The Game of Hearts offers a glimpse into the lives of real women who sought love in Regency-era London, focused on six leading ladies and their social circles. Felicity Day draws from diaries, letters, and newspaper accounts to reveal the experiences of these women, with tales as scandalous as those in any fictional Regency romance novel!
I love Regency romances and recently have been really interested in reading more non-fiction about the period, which is what drew me to this book. I recently read a sort of beginners' guide to the period which didn't end up passing on much extra information than I'd already picked up just from reading novels, and left me disappointed. Whereas The Game of Hearts really does get deep into the detail and cover lots of specific information and insight about the period by looking at certain ladies' lives.
Some of the earlier chapters were tasked with doing a lot of upfront work, as there were a lot of intertwined and complex relationships and family connections to explain, which wasn't helped by a lot of the women and men sharing forenames or surnames. However, as the named people reappear throughout the chapters, I ended up with a pretty extensive catalogue of names and histories in my head! Once I started to keep track of everyone, it was much easier to read and I really enjoyed all the new information I learned about the era.
The content:
Introduction - The book starts with a good introduction which explains the Regency period clearly and sets the scene well for the upcoming stories. It also provides context and appreciation for how advantaged and small this group of elites really was.
Ch1-2: These chapters focus on Lady Sarah Spencer as well as mentioning lots of people that reappear in later chapters. Drawing on the experience of these people helped to further introduce details of Regency life.
Ch3 - This chapter covers Sydney Owenson, women in employment, spinsterhood and marriage later in life.
Ch 4 - This chapter introduces Frances Anne Vane-Tempest and the public court case her aunt took against Frances' betrothed, which attracted public and media attention like a modern day celebrity divorce case does.
Ch 5 - This chapter focuses on Harriet Fane and her long and windy tale of marriage settlements.
Ch6 - This chapter covers special licenses, marriage ceremonies and honeymoons.
Ch7 - This chapter introduces Magdalene De Lancey, marriages to men in the armed forces, death of a spouse, mourning and remarriage.
Ch8 - This chapter follows Lady Augusta Boringdon, adultery, separation and divorce.
Ch9 - This final chapter finishes with detailing the fate of the 6 leading women.
I really enjoyed this non-fiction book about the Regency period, and it did a really good job of explaining the social rules and the laws of this time. And it did this by highlighting the lives of 6 real Regency women who I had definitely never heard of before, so I learned a lot from this book.
Note: There appears to be two entries for this book on Goodreads but with different taglines (True Stories of Regency Romance Vs The Lives and Loves of Regency Women) so I will post this review against both books.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.