It is a curious thing that novels which often fall into Period Drama films or TV series are themselves generally considered to be Historical Novels.

Even when they aren’t.

Like Jane Austen’s novels, or Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Or, probably, the other Bronte novels.

This struck me first when I was researching my beloved Heyer novels (often compared to Austen; definitely Historical Novels), and then more recently when I saw a List of Historical Romance Novels on Instagram (I know, never a good place to take opinions; regrettably I do not recall the creator). It included Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.

The thing with Austen and the Brontes, though, is that they didn’t write historical novels. The actions they describe, the characters they created, the wider events outside of their settings, all take place contemporaneously to them. They did not write of Days of Yore; they wrote of Now. Not, therefore, historical novels.

They only seem it now because their novels keep being adapted and they fit the Period Drama genre, because, obviously, they are historical to us. And so many now write romances inspired by Austen particularly. But, they weren’t historical to Austen or to Bronte.

It’s not like Historical Novels weren’t being written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, either. According to the (male) critics who have written about Historical Novels (like Georg Lukasc), the genre can be said to have begun with Austen’s contemporary, Sir Walter Scott, with his Waverley novels. And he set the standard of a novel being Historical by being set at least sixty years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Austen’s novels (and of the admittedly few Bronte novels I’ve read, Jane Eyre is my favourite), but let’s not mislabel them. Not Historical Novels. And I’m not sure if Jane Eyre fits the Romance label, either. (Wuthering Heights, admittedly not on this list, definitely isn’t, besides being stuffed with horrendously unlikeable characters. A novel of an unhealthy Obsession, more like.)

And if you do want an Historical Romance, try Georgette Heyer. Lots to choose from, most of them Regency-set, if that’s your preferred era. Frederica is one of my favourites. Or Friday’s Child, which Heyer considered one of her best. Must reread that one.