If it’s Saturday, I must be packing to hop on the Eurostar to head to London! What I’m doing there…

Stepping back to the 16th century at the Tower

Watching Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe! (and also wishing I had tickets to the RSC’s sold-out Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart)

Visiting Bath for the day (tea at the Pump Room!)

And hopefully taking in museums and eating fish-and-chips in fun pubs

Cheerio, and see you next week!

Megan’s post about Ridiculous Teenagers got me thinking about a related aspect of Regency heroines. Along with a trend toward somewhat older heroines, there’s also a trend toward more sexually experienced ones. For instance, I’m noticing more widow and courtesan stories. But even among unmarried heroines, there are fewer of the old-style naïve virgin.

Personally, I find the extremes—either the clueless heroine raised under a rock and the unmarried lady who somehow knows everything and even what it’s called—need some setup to make them believable.

Just because Regency misses were not supposed to know anything about sex doesn’t make me think that was always true. There probably were some who were so closely chaperoned and secluded that they had no opportunity to figure things out. I could buy that in a story, based on the author’s setup, and I wouldn’t despise a heroine just for being ignorant (we all were once). But I also don’t like to equate “ignorant” with “innocent”.

I think there were ways a girl might have learned things, intentionally or accidentally. She might have overheard servants’ gossip. Living in the country and observing animals might spark curiosity–though I think it could lead to some funny mistakes, too! Gentlemen often owned some pretty explicit materials: books, pictures, naughty snuffboxes and the like. Though they probably tried to keep these items out of sight of ladies of the house, there could have been the Regency equivalent of stumbling onto an older brother’s Playboy stash. Moreover, if the lady had many sisters, or a large circle of friends, and especially if she went to a girls’ boarding school, I’d bet that at some point she might hear something from someone who heard it from someone else. Of course, the knowledge a heroine gets some of these ways might still be incomplete or incorrect—which could be interesting story fodder!

I could also imagine that if the heroine were raised in an eccentric, bohemian, liberal sort of family, she might know things that most didn’t. We also don’t know what mothers (or older sisters, or married friends) might have told a young bride-to-be. They might have told her to “think of England” but what if the friend or relative was herself the heroine of an earlier romance? What kind of advice might she give?

I don’t want all heroines to be alike, so for me, as long as the author has set up her background appropriately, I’m willing to believe just about any degree of knowledge.

What about you? What do you think they might have known? What sorts of unmarried Regency heroines do you find believable?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Turns out my local power company is about to turn out my electricity for two hours — the price of living right next to an electrical substation, I guess!!! (Or is “price” the wrong word? Because isn’t a price something you pay in exchange for something that might have worth? Ah, words…)

Anyway, due to prices or costs or random electron-associated proximities, this will be a quick post.

WORD SWORD: a metaphorical sword which one can use to divide the words (and phrases and usages and spellings) which one likes from those one does not.

So…my word sword chops down, and when the dust clears, I see:

ON THE GOOD SIDE…i.e. words and phrases I particularly like today:

iconography
happenstance
altruistic
minimalist
butterfly
miscellany
concatenation
paucity
surfeit
plethora
biscuit tin
And pretty much anything Oscar Wilde ever said.

ON THE BAD SIDE…i.e. words/phrases/spellings that I don’t much care for (or hate passionately) today:

atall
alot
alright
walla
impact (as a verb)
Left Coast
all intensive purposes
venerable
ichthyology
executive
chick flick
condominium rentals

So….what does your word sword show today?

All answers welcome!

And remember: the first Tuesday of October, our Jane Austen Movie Club will be discussing BRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

Cara
Cara King, who has a paucity of butterflies and a plethora of biscuit tins in her West Coast home, where ichthyologists dine with her (or come in the evening, at any rate)

The winner of Lost in You by Alix Rickloff is……..

CrystalGB!

Congratulations, CrystalGB. Email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your address and the faeries will deliver your book in person! (Well, through the post office, I mean)

As you read this, hopefully I am just stepping off the plane in Paris! I’ll be gone for the next two weeks, but will be dropping in at Internet cafes to check in on Risky events.

So, what will I be up to this week?

Touristy fun things, like the Eiffel Tower

Shopping for pastries, chocolates, perfume, and cute little soft t-shirts at Petite Bateau (which I may not be able to fit into after the pastries…)

Looking at art at the Louvre, the Orsay, and the Marmottan

Researching new writing projects at Versailles, the Carnavalet, and the Conciergerie

And probably some wandering around in parks eating Nutella crepes.

Au revoir for now, mes amis!