An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England

Summary from Goodreads:
The Regency period was one of the most turbulent ages in British history, one that spanned the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, that witnessed unprecedented industrial progress, artistic accomplishment, and violent social unrest and--paradoxically--the most sparkling social scene English high society has ever enjoyed. Under the influence of the obese, loose-moraled Prince of Wales (to whom Jane Austen dedicated Emma), the Regency was the apex of British decadence, an era of lavish parties and relentless bed-hopping that set a standard for elegance and vulgarity. With wit and lively style, Venetia Murray chronicles the scandals, courtships, and daily life of these aristocrats, and evokes the tempestuous times of the early industrial and French revolutions. Sumptuously illustrated with rare contemporary cartoons, prints, diaries, and caricatures, An Elegant Madness is a book readers of social history and historical romance alike will devour.

Well, since I started writing again, I've had some ongoing story ideas. One of these is set in the Regency and I realized that, since I loathe sloppy historical research, I better do some background reading so I at least start out on the right foot.  You'd think I had already done this given my love of Jane Austen and my concentration in Regency historicals when I read romance novels, but I haven't.  I took a bit of a shotgun approach and rounded up a list of titles, starting with Venetia Murray's An Elegant Madness.

This is a nice book.  It covers major parts of the Regency culture - manners, marriages, views on morality, money, inheritance, food, clothing, etc.  The larger-than-life historical figures of the era - led by the very large Prinny himself - are visited in turn.  The Patronesses of Almack's pop up frequently through their many letters and a number of caricatures and engravings are used to illustrate how the masses viewed High Society.

But the book did feel somewhat jumbled.  Chapters sometimes seemed to veer from the subject - a later chapter about country houses moved from house parties, to how children were raised, to the beginning of the Reform movement which was a bit hard to follow.  The annotation could have been better, in my opinion.  Footnotes and endnotes were used for sources but instances of quotes in French were not translated (Google Translate has trouble with idioms) and an entire menu from one of Prinny's fetes, over 100 dishes, was listed in French.  It was very hard to read, since I don't speak or read French fluently, so the necessity of including the entire menu was lost on me.  I would have appreciated a translation in an appendix.

This is a decent overview for the curious reader, but research-wise I'll need to keep digging.

Romantic Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics)

This is Romantic with the capital "R", for the literature movement, not romantic because of any marriage plot.

We received this into the store and I promptly bought a copy because it appealed to my need to "tell a story."  I was having a little trouble plotting my book so found myself open to a little inspiration from Goethe.

This collection of four traditional fairy tales (as in, the Kunstmarchen versions - they aren't pretty) is edited by Carol Lisa Tully.  It includes:

Goethe's Fairy Tale (1795)
Ludwig Tieck's Eckbert the Fair (1797)
Friedrich de la Motte Fouque's Undine (1811)
Clemens Bretano's The Tale of Honest Casper and Fair Annie (1817)

Murder, incest, wood nymphs, sex (and stand-ins for sex), the supernatural, and one seriously misplaced sense of honor...come and get it!

The Mabinogion

If it wasn't obvious by my header picture, I love Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.  They are nominally based on the Mabinogion of Welsh mythology.  I've wanted to read the Mabinogion for some time, so I picked up the Penguin Classics edition years ago.  Just never got around to reading it until now.

And, needing further information for/distraction from writing the book, I started reading.

First off, I will tell you that my good friend Kate lived in Wales during grad school and speaks a bit of Welsh.  I visited and can speak no Welsh.  I was incredibly happy that this edition has a lovely pronunciation guide for all the Welsh people and place names.  Otherwise, I would have been emailing Kate left right and center.

Second, it was such a treat to read a different take on the origins of King Arthur, King Mark, etc.  Knowing that the Mabinogion (as it is known now) wasn't collected or written down until after the rise of Christianity in the British Isles puts a different spin on character motivations and actions.  It would be so interesting to see what the pagan origins of the myths are but we will likely never know since that religion waned before the tales were recorded.

The Norse Myths

I picked this up because I was trying to get my mind out of a modern, Judeo-Christian mindset while writing.  I've always liked Norse mythology but didn't know much beyond my beloved children's D'Aulaires.

The nice thing about this volume is that there is a cadence to the writing that lends itself to speech.  I could easily picture an elderly man or woman, hunched by the hearth telling these stories.  There are repetitions (the Lord of the Gallows has a repetitive structure as Odin remarks on his new knowledge) and overlapping myths.  This was a great book to read for both information and distraction.