I saw no Darcys, no Galen Vachons, no Jack Devlins, not even a bloody Rochester; whom for all his flaws, at least doesn’t look like the personification of a snotty handkerchief.
No hotties, but bugs
During the periods in which our beloved Hist Roms are set, there was a deficit of hot Dukes and an abundance of lice.
There weren’t many Bluestockings or women with agency, but there was disease.
Few spies, but a lotta incest.
And sorry to say it, but there were also streets flooded with piss because everyone just hiffed it out the window. There were child brides and infection and no kind of dentistry whatsoever; prostitution was pretty much the only career for women who weren’t wealthy, dudes were spreading syphilis all over the show and blaming it on prostitutes, being married at 12 was all good, and if you lived past 30 you were Doing Pretty Well.
Some writers get more detailed with their era than others, but in general, there are unspoken boundaries. Like pissy streets.
Historical accuracy in romance is just a curated selection. It’s someone sitting at a desk and playing Marie Kondo with nuggets of information.
I imagine a novelist pouring through reference images of gorgeous frocks and going, ‘yes, this gives me joy, I’ll mention the type of lace trim my heroine would have had on her dress in 1845; should I mention that all of her teeth would have been rotting out of her head …? Hmmmm, no! No joy!’ *discard!*
Another element of history that was definitely real but always misses a mention, both in mainstream romance and history in general, is People of Colour living noteworthy lives. Nay a word about John Rippon, Olaudah Equiano, Ignatius Sancho, Anne Cobbie or Jacques Francis.
This begs the question: if historical accuracy is just curation of whatever we want, why do we not want to include People of Colour?
We’ll make up spies, but not a Black Duke? We can make up princesses and entire lands, but no way re: free PoC in historic England? Even though the latter really were there?
Why on earth could this be?
… Probably racism, aye.
The Bridgertons on Netflix
Racism reared up, hissing, a few months ago when Shondaland and Julia Quinn announced their casting for the upcoming Bridgerton Netflix series.