If there was one thing the Georgians loved, it was the idea of love itself. The Georgian era, from the coronation of George I in 1714 to the death of George IV in 1830, saw a celebration of love and marriage in popular culture, including in bestselling novels such as Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), which reaches its climax with the marriage of the heroine to her master, Mr B.
Making a socially advantageous match that was also based on love and affection was the highest-stakes game men and women would ever play. How they experienced this emotionally fraught process is the subject of my book: The Game of Love in Georgian England.
