Dear Reader,
Sigh. Another week passes. A sobering reminder that time is a non-renewable commodity. I constantly marvel at what a privilege it is that people will actually take the time to read my books. Reading a 100k-word novel takes a chunk out of someone's life, so I thank all of you who have granted me that time!
Enough Wednesday philosophy—it's time to spill some tea.
I hope you're not expecting Lady Whistledown here (rewatching Bridgerton). I'm not a gossip at heart.
I'll give you a hint what it is I'm actually talking about:
Yes, that is a pile of packages of loose tea on my kitchen counter. They were, until yesterday morning, on a shelf in the cupboard above. I don't know what possessed me, but I suddenly realized I had no idea what teas lurked there, except for the three or four I use regularly.
Why tea you ask? It's all somehow related to my writing. Bear with me.
Regency tea, alcohol, and upper-class disorders
I'm constantly struck in Regency romance by how much alcohol was consumed at different times of day. Also fascinating is the quantity—and kind—of food served at different meals. These factors relate to a subject I'm researching currently for the fifth book in the Double-Dilemma Romance series. (It doesn't have a title yet...)
In this book, one of my female protagonists has an interest in natural medicine, specifically using it to treat female complaints. I've discovered sources that would have been available at the time if she could manage to get copies, including Culpeper's Herbal and Domestic Medicine. These have some reference to female complaints, but very little.
The reason for this? Probably complicated, and worth a much longer discussion.
But let's start here: When I asked ChatGPT to give me a rundown of the most common ailments among the gentry in Regency England, the result was highly informative:
1. Gout: The classic affliction of the well-fed elite.
Caused by rich diets high in meat, game, and port wine, leading to uric acid buildup in the joints (especially the big toe). Seen as a “gentleman’s disease,” almost a badge of prosperity—so much so that some even joked about earning it through luxury.
2. Indigestion, Biliousness, and “Liver Complaints”
Common among both men and women of the leisured classes who ate heavily and exercised little.
3. Nervous Disorders (“The Vapours,” “Nerves,” “Hysteria”)
Especially attributed to women, but understood in very gendered, class-specific ways. Often a catch-all diagnosis for anxiety, depression, trauma, or exhaustion.
4. Headaches and “Megrims”
Chronic headaches (often migraines) were common, frequently attributed to “study,” “too much company,” or “nervous excitement.”
5. Rheumatism and Neuralgia
Damp houses, carriage travel, and drafty country estates contributed to chronic pain in joints and nerves.
6. “Weak Chests” and Consumption (Tuberculosis)
While TB cut across all classes, it was particularly romanticized among the upper class and literary circles—pale, delicate health being associated with beauty and sensitivity.
Notice that the only ailments in this list that mention primarily women are "nervous disorders." This general prejudice is what inspires my protagonist to treat other women's complaints more seriously. Would anyone have done so at the time?
In fact, yes. In 1814, one Charles Mansfield Clarke published a book called On Those Diseases of Females which Are Attended by Discharges—a serious medical tome that was not yet widely in use. Therefore my protagonist would likely not have seen it. She would have appreciated Clarke for this sentiment, from his introduction:
The diseases of the sexual organs in females, although so various, so distressing to those who labour under them, and not infrequently so fatal in their consequences, are perhaps less generally known and understood by practitioners, than any other complaints to which the human body is subject. They are often neglected by women during the early stages of them, concealed from a sense of delicacy during their progress, and are often only made known to practitioners, when they have proceeded so far as to be beyond the reach of remedy.
So what does this have to do with tea and time?
My fascination with history leads me to wonder deeply about even rather small points. Afternoon tea, for instance, was really a Victorian invention. In the Regency, the tea tray came out after supper, the last meal of the day, served normally between 9 and 10pm (among the gentry, of course).
And again, digging down, I discover that the chemical effects of caffeine were not known until the 1820s. My good friend ChatGPT also pointed out that in the Regency, tea was weaker than the tea we drink today. It was steeped only briefly and usually well diluted with milk—at least in the upper classes. Any disruption to sleep was laid at a different cause's door.
This also answers a question I've had in my mind ever since I first read Georgette Heyer's Frederica. When the kind farmer brings a cup of tea to the ill and injured Felix ,who is being nursed by Alverstoke, the marquess looks at it very skeptically:
The Marquis felt still more doubtful when the tray was brought to him. He was not, like his friend Lord Petersham, a connoisseur, but he profoundly mistrusted the mahogany brew which issued from the pot, and fully expected Felix to reject it.
Heyer, Georgette. Frederica (Regency Romances Book 24) (p. 297). Kindle Edition.
Now I need to stitch the above together to make a cogent point (thanks for your patience):
No matter how much you think you know, you have to do the research.
We take for granted that tea and coffee contain caffeine (which can have a stimulating effect); that a diet heavy in red meat and red wine (coupled with a sedentary existence) is not conducive to good health; that all diseases are equal in the minds of the medical profession (although women's conditions still lag in research investment).
And yet... Research for any historical novel—be it biographical, romance, or mystery—should encompass more than just the fashions and external conditions of the time if the author truly wants to immerse readers in that different world. That is, of course, my aim—along with telling a good story.
End of lecture!
Join me for some fun writing romance!
Writing romance or just romance-curious? Join me on Thursday, October 16 at 2pm EDT on Zoom for a fun, interactive session about what makes a great romance protagonist and how one popular film ticks all the boxes! It's free, but you do have to register:
Hope to see some of you there!
Susanne