Contents ( 52)
- praise for
- The Siren of Sussex
- Also by Mimi Matthews
- belles of london novels
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Epilogue
- Author’s Note
- Literary Inspiration
- Victorian Views on Novel Reading and Bloodletting
- False Names, Marriage, and the Law
- The Fall of Sebastopol
- Acknowledgments
- Discussion Questions
- What’s next on your reading list?
Julia leaned into him. Four months of marriage had only made their union stronger. It was more than a love match. It was a friendship, a partnership, all wrapped up with bonds of loyalty and mutual respect.
And passion, of course. A passion that still made her heart thrill whenever she looked at him.
Captain Blunt or James Marshland, he was hers. All hers.
And she was his.
“Shall we call for the champagne now?” she asked.
“Yes, let’s.” He held her close. “We have a great deal to celebrate.”
Author’s Note
When writing The Belle of Belgrave Square, I found inspiration from a variety of sources. As always, I first turned to Victorian history. My research included Victorian views on the dangers of novel reading, the efficacy of bloodletting, the legalities of marrying under a false name, and the appalling conditions soldiers endured during the Siege of Sebastopol. I was also heavily inspired by myths and fairy tales—and by my own girlhood struggle with shyness, which often had me retreating to the safety of my bed to lose myself in the pages of a good book. For more info, see my notes below.
Literary Inspiration
The love story of Julia Wychwood and Captain Blunt owes a lot to myths and fairy tales, particularly the stories of Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and the tale of Bluebeard’s wife. In addition, I drew inspiration from three historical novels: The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins (1875); Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862); and The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery (1926).
If you’ve read The Law and the Lady, you’ll have recognized my easter egg for it in chapter 18. There, Julia mentions having accidentally signed the wedding register with her married name instead of her maiden name, thus incurring bad luck for her new marriage. This is a direct reference to an incident at Valeria Brinton’s wedding to Eustace Woodville in The Law and the Lady. As Valeria relates:
The last ceremony left to be performed was, as usual, the signing of the marriage register. In the confusion of the moment (and in the absence of any information to guide me) I committed a mistake—ominous, in my aunt Starkweather’s opinion, of evil to come. I signed my married instead of my maiden name.
This mistake does indeed foreshadow worse things to come. Like Julia, Valeria later learns that her husband has married her under a false name.
My references to Lady Audley’s Secret similarly foreshadow hidden identities, as well as illustrating the popularity of sensation novels. Chock-full of bigamy, murder, and madness, Lady Audley’s Secret was an enormous success with the novel-reading Victorian public. They devoured the story—and many others like it. As a novel reader herself, Julia would have been well aware of this trend. It’s why she encourages Jasper to revise Reunion at Waterloo, ultimately helping to make it a hit.