This series of documentaries was broadcast on BBC4 few months ago. "Elegance and Decadence: The Age of Regency" is a colourful series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history. It presents a vivid portrait of an age of elegance presided over by a prince of decadence - the infamous Prince Regent himself, a man with legendary appetites for women, food and self-indulgence. Yet this was the same man who would rebuild London, carving out the great thoroughfare of Regent Street and help establish the Regency look as the epitome of British style through his extravagant patronage of art and design.
Historian Dr Lucy Worsley chronicles the Regency's early years, which culminated in victory over Napoleon in 1815, and explores the complicated character of the Prince Regent.
The Regency was an age of contradictions and extremes that were embodied in the person of the Prince Regent himself.
In this video I cut to add it to my Jane Austen Video Info Collection, Dr Worsley visits Chawton House Museum and analyses the relationship - though at a distance - because the two never really met between Jane and the Prince to whom she dedicated her Emma (1814) as well as the connection between the unfinished "Sanditon" and the reality of the Age of the Regency. Definitely interesting, isn't it? Have a look at the video and let me know what you think. Have you read Sanditon? I did thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress and her blog Austenprose (related posts HERE, HERE and HERE)
Enjoy the clip!!!
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing the posting and the clip. I thought it hilarious that she involuntarily dedicated her book to one she didn't admire- and maybe kind of sad for her.
That was very interesting! Thank you for sharing :-)) I hope I'll get to see this TV series at some point...
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