Last Night with the Earl

Kelly Bowen’s current series, The Devils of Dover, centers around a finishing school for girls in the evocative coastal setting of Dover. As the series goes on, it becomes clear that a secondary theme of the books are the Napoleonic Wars and their effect on people at all levels of society. A near-constant backdrop in the era, the continental conflict is almost never explored in depth in Regency romance beyond giving a titled aristocrat a reason to brood. Here, Bowen tells us why the wars were all the things we don’t associate with the Regency—chaotic, socially disruptive and for some, liberating.