Regency House Party: Companion to the PBS Series

by Lucy Jago

Tying in with the 8-part prime time Channel 4 series, Regency House Party follows 5 men and 5 women as they meet, flirt, and court within the same strict protocols as Jane Austen's heroes and heroines. Each chapter focuses on a particular character or couple, and the houseguests take part in popular pastimes of the era, such as attending a public dissection, amateur dramatics, fencing and, of course, dressing up and attending balls. They are all looking for a suitable marriage partner, whose wealth and social standing will enhance their own.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, British Literature, Regency Romance

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sara Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently still reading through this book, but it s very interesting. Its written to accompany the tv programme, 'Regency House'. I didn't see the TV show myself but it didn't stop me picking the book up at a bargain bookstore and I love it.

As well as giving a short introduction of the people taking part in the experiment of putting modern people into the Regency period, it gives some great details into the Regency times.

Not so much a history book, it goes into the ways of society and the roles in which different people played. If you read Austen and the likes then this book gives a great insight into the life people such as Austen's heroines lived and the social hierarchy they had to conform too.

It's very easy to read, humourous and has experts of diaries written by those who took part who write about how they conform to a society where status and money dictated what you could do and even who you could socialise and speak with.

Fashions, architecture, even 'Fan language' are explained amidst some lovely pictures of the Regency house of the book/programme as well as Historical pictures concerning the Prince Regent also.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only caught one or two episodes of this show, and reading this book makes me wish I'd watched the whole thing. This book goes into detail about how they chose the house and completely remodeled and redecorated it to make it all period compliant; it talks about choosing the staff and making the clothes. It gives thorough historical context for the time period, and it details what happened during the series. If you are interested in this time period or were a fan of the show, this is well worth a read.

[Samantha McNulty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis: Tying-in with the 4-part primetime PBS series airing in November 2004, Regency House Party will follow 5 men and 5 women as they meet, flirt and court within the same strict protocols as Jane Austen's heroes and heroines, e.g. all women must be chaperoned, a woman should never encourage a man, a man should never touch a young lady, etc. Each participant will be designated a role and an income, which will dictate their social standing—although at any point this could change and one of the poorer guests could inherit a fortune, or a rich one suffer a crippling debt—and each chapter of the book will focus on a particular character or couple. The houseguests will take part in popular pastimes of the era: attending a public dissection, amateur dramatics, fencing and, of course, dressing up and attending balls. They will also hopefully manage to find a suitable marriage partner, whose wealth and social standing will enhance their own.

Anyone who know me or follows my blog, knows that I'm an avid Austen fan (more precisely, Pride and Prejudice) and will devour everything about the Regency era that I can get my hands on or that takes my fancy.

So Regency House Party, the companion book to the Channel 4's series of the same name, which aired in 2004, was a complete delight to this book blogger!

Along with giving the reader insights into what went on behind the scenes of filming the series (and how relationships blossomed), it also gives the reader insight into how the class system worked, what was "acceptable" behaviour in Regency times and how men and women differed in what they were permitted to do with their free time.

This book also gives you amazing photos taken straight from the series itself. I admit it, the photos had me gazing at them for minutes on end because I love the detail and simpleness of Regency dress.

A wonderful read for anyone who loves Austen, the Regency period or history in general!

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really hoped for more insight into the lives and experiences of the participants in the TV show, but was disappointed -- although the pictures were absolutely gorgeous and it was definitely entertaining. I felt it could have been longer, and a bit more personal, especially because all of my googling of the people on the show and their fate (as it came out in 2005) has been fruitless thus far. Strangely, I requested this book through inter-library loan, and the library it came from was the Mangere one... If you know Auckland, you'll know that Mangere is the LAST library in the whole country you'd expect to find this book in! Which is probably why I was the first person to ever check it out...

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this interesting TV series tie-in. It contained a huge amount of information about the Regency period as well as detailing the stilted and difficult relationships that were had between the sexes and classes. The chapter on politics and revolution was particularly interesting. My only criticism would be that there should have been a follow up review of how the participants experiences changed their views of modern society.

[Christina Dudley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never saw the TV show, but I picked this up as research for an upcoming talk. Jago has great background and illustrations, so if you just skip over the bits about 21st century people complaining about the tight clothing and not getting to wear make-up or use a toilet for a few weeks, it's very interesting and educational. Lots of fun for Austen fans.

[Melly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Watched the series and was curious to find out more about the show and the personalities -- the book didn't pan out in that dimension, but certainly contains more than you'd ever want to know about the Regency period!

[Simone Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's great to learn about a time period by re-creating it and having people live in it! Quite fun.
Oh, and wow... I am sure glad I didn't live back then!