One of the most enduringly popular subgenres of romance fiction is historical romance set in Britain during the nineteenth century, typically featuring members of the upper classes. Although the domestic world of these novels is historically distant from the from the twenty-first century, their popularity demonstrates how deeply they resonate with contemporary readers, particularly women. By examining the novels of Jane Austen along with a selection of historical romances by Cecilia Grant, Anna Cowan, Anna Harrington and Courtney Milan, this chapter, this chapter demonstrates that these popular novels dramatise the legal and economic constraints placed upon women in nineteenth-century Britain in a way that also explores contemporary women’s anxieties about the relationship between work, family and romance.
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