Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency

by Bea Koch Narrated by Rengin Altay

Overview

Discover a feminist pop history that looks beyond the Ton and Jane Austen to highlight the Regency women who succeeded on their own terms and were largely lost to history -- until now.

Regency England is a world immortalized by Jane Austen and Lord Byron in their beloved novels and poems. The popular image of the Regency continues to be mythologized by the hundreds of romance novels set in the period, which focus almost exclusively on wealthy, white, Christian members of the upper classes.

But there are hundreds of fascinating women who don't fit history books limited perception of what was historically accurate for early 19th century England. Women like Dido Elizabeth Belle, whose mother was a slave but was raised by her white father's family in England, Caroline Herschel, who acted as her brother's assistant as he hunted the heavens for comets, and ended up discovering eight on her own, Anne Lister, who lived on her own terms with her common-law wife at Shibden Hall, and Judith Montefiore, a Jewish woman who wrote the first English language Kosher cookbook.

As one of the owners of the successful romance-only bookstore The Ripped Bodice, Bea Koch has had a front row seat to controversies surrounding what is accepted as "historically accurate" for the wildly popular Regency period. Following in the popular footsteps of books like Ann Shen's Bad Girls Throughout History, Koch takes the Regency, one of the most loved and idealized historical time periods and a huge inspiration for American pop culture, and reveals the independent-minded, standard-breaking real historical women who lived life on their terms. She also examines broader questions of culture in chapters that focus on the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, the lives of women of color in the Regency, and women who broke barriers in fields like astronomy and paleontology. In Mad and Bad, we look beyond popular perception of the Regency into the even more vibrant, diverse, and fascinating historical truth.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile

This audiobook is both a love letter to romance novels set in Regency England and a historical analysis of the women who lived during that time. Narrator Rengin Altay’s amiable performance creates an approachable listen as she details women that most of history has forgotten. Many Regency romance novels feature white women with wealth, and several sections of this work discuss women such as these who managed to live more independently. Also included are chapters on women who go beyond the popular perception of Regency heroines, including lesbian and Jewish women, women of color, and scientists. Historical romance listeners, especially fans of Jane Austen, will find the many brief biographies fascinating. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

04/20/2020

Koch, co-owner of Los Angeles bookstore The Ripped Bodice, debuts with an entertaining and fact-filled history of Regency England focused on notable women whose lives have inspired the mold-breaking heroines of historical romance novels. She describes the “ ‘marriage mart’ culture” of Almack’s Assembly Rooms and other upper-class social clubs, sketches the biographies of royal women, such as Queen Caroline of Brunswick, and highlights the personal agency and artistic accomplishments of famous mistresses of the era, including Lord Byron’s lover Caroline Lamb, author of the roman á clef Glenarvon. Koch also profiles marginalized female scholars, including astronomer Caroline Herschel and science writer Jane Marcet, who wrote educational books for young women. Other chapters explore queer identities; the presence of notable women of color in 19th-century fiction; and the work of Jewish women to improve the reputation of Judaism. Koch’s detailed profiles exhibit a storyteller’s flair and carry just the right whiff of iconoclasm, though she carefully notes the importance of social networks among her rule-flouting subjects. Throughout, she persuasively contradicts the notion that modern stories featuring accomplished and diverse heroines in 19th-century England are necessarily revisionist. This fun and informative account will be treasured by readers of Jane Austen and contemporary Regency romance novelists, as well as fans of feminist history. (June)

From the Publisher

"I can only hope that Bea Koch decides to give us more books like this. With this book, she shines a spotlight on a group of women who deserve to live as more than footnotes in history...This is a book that deserves all the attention it can get."—Culturess

"With the popularity of TV shows and films set in Regency England, I'm thankful for Bea Koch and her examination of the era beyond the wealthy, white, Christian focus of the past. Koch vividly shines light on the queer, Jewish and women of color who have long been overlooked."—Ms. Magazine

"This is not the Regency you thought you knew! Bea Koch's Mad & Bad is an important and enlightening new look at this classic era."—Maya Rodale, bestselling author of historical romance

"Bea Koch presents a welcome assessment of the various forms of power and agency that women could wield in the male-dominated society of Regency England."—Roy and Lesley Adkins, authors of Jane Austen's England

"Bea Koch's Mad and Bad is a marvelous work of joyful feminist triumph that paints a nuanced picture of the British Regency era as women experienced it. From Caroline Lamb to Annie Lister to Mary Seacole, Koch's lovingly rendered biographies illuminate fascinating narratives of power, inequity, ambition, and passion. What a gift to have at our fingertips this excellent archive of mad, bad heroines, all of whom demand bother remembrance and careful study. I will return to its pages often, grateful for the historical tapestry Koch has gracefully woven."—Rachel Vorona Cote, author of Too Much

"As it turns out, the Regency Era wasn't just a world of Lord Byron-esque players and Mr. Darcy-esque dreamboats. There were women there, too — gasp! — and they were just as mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Koch Takes readers on a romp through some of the most fascinating ones, from scandalous rich women who took a lot of lovers to sisters who hunted fossils to a gal who earned herself the nickname "Gentleman Jack." Romance novel readers, Austenites, and Byronheads will love delving into the truth behind the aesthetics they've long adored."—Tori Telfer, author of Lady Killers

Library Journal

06/26/2020

As co-owner of the Ripped Bodice, the only independent romance bookstore in the United States, Koch has a wealth of knowledge on Regency romance novels and the heroines who fill the pages, inspiring her to examine this brief period of British history (1810–20) in this debut book. In the vein of other feminist pop history books, such as Mackenzi Lee's Bygone Badass Broads, Koch aims to bring to the forefront the real trailblazing women who continue to inspire historical romance writers. Featuring chapters dedicated to women in STEM, women of color, and the LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities, among others, the author reveals snippets of these women's stories and succeeds in changing the narrative of what is "historically accurate" for the Regency. Those looking for more in-depth examinations of Regency women may find this a great starting point, with each chapter featuring recommended reading lists to guide further research. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Regency romances and for casual feminist history readers as a brief overview of the period and the many influential figures who defied society's expectations.—Katie McGaha, LA Cty. Lib., Agoura Hills

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile

This audiobook is both a love letter to romance novels set in Regency England and a historical analysis of the women who lived during that time. Narrator Rengin Altay’s amiable performance creates an approachable listen as she details women that most of history has forgotten. Many Regency romance novels feature white women with wealth, and several sections of this work discuss women such as these who managed to live more independently. Also included are chapters on women who go beyond the popular perception of Regency heroines, including lesbian and Jewish women, women of color, and scientists. Historical romance listeners, especially fans of Jane Austen, will find the many brief biographies fascinating. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-03-15
A pop-history look at England’s Regency era, a time period popular in the romance genre.

Koch is one of the owners of the Ripped Bodice, a Los Angeles–area bookstore “dedicated to romance.” In her debut book, the author examines the Regency (1811-1820), when George III’s illness rendered him unfit to rule and his son was installed as Prince Regent. After a cursory introduction to George III, Koch launches into stories of women who lived before, during, or after the Regency period. The author cannot explain the importance of the Regency period, however: “Ten short years in the grand scheme of history….What about the Regency continues to draw us in? I wish I had an answer (I would make millions of dollars).” Her lack of clarity about the Regency’s relevance makes the text rambling and unfocused. Koch organizes brief biographical sketches into chapters according to women’s relationships to men, to their interests, or to their own identities. Although the author notes that men controlled the historical narrative, she does little to examine how that negatively influenced the record of women in history. Much of the book features gossipy retellings of women’s lives during the period and how they were connected—or not. Several times, Koch cites fictionalized dialogue from films to support her claims. In a chapter on historical accuracy, Koch focuses on the lives of Mary Seacole and Dido Elizabeth Belle, two black women, to showcase the rich diversity present in London during the 19th century. However, the author inexplicably ends the chapter with the story of Princess Caraboo, a character created as an elaborate scam by a white woman named Mary Baker. Koch is unconvincing in her argument that Baker “shows us that everything we and her contemporaries think and thought about nineteenth-century women barely scratches the surface of the truth.”

A disjointed work that adds little to our understanding of the Regency period. (b/w illustrations)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172250682
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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