From unwanted proposals and lingering looks across ballrooms to a wet-shirted Mr Darcy emerging from a lake, the romantic stories of Jane Austen – and their countless adaptations – have captured the hearts of many of us. But, if we turn to the real historical record of the Regency era, how much truth is there to these tales of happily ever after? As a nod to Valentine's Day, Lauren Good speaks to Rory Muir about the reality of love and marriage in the age of Jane Austen, from engagements and elopements to going on honeymoon with your mother-in-law.
(Ad) Rory Muir is the author of Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen (Yale University Press, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Marriage-Age-Jane-Austen/dp/0300269609/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
1950s Britain: everything you wanted to know
The dangerous road to the Bastille
Shakespeare: Past Master | 3. Julius Caesar
Du Fu: China's greatest poet
Cities that turbocharged art history
Astronomy history: everything you wanted to know
The dark side of Dickens
Shakespeare: Past Master | 2. Romeo and Juliet
Thanksgiving: everything you wanted to know
The dangers of medieval travel
The Princes in the Tower: has the mystery been solved?
The Pre-Raphaelites: everything you wanted to know
Resistance in the Second World War
Shakespeare: Past Master | 1. Henry V
Shakespeare Trailer
George Orwell’s forgotten wife
Magic books: a global history
Norse myths: everything you wanted to know
Medieval Stalingrad: The siege of Calais
The First Crusade | 5. The end or the beginning?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Gone Medieval
History Unplugged Podcast
Not Just the Tudors
History Daily