One of my relatives read HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE last night and called me to tell me he was halfway through. I was flattered that he actually read it — given that I’ve known him my entire life, I was hoping he’d shell out $3.99 for it, but reading it was a bonus. And he seemed to enjoy it, although he did say there were fewer submarines in it than the stuff he normally reads (note to self: create a heroine who is into submersibles).
Anyway, he mentioned that he’d had to look up more words with this book than anything he’s read in a long time. “Ton” was the hardest, since a Google search for “ton” won’t easily turn up an explanation on English upperclass society, but there were all sorts of words that flummoxed him (“flummoxed” included, although I don’t think I used it in HEIRESS). And that led me to wonder…how do readers approaching their first Regency romance understand what the heck is going on? I read my first Regency almost twenty years ago, so I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know the difference between a curricle and a phaeton, or that a marquess is ranked higher than a viscount.
What words or social customs did you find confusing when you first started reading Regencies? Anyone who comments on my blog between now and Sunday, January 22nd, at 11:59pm PST will have a chance to win one of three Nook copies of HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE – so have at it! Tell me what words I should define for new Regency readers, and I’ll enter you in the drawing. I’ll also post my definitions on Sunday, and hilarity shall ensue.
And by the way, “the ton” is short for “haut ton”, a French phrase that the English used to describe their aristocratic class — the dukes, earls, barons, and other titled people and their families who were part of the “upper ten thousand”. It’s sort of like a cross between the 1% and being a Hollywood A-lister, except you are born into it and can’t rise into it (unless you were extremely, absurdly wealthy, and even then it would take a couple of generations and some great marriages before your family would be accepted). So Suri Cruise would be haut ton, but that upstart Snooki would never be invited to anything.
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Funny post — I actually have a graduate degree in modern British history, but I’ve never seen the term “ton” used outside of regency romance novels. I don’t doubt that it *is* used, somewhere — but I think the term has taken on a life of its own in the world of the novels!
Ruthie, it does make me wonder how many words/concepts are now accepted by readers/writers as ‘Regency’ even if they weren’t ever used (or weren’t used with the ubiquity that we use them). It blew my mind when I found out a few years ago that the waltz didn’t emerge until mid-Regency :)
Great post! I remember when I started reading historical romances I too had no idea what the “ton” were.
I also had no idea on the hierarchy of “Your Grace” “My Lord” or what the difference was between a Duke, Earl etc. Wikipedia was my friend.
Also I was so confused on the clothing. What was a chemise or shift? What were hessian boots? I also didn’t understand the various names for carriages.
So yes I used Google or my Kindle’s dictionary a lot but more than anything, I respect the authors for being real and not just writing “panties” when they didn’t exist. Great post.
Thanks Michelle! My biggest problem ended up being that I slowly put together what words meant, but I never learned how to pronounce them properly. My biggest gaffe was when I was having a phone conversation w/my best friend about a regency I’d read, and kept pronouncing “chemise” as “chemist without the “t”", rather than “sheMEES”. She has never let me live it down! And it makes me nervous to say other words out loud for fear I’ve mispronounced them all along.
I did have trouble with Marquess when it was first introduced, but when I started reading historical / Regencies, I think the French Marquis was more common. I suppose one thing to consider is that, even if a word is French, the English might not pronounce it that way. ;-) (Though I suspect the upper classes at the time did.)
I did not have access to the Internet at the time (mostly because I don’t think it existed back then, at least, not as we know it). I’m more likely to have trouble with English (or sometimes even American) pronunciation, than with the French. I think they are more consistent than we are.
Oh, I know, it was a no-longer-French name that gave me trouble. Beauchamps, I think, was not pronounced the way I expected. More like Beecham. ;-) Featherstonehaugh is another fun one (Fanshawe?). But that wasn’t French …
To find out more about the Regency, I had to seek out reference books. ;-)
Lori, I didn’t know the pronunciation for Featherstonehaugh until you mentioned it – this is exactly why I live in fear of pronouncing things :) My favorite is that St. John pronounced as Sinjun – if I have a baby boy and am feeling just slightly evil, I may make it a middle name someday!
Oh, yes, St John was another name I did not know until later. ;-)
I have the same trouble with the pronunciation. I find it helpful to go to dictionary.com. You can look up most words (although they don’t have all the names) and click on the speaker icon next to the word. The website will pronounce it for you. This has averted many embarrassing situations for me.