Risky Regencies

John Carr Architect

Updated on January 24, 2023 by Diane Gaston

I’ll bet if I say “Robert Adam” most readers and writers of Regency romance will know that he was a famous architect who greatly influenced architecture, interior design, and furniture design of the times–mostly Georgian times, but I imagine my Regency characters in houses designed by Adam all the time.

On my England trip last year, though, I learned of another architect of the same period, even more prolific than Adam–John Carr.

John Carr designed Basildon Park, one of the houses we visited on the Duke of Wellington Tour and one I blogged about here shortly after. He, too, was a neoclassicist like Adam.

If you saw this, would you guess it was by Robert Adam?

It’s an interior of Basildon Park by John Carr.

Carr was born in Yorkshire and decided to remain there rather than settle in London, thinking there was plenty of wealth in the area to support his business. He lived into his eighties and produced an incredible number of projects.

Tabley House is another house designed by John Carr similar to Basildon Park.

One characteristic of both these houses is that you have to go up stairs to reach the front entrance which is on the first floor, not the ground floor. I thought that was rather grand when we visited Basildon Park.

In my current work in progress, Genna’s story in the Scandalous Summerfields series, I used Basildon Park as my model for Summerfield House. It was especially helpful to find floor plans online.

There was one famous house that both John Carr and Robert Adam designed–Harewood House near Leeds.

Carr designed the building and Robert Adam, the interiors. Adam also slightly altered Carr’s exterior, including internal courtyards.

Who is up for visiting all these houses? Don’t you sometimes wish we really had a Transporter like in Star Trek?

Posted in Diane Gaston, Regency, Research | Tagged Basildon Park, Diane Gaston, Harewood House, John Carr, Robert Adam, Tabley House, Transporter | 3 Replies

Austen vs Brontë

Updated on January 24, 2023 by Diane Gaston

How better to start 2016 at Risky Regencies than with a cat fight? Not a real one, of course, but a literary one pitting Jane Austen against Charlotte Brontë.

I just read Why Charlotte Brontë Hated Jane Austen by Susan Ostrov Weisser (Daily Beast, 10/19/2013) and, intrigued, looked around and found The Austen vs Brontë Smackdown on the blog Austen Pride (5/16/2009). I also found a long discussion of Austen vs the Brontës on Goodreads, which I skimmed, but did not read.

Apparently Charlotte Brontë had never read Jane Austen until a critic suggested she do so after she’d written Jane Eyre. She studied Pride and Prejudice and, among other things had this to say:

She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him with nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her: she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood…

Austen Pride makes the point that Austen, who had passed away a year after Charlotte Brontë was born, could not rebut this accusation. In Northanger Abbey, Austen did, however, parody the emotional excesses of gothic tales, of which the Brontës’ books could be included.

Of course, those of us who love Austen would also argue that there is plenty of passion in Austen’s work, although it is brimming beneath the surface. How could you not think so of Persuasion?

Austen Pride concluded that the two authors were writing from different perspectives. Austen was writing about her keen observations of the world in which she lived; Charlotte and her sisters, on the other hand, wrote what was in their imagination.

Me, I was never a huge fan of Jane Eyre. I loved the beginning when she was in the orphanage, but I never believed in the romance between Jane and Rochester. And the coincidences of falling in a ditch and being found by her long-lost cousin didn’t work for me. I also hated how Rochester treated Jane. And don’t get me started on Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff and Cathy have to die to be together? And who would want Heathcliff anyway? I preferred Edgar to Heathcliff.

I think I hold my fictional heroes to very high standards, ones that the Rochester and Heathcliff don’t quite meet. I understand the forces driving the Brontë heroes, but I much prefer heroes I can admire and even fall in love with. Heroes like Austen creates.

I also love all the finely drawn characters in Austen’s books. Their actions and feelings are much more believable to me and that gives me the sense that I’m in a real place, among real people.

But that is me, thinking on the surface of the stories, which is mostly how I read books.

What about you? Do you prefer Austen or the Brontës? Or do you like both for different reasons?

Posted in Diane Gaston, Jane Austen, Reading, Risky Book Talk | Tagged Charlotte Bronte, Diane Gaston, Jane Eyre, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights | 11 Replies

Coming Soon! Lavinia Kent

Updated on January 24, 2023 by Diane Gaston

On Friday, January 29, our guest will be Lavinia Kent, talking about her new book, Ravishing Ruby, out now from Loveswept.

My friend Lavinia’s forte is writing sensual love scenes. Like the first two books in her Bound and Determined series, Ravishing Ruby, Ravishing Rubyis centered around a very special brothel.

If that doesn’t bring you here Friday, then maybe this will. Lavinia will be giving away one free ebook of Ravishing Ruby!

Posted in Diane Gaston, Risky Regencies | Tagged Diane Gaston | 2 Replies

Guest! Lavinia Kent’s Ravishing Ruby

Updated on January 24, 2023 by Diane Gaston

I am delighted to welcome back to Risky Regencies my good friend and wonderful author, Lavinia Kent. Ravishing Ruby is Lavinia’s latest book out from the fabulous Loveswept line, the latest in her Bound and Determined series.

Here what some Amazon reviewers have to say about Ravishing Ruby:
“Lavinia Kent is one of the best authors I’ve ever read. Ravishing Ruby does not disappoint, and was worth every penny! You HAVE to read this book! And every one in this series, especially if you love historical romances! Seriously, Lavinia is one of the best.”

“Lavinia Kent is amazing with those sex scene, she’s my queen. They are hot, they are unique and not one is like the other. This time Kent plays with fantasies. And oh … those fantasies …
Read it! It’s amazing!”

Lavinia will give away one ebook copy (your choice of formats) of Ravishing Ruby to one commenter, chosen at random.

Here’s Lavinia!

Tell us about Ravishing Ruby.

Ravishing Ruby is the continuing story of Ruby, Madame Rouge, the proprietor of a London brothel. It follows the novella, Revealing Ruby, in which we first get a glimpse inside Ruby’s world and come to understand what motivates her. Ravishing Ruby takes us deeper into that world and into her relationship with Captain Derek Price, an American ship’s captain. Because of Ruby’s unique standing in society it seems that any real relationship between them should be impossible – but things are not always as they seem.

Tell us about your Bound and Determined series. How do the books fit together?

My Bound and Determined series is a collection of extremely sensuous regency stories all bound together by Madame Rouge’s Club for Gentlemen of Taste. All the books have at least a couple of scenes that take place there, and none of the relationships would have developed without Madame Rouge’s. When I first started writing the series, I had no idea that Ruby would be ever be a heroine, but every time she stepped onto the page she started to take over, and so I was compelled to write her story.

You are known for your sensual and long love scenes. What’s unique or special about a love scene in Ravishing Ruby?

In writing the love scenes for Ravishing Ruby, I really let my imagination fly. Ruby has very “vanilla” tastes; she’s seen it all, tried most of it, and knows what she doesn’t like. What she does like is fantasy. I had a wonderful time trying to imagine what fantasies a woman of her time might have had. Sir Walter Scott had just published Ivanhoe, and I had great fun having both Ruby and Derek read the book and then act out parts of it at a masquerade.

What is “risky” about Ravishing Ruby?

I think the very idea of a true Madame as a heroine is risky. Ruby has no pretense about what she does and why she does it. She does try to create the best house possible for her girls, but she also knows that it is a business and that her livelihood depends on it. I have always been intrigued by how different the choices that women had were in past centuries. Is there any way that Ruby cannot lie about who she is and still have a chance at happiness?

Did you come across any interesting pieces of research while writing Ravishing Ruby?

I read books and poetry to think about Ruby’s fantasies: Ivanhoe, Byron’s Corsair, Arabian Nights (now, One Thousand and One Nights). It was some of the most enjoyable research I’ve ever done and really helped get me into Ruby’s mindset.

What is next for you?

I’ve just finished writing Angel in Scarlet, my mid-summer release. It features Angela, the best friend of my heroine in Bound by Bliss, and also has several important scenes at Madame Rouge’s.

I’m just starting a Christmas story about Ruby that will take her story with Derek a little further and set up my next series. The story keeps getting longer and longer in my mind as all of my old characters come to visit.

Which brings me to my question. Do you like seeing past heroes and heroines in a later story and getting another glimpse into their lives, or do you prefer that each story be new and fresh?

Thank you for having me. I always love visiting Risky Regencies.

Diane here, again.
We love having you, Lavinia! Remember readers, Lavinia will give away one ebook of Ravishing Ruby to one lucky commenter. I’ll pick the winner at random on Monday, Feb 1.

Posted in Diane Gaston, Guest | Tagged Diane Gaston, Lavinia Kent, Loveswept, Ravishing Ruby | 7 Replies

February, 1816: A Shooting at Drury Lane Theatre

Updated on January 24, 2023 by Diane Gaston

In researching for my WIP, Summerfield sister Genna’s story, I looked into my copy of The Annual Register, Or a View of History, Politics, and Literature of the Year 1816 (Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817) and came across this entry in the Chronicles for February 17, 1816.

At Drury Lane Theatre, at the opening scene of the farce called Modern Antiques, or The Merry Mourners, in which Miss Kelly appeared in the character of Nan, a country girl; and Mr. Knight, as Joey, a country lad; while these two performer were, according to their parts, embracing, a pistol was discharged from about the centre of the pit. Great consternation was excited on the stage and among the audience and it was not ascertained whether any person was shot, or what mischief was done. It was not known then whether the deadly attack was intended to be against Miss Kelly or Mr. Knight; but a subsequent investigation proved that it was aimed at Miss Kelly….

The shooter was George Barnett, aged 21, a law stationer who lived at No. 22 Princess Street. He was stopped and apprehended by two members of the audience and taken to the managers’ office in the theatre, where he and the witnesses were questioned by Mr. Birnie, the magistrate. Barnett would not say anything at the time, though. He was then taken to Tothill Fields Bridewell by the constables. The recovered pistols were taken to Bow Street.

Mr. Birnie stated that from the wild and incoherent manner in which he (Barnett) conducted himself that there is “very little doubt of his insanity.”

The account goes on:

It was with some difficulty that Miss Kelly finished acting her character in the farce. On her being informed of the man’s name, she recollected that it was the same name which she had received, signed to several love-letters, some of which contained threats, if she did not accept his offer, etc–She, not knowing the person, treated the whole as a matter of indifference…The fright had such an effect upon her that she has been much indisposed since, and was confined yesterday…

When the pistol was fired, several shots perforated through the left back scene and struck the back of the orchestra. Had it been a musical farce, members of the orchestra might have been struck.

Don’t you feel this could have happened in today’s world? So much rings familiar–shootings in theaters, obsessed fans, even brave bystanders saving the day.

Reading through the Chronicles in the various Annual Registers (I have from 1810 to 1820), I am always struck by how little some things have changed in two hundred years.

Do you have any examples?

Later today, I will be choosing a winner of Lavinia Kent’s latest book, Ravishing Ruby. There’s still time to come by and comment for a chance to win!