Mad & Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency, Bea Koch

Description

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency
by Bea Koch
Paperback | September 1, 2020

Mad and Bad is a feminist pop-history that shatters the polished myths of Regency England, revealing a vibrant, diverse cast of real women who lived boldly, broke rules, and defined success on their own terms. Moving far beyond the narrow world of ballrooms and marriage plots immortalized by Jane Austen and her imitators, Bea Koch uncovers the stories history quietly set aside.

The Regency is often portrayed as the exclusive domain of wealthy, white, Christian elites, but Koch shows how incomplete that vision truly is. Drawing on her deep knowledge of romance culture and historical debate, she introduces readers to figures such as Dido Elizabeth Belle, raised within British aristocracy despite her mother’s enslavement; astronomer Caroline Herschel, who discovered eight comets in her own right; Anne Lister, who lived openly with her common-law wife at Shibden Hall; and Judith Montefiore, a Jewish writer who authored the first English-language kosher cookbook.

Interwoven with these biographies are broader thematic chapters exploring LGBTQ lives, Jewish communities, women of color, and scientific trailblazers in fields like astronomy and paleontology. Koch also interrogates the modern obsession with “historical accuracy,” exposing how exclusionary assumptions have shaped both scholarship and pop culture representations of the era.

Smart, accessible, and joyfully corrective, Mad and Bad invites readers to reimagine the Regency as it truly was: complex, multicultural, and full of women who refused to behave. It’s essential reading for fans of feminist history, romance culture, and anyone eager to see the past in fuller color.

This title is a remainder, offered at half the original cover price. Remainder copies are new and unread, but may show minor shelf wear.