On 27 November 1810 on of the Regency era’s most famous ‘practical jokes’ occurred — the Berners Street Hoax. Although it is almost wholly forgotten now, it created a huge sensation at the time, reported in all the papers and a “fervent hue and cry” to find the person responsible. Like 99.9% of practical jokes,… Read more The Berners Street Hoax
Beyond doubt, Jane Austen enjoyed reading Gothic novels. She must have read several books in this genre, particularly the ‘female Gothic’ tales of Ann Radcliffe, to parody them so knowledgeably Northanger Abbey, and multiple readings strongly indicates she read them because she liked them. Yes, she mocked the hell out of Gothic conventions, but she… Read more Schauerroman v/s Gothik
Anglophone authors and Jane Austen fans tend to think of the culture and style of the Regency era as uniquely British. While having the Prince Regent was certainly for the UK alone, the larger sociocultural trends of the Regency were European, part of a dynamic give and take of ideas that flourished in spite of… Read more Frauenroman: Deriding Women’s Romances For Centuries
The future King Charles IV of Spain was born on 11 November 1748 in Naples, the second son of Charles, King of Naples and Sicily, and Maria Amalia of Saxony. He was christened Carlos (Charles to the Anglophone speakers) Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego, and given the title of the… Read more Charles IV of Spain
Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom was born on 8 November 1768, and most unusually for a king, her father was hoping for a girl. King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz already had four strapping, healthy little boys, but only one daughter. The king in particular was adamant he hoped for another daughter,… Read more Princess Augusta … Mrs Spencer?
On 7 November 1775 the royal governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, issued Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation, offering freedom to any slave who would fight for the British during the American Revolutionary War. This caused the slave-owning elites of Virginia, both loyalist and rebel, to shit a brick. In the last quarter of… Read more Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation
Most people know that the 5 November is about the Gunpowder Plot, “a failed mass assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland and the entire House of Lords by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.” It’s celebrated now by burning bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes… Read more The Last Gunpowder Plot: The Newport Rising
Princess Sophia Matilda of the United Kingdom was born on 3 November 1777, the 12th child of King George III and his consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Little Sophia was loved, but what is considered “good parenting” has changed so radically since her time that her upbringing can horrify the modern reader. Her parents, especially her… Read more The Scandals of Princess Sophia
Robert Burns published the poem Halloween on 31 July 1786, when Jane Austen was ten years old. The devoted lover of poetry that she was, she would have doubtlessly have been familiar with it as a teen. But did she celebrate Halloween, the way others did in her time? Alas, we cannot know for sure … but it… Read more Regency Hallowmas
Imagine a world where a married woman could work faithfully for her employer for more than fourteen years, chronically underpaid, yet still be thrown out like garbage because she was pregnant with her husband’s baby. This is exactly what happened to Mrs Dorothy Doar in 1832, which I recently read about in the excellent book… Read more A Regency Crime: The Persecution of Mrs Doar