Beyond the glitter and intrigue of the Regency court were the ordinary lives of people. Many of Eliot’s works are set in or around the Regency period and are known for their realism and the addressing of issues of class, religion, and changing economies in the early 19th century. Silas Marner is the story of a weaver who is accused at the book’s outset of stealing from his congregation, causing him to leave his home in Lantern Yard and move to the rural Midlands. The book follows Silas’ life, including his adoption of a daughter, while weaving in themes of change that reflect the shifts England underwent during the Regency era.

This historical mystery novel dives into the system of capital punishment that existed in Regency-era England. Returning from the Napoleonic Wars, Rider Sandman expected to come home to a gentleman’s life, but, two years after Waterloo, his family has no money and he has called off his engagement to the woman he loves. Desperate to bring in money, he takes a job working for the government investigating pleas for mercy from condemned criminals. His first case involves a painter who is sentenced to hanging, but as he looks into the case, Rider begins to have his doubts about the man’s guilt. 

The Bridgetower Sonata is a novelized version of the life of George Bridgetower, a Regency era violin prodigy who was mixed race, with parents from Germany and Barbados. A darling of the Paris music scene who was called “Black Mozart,” Bridgetower was brought to England by his father, and went on to become a favorite of the Prince of Wales. With Dongala’s signature satire and wit, Bridgetower’s life comes alive, from his musical talents and his arguments with Beethoven to the systems of class, race, and privilege that surrounded him in Regency England. 

If you like your historical fiction mixed with fantasy, pick up the first book in Cho’s Sorcerer Royale series. Zacharias Wythe is a magician and formerly enslaved person who is the respected Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, a position he inherited from his adoptive father. England’s magic is beginning to wane, and those who conspire against Zacharias blame him, forcing him on a quest to find the reason for the decreased stocks of magic. On his journey, Zacharias will encounter gentle witches, magical schools, and a fantastical world that fuses fantasy and Regency-era customs.

It’s 1811, and whispers of revolution haunt King George III’s England. In this environment of discontent and suspicion, a woman is found murdered on the altar of an ancient church in London, and the prime suspect is Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a nobleman who served as an agent in the Napoleonic Wars. To clear his name, Sebastian will enter into a shadowy world of espionage, filled with both unlikely allies and dangerous enemies, in a case that could strike at the heart of the British monarchy. 

Lady Abigail Worthing may be part of Regency high society, but she’s far from accepted. Her skin color and her mother’s notorious past have followed her and made her the target of gossip and scorn from her neighbors ever since she agreed to marry Lord Worthing. When the body of her neighbor, Juliet, shows up on Abigail’s estate, she finds herself the prime suspect in Juliet’s death, and no one but herself is coming to clear her name.