Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novel

Romance novel

The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...

s set during the period of the British Regency or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency romances are a distinct genre

Genre fiction

Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....

 with their own plot and stylistic

Stylistics (linguistics)

Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own...

 conventions that derive from the works of Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

, (and to some extent from distinguished Austen imitators such as Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...

 and Clare Darcy

Clare Darcy

Clare Darcy was the pseudonym used by the American novelist Mary Deasy for her Regency Romance novels, i.e., novels set in Regency England. She was born on May 20, 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in Ohio in May 1978...

), and from the fiction genre known as the novel of manners

Novel of manners

The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict...

. In particular, the more traditional Regencies feature a great deal of intelligent, fast-paced dialog between the protagonists and very little explicit sex

Human sexual behavior

Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...

 or discussion of sex.

Other common elements of Regency romances include:

• references to the Ton (le bon ton)
  Ton (le bon ton)
  The ton is a term commonly used to refer to Britain’s high society during the Georgian era, especially the Regency and reign of George IV. It comes from the French word meaning "taste" or "everything that is fashionable" and is pronounced the same way as tone...
  
  
• depictions of social activities common during the social season
  Season (society)
  The social season or Season has historically referred to the annual period when it is customary for members of the a social elite of society to hold debutante balls, dinner parties and large charity events...
  
   such as carriage rides, morning calls, dinners, routs, plays, operas, assemblies, balls, etc.
• references to, or descriptions of, athletic activities engaged in by fashionable young men of the period, including riding, driving, boxing, fencing, hunting, shooting, etc.
• differences of social class
• marriages of convenience
• false engagements
• cyprians (sex workers), demireps (women of ill repute), mistresses and other women employed by rakehells and men from the upper classes
• mistaken identity, deliberate or otherwise
• mystery
  Mystery fiction
  Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
  
   or farce
  Farce
  In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
  
   elements in the plot

Like other fiction genres and subgenres, Regencies experience cyclic popularity swings.

The readership waned during the 1990s with the rise of historical romance

Historical romance

Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...

s (and the switch of many Regency writers to the historical genre). In the early 2000s, both Regencies and other historical romances lost popularity in favor of contemporary settings. The market, nearly entirely in the United States, was also hurt by changes in distributing and retailing romances. The last two major U.S. publishers to produce the shorter "traditional" Regencies regularly were Zebra and Signet. This ended in 2005, when Zebra stopped their traditional Regency line, and early 2006, when Signet ended its Regencies. There are few "traditional" Regencies now published in the United States; some of the few publishers that still do so are Avalon Books, Berkeley Books, Five Star Books, Cerridwen Press (Cotillion) and (according to some) the Harlequin Historical line. Regencies are still available through the second-hand book market, and online as e-books, via Belgrave House (which publishes out-of-print books) and Cerridwen Press.

The Regency subgenre changed somewhat during the 1990s and 2000s, when authors began incorporating more sex into their novels, under pressure from a changing reader base. While some long-time readers balked, publishers viewed the inclusion of sex scenes as a means of keeping the subgenre afloat. The goal was to appeal to a new generation of readers while still delivering the witty and clever plotlines loyal readers love. Regency romance authors such as Sandra Heath, Anita Mills, and Mary Balogh

Mary Balogh

Mary Balogh is a Welsh-Canadian historical romance novelist.-Personal life:...

 were the first to write about sexual relationships between the hero and heroine (or more rarely, between the hero and his mistress).

Not all Regency romance novels are frothy period pieces. Such authors as Balogh, Carla Kelly

Carla Kelly

Carla Kelly, or Carla Sue Kelly is a popular and acclaimed writer in the Regency romance genre. She is the author of over forty books and short stories. Her books are "keepers" and accordingly hard to find. Renowned for what she calls "dukeless" regencies, her stories often revolve around ordinary...

, Sheila Bishop, and Mary Jo Putney

Mary Jo Putney

Mary Jo Putney is a best-selling American author of over twenty-five historical and contemporary romance novels. She has also been published fantasy romance novels as M.J. Putney. Her books are known for their unusual subject matter, including alcoholism, death, and domestic...

all depict the underbelly of Regency society, exploring a variety of social ills in their novels. Some authors feature seriously troubled heroes and heroines, who suffer from post-battle trauma, alcoholism, depression, and the like.

External links

• The Regency and Post-Regency Period, from All About Romance
• The Beau Monde Regency Writer's Organization
• Good Ton: A Resource for Regency readers & writers; lists nearly all Regencies published by five houses. Reviews many hard-to-find books.
• Regency Romance Writers
• Rakehell -- for Regency Readers