Are romance novels all the same? Are their readers all bored housewives and BookTok girlies? Of course not! Romance experts Jodi McAlister and Jayashree Kamble debunk the myths and deliver the facts.
There are many areas in the show where historical fact is sacrificed on the altar of artistic license, but glimmers of the real Queen Charlotte shine through.
Queen Charlotte captured viewers’ attention in the Netflix series Bridgerton as the snuff-sniffing, gossip-garnering, biracial wife of the “mad king” George III.
While Netflix’s Bridgerton is both incredibly romantic and erotic, the reality is it’s estimated 1in 5 people in the Regency period in London had syphilis and other STIs.
From editors looking to ‘expose the false art of life’ to others taking up the cause of the marginalised, writers went anonymous to share their uncomfortable truths.
Romance readers would be familiar with the idea of romantic serialisation - now, Netflix’s Bridgerton brings the format to television, which is why season 1’s Duke of Hastings is nowhere to be seen.
‘Bridgerton’ alludes to and obscures social, racial and political tensions in England’s Regency era, the extraordinary decade that marks the dawn of the modern world.