Bridgerton , Netflix’s hit of the season, which is adapted from the historical fantasy novels of Julia Quinn , plays fast and loose with hi...
Bridgerton, Netflix’s hit of the season, which is adapted from the historical fantasy novels of Julia Quinn, plays fast and loose with history. It opens in 1813, the year in which Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was published, Napoleonic war raged in Europe and London’s Westminster Bridge was illuminated by the world’s first public gas company.
Bridgerton is far from an accurate portrayal of the historical Regency period in which it is set – named for the transfer of power from the incapacitated King George III to his son George IV in 1811 until the king’s death in 1820. However, it does get some things right.
In the show, London’s social set are abuzz with gossip provided by the anonymous column of Lady Whistledown. The columnist’s salacious writing is in step with the time: gossip newspapers circulated in Regency London, detailing the exploits and scandals of the “Bon Ton”, or fashionable elite, during “the season”.
As Bridgerton’s historical consultant Hannah Grieg has detailed, this was the six months each year during which the daughters of Britain’s richest families would be presented at court, and advantageous marriages arranged.
Some have expressed surprise at Bridgerton’s depiction of sex on screen. But, while Daphne Bridgerton’s (Phoebe Dynevor) extensive outdoor copulation against a backdrop of triumphant baroque architecture may not have been...
