilling reads, but whose research is not so obviously thorough.
If you'd like those NF books or further details, just let me know; and I'd love to hear about your project if you ever feel like talking about it!
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This may be more than you ever really wanted to know.
Date: 2005-03-05 03:43 am (UTC)First of all, do you want only fiction, or would you like some nonfiction? Not history books exactly. Like, How-People-Lived-In-The-Regency kind of stuff. There are quite a few of them, and some are geared specifically to Regency novelists.
As for fiction, no one, really and truly, is better than Georgette Heyer for social milieu--the language especially is meticulously accurate, and she's also really good for details of the Napoleonic Wars (see Arabella and Cotillion for the former, and An Infamous Army and A Civil Contract for the latter. Hahahahah, and The Unknown Ajax and Sylvester, besides being two of my very favorites, have the most wonderful examples of dandies gone awry, if you want Fashion in the Extreme. And I'd also read Frederica while I was at it, because it's such a complete delight, and also because one of the boys in particular is like a little dictionary of early 19th-Century science. (One rule of thumb to follow: Heyer wrote over half a century's worth of books, and her early ones are heavily mannered and sometimes hard going. The later her books are written, the more accessible her writing style is.)
But there are some modern writers who do their work carefully and thoroughly. They aren't quite as much fun to read, and of course the heroines and heroes are having sex all over the place which is just not done, but they're all fine and trustworthy writers. I'd look for Mary Jo Putney's Fallen Angels series--see the list here (http://www.maryjoputney.com/completebooks.htm)--as well as The Rake and The Diabolical Baron. Any of Mary Balogh's books, since I think almost all of them are Regencies. Jane Feather's V series (Virtue, Vixen, Velvet, Valentine, Violet, Vanity, and Vice). Ooh, and see Edith Layton's Love in Disguise, The Game of Love, and Surrender to Love for accounts of life on the fringes and in the Regency underworld. Carla Kelly's books aren't quite in the same tier, I don't think, but she's accurate and does her homework, and her Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career is a nice encapsulation of women's educational options and Oxford life during the Regency.
(A caveat, though. I don't know what it is about modern historical novelists who feel the urge to purposefully make their characters "revolutionary" by putting ideas in their heads that weren't actually articulated until years later--Patrick O'Brian is guilty of this, and so are a lot of the above novelists--so beware any sort of breakthrough perpetrated by a main character.)
And a lot of the books above might be out of print, since they were written over a period of years, and so, you know, if you make it over to alibris, you should search for Clare Darcy, who wrote (I think) in the seventies and who comes closer in spirit to Heyer than anyone else I've ever read.
That should be enough to get you going, yes? I can give you more authors if you like, and if you just want to be entertained, there're authors who're thrilling reads, but whose research is not so obviously thorough.
If you'd like those NF books or further details, just let me know; and I'd love to hear about your project if you ever feel like talking about it!