Page 71 - All About History - Issue 54-17

Regency women

Anna Wheeler Tall, Darcy & Handsome

their raw materials
1780-1848 Building the perfect Jane Austen hero from
Married to a brute at 16, Anna turned to socialism
to better the rights of women Good sense Good looking,
If a man seems flightyy, but not too
When teenaged Anna Doyle was married off to a drunken husband, he’s better avoided. good looking
she wasn’t about to take it lying down. Instead, she bucked convention A Regency chap like A strong jaw, casually
and left him to his booze, fleeing their Irish home for England. But this Pride And Prejudice’s fashionable haircut and
Fitzwilliam Darcy
wasn’t far enough for the adventurous Anna, so she upped sticks with soulful eyes will take a
might seem to be
her daughters and took a trip through France. far too serious, but hero far. Avoid dashing
heroes such as Sense
Anna started a new life and was independent of her penniless those frowns mask a And Sensibility’s John
husband. Instead, she financed herself by translating French philosophy passionate heart of gold.
Willoughby, though –
texts into English. Desperate to see other women enjoy the freedom they’re usually up
she had fought for, she mixed with reformers including Fanny Wright to no good.
and Jeremy Bentham and argued tirelessly for women’s rights. She was
both respected and feared in England and France for her outspoken
views and she was a formidable public speaker and opponent.
She never stopped fighting for girls to have a right to education
and women to have the vote and was even invited to join the 1848
revolution in France, though ill health prevented her from doing so. Her
descendants — writers and scholars — continued the fight on her behalf,
even including the famous suffragette, Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton,
gg
y
p
who was repeatedly imprisoned for her part in the struggle for the vote.
p
p
Taste
A true hero
doesn’t prop up
the bookies and
flit about houses
pp
A snappy of ill repute. Like
dresser Emma’s George
Knightley he
Ask any 21st has taste in all
century Jane Austen things, from
fan what their must- interior decor to
have is and they’ll music to art.
probably tell you it’s
a wet shirt and not
George Wickham’s
red coat, as seen in
Pride And Prejudice.

Money
A gentleman should
be well off, ideally in
possession of a good
fortune gained by
honest means. Avoid
chancers, charmers and
show-offs at all costs. Bravery
Anna was invited After all, when Henry In Persuasion, Captain
to take part in the Crawford arrives at Frederick Wentworth
French Revolution of Mansfield Park, he brings turns around a rocky
1848 but was unable nothing but trouble. start by his brave
to take part due to showing against the
her ill health massed forces of
Napoleon’s navy.
From zero to hero on
the ocean waves!
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