This book has a funny story about how I ended up reading it! I spotted it one day in the library ad picked it up on a whim. I’d always found the Regency (about 1810-1820, when the Prince of Wales replaced his insane father George III on the throne of England) interesting, mostly because I love Jane Austen books, and I’d also loved Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is set in an alternative magical reality in approximately the same time period.

However, I’m often one who grabs enticing history books off library shelves and renews them multiple times without having even cracked them open. So after I renewed the book for the second time, I resigned myself to once again failing to read a history book that enticed me. And then, low and behold, Covid 19. The libraries were shut down, and they sent me a very nice note about how I could keep my books until they opened back up again. This is one of the few nice things that came out of this whole quarantine/stay at home thing. I kept the book, and I had enough time to actually read it!

I’m gad I did, because the Regency is one of the most conflicting, interesting, and least studied periods of English history. It’s the time of Lord Byron, Jane Austen, J.W. Turner, and Sir Walter Scott, as well as many other illustrious writers, scientists, and artists. It’s also a distinctly naughty period of English history, when the Prince Regent and his comrades indulged in all kinds of excess, from opium to drinking to sex. It’s also a pivotal point in the Industrial Revolution, when the old rural agrarian way of life was dying off for good, while the poor and displaced flocked to cities where they were promptly exploited. Charles Dickens was a child then, and his inspirations for Oliver Twist and other books that depict the horrors of poverty and child labor may have come from this time period.

Robert Morrison captures something of the drama and intensity of this period in his book, and he does a good job of showing the many different points of view that people at the time had of all the events around them. For instance, his depiction of the Prince Regent himself, the future George IV. While Morrison notes the many intensive criticisms of the Regent, who was careless, profligate, and self centered, and did little to help his countrymen, he also notes that the Regent had his admirers, including Lord Byron. The book also managed to capture some of the other notable characters of the day, in including Beau Brummell and Lord Byron himself.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading history or is interested in learning more of a relatively ignored period of English History. As a writer, I also found the evocative descriptions and characterizations a good inspiration. Lots of fantasy/steampunk writers could benefit from reading books like this, which can give their worlds depth and a touch of vivid realism. So check out The Regency Years!

Here’s the blurb:

A surprising and lively history of an overlooked era that brought the modern world of art, culture, and science decisively into view.

The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811–1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales—the future king George IV—replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain’s ruler.

Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. Science burgeoned during this decade, too, giving us the steam locomotive and the blueprint for the modern computer.

Yet the dark side of the era was visible in poverty, slavery, pornography, opium, and the gothic imaginings that birthed the novel Frankenstein. With the British military in foreign lands, fighting the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the War of 1812 in the United States, the desire for empire and an expanding colonial enterprise gained unstoppable momentum. Exploring these crosscurrents, Robert Morrison illuminates the profound ways this period shaped and indelibly marked the modern world.