When Netflix released Bridgerton in late 2020, its success was predictable. Made by the same producer of Grey’s Anatomy Get away with murder and other television hits, the series managed to understand the tastes of the audience with calculated precision. Sumptuous costumes, an irresistibly attractive cast and generous romance quotas – Forbidden, loving, passionate and of any kind – they give life to a historical fiction that has caught fans of Jane Austen as well as those who never heard of her. Yes, success was inevitable. But what few expected – inclusive Julia Quinn, the writer who created the story – was the scale of that triumph.
Converted into the most watched series on the platform a few months after its premiere, The Bridgertons’ Adventures now has the flavor of a record and a cultural phenomenon. Fans of Daphne and Simon discovered that behind the boom, a literary story awaits them. These are nine books that Julia Quinn (graduate in art history) has been publishing since 2000 and in which she researches the amorous setbacks of eight brothers of the English nobility from the beginning of the nineteenth century
Quinn (51-year-old American) speaks when he speaks with a warmth more like a friend obsessed with reading than a bestseller. He smiles fluently, apologizes when drinking coffee, and without an ounce of arrogance displays an encyclopedic knowledge of the novel genre.
Julia Quinn on the set of Bridgerton: here with Simon, the Duke of Hastings (British actor Regé-Jean Page).
On social networks, his photos with the cast of the production show that he is another fanaticHis eyes were as amazed as those of his followers. Its simple presence doesn’t betray it, but there are plans and ideas that aren’t just worth millions: they are breathing new life into a genre that still carries macho and literary stigmas.
You get more credit if you avoid the happy ending: they teach us that tragedy is more important. How many of the award-winning films are comedy?
Julia Quinn, writer
-How did your relationship with literature start?
-I’ve been a great reader since I was little: I was the girl who stayed up at night with a flashlight under the covers next to a book. And when he walked back from school, he always stopped at the library. I became a writer because I love to read: it’s that simple. Not all good readers become writers, but every writer is a great reader.
– At what point did you discover that writing would be your calling?
-I sold my first two books to a publisher the same month I was admitted to medicine. It was crazy. At the end, I dropped out because I was so excited about writing that if I had continued my studies I wouldn’t have had time for itFirst I put them off for a year, then there were two … I panicked and had the crisis of the twenties: my friends were about to graduate and I felt adrift, how funny is because I got my books published. Finally, I convinced myself it would be best to write full time, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
– At what point was the idea of the Bridgerton saga born?
-The first book, The Duke and I., was published in 2000. I don’t remember how the idea came about, but I do remember how the character Lady Whistledown was born. When you’re writing a book, you sometimes have contextual data that you need in the story, but it’s tough when you drop it all at once. Then it occurred to me to invent a character: a gossip columnist whose role was to provide information so that I wouldn’t have to. I had a lot of fun writing his passages, although it presented challenges: I was given an 1813 calendar with the actual Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on which the gossip would appear and I calculated when each event occurred in the books to match. come up with the opinion columns. Later, the idea of playing the mystery arose and the other characters did not know who the writer is, which became one of the most popular aspects of the saga. It was a very happy accident.
Bridgerton: The sex scenes between Daphne and Simon sparked controversy.
-In the book, all the scenes revolve around the protagonists, Simon and Daphne, while the show features new characters and subplots. How did you see that change?
-It was a great idea because there are things that work really well in books, but not on television, and vice versa. In my novels there are secondary characters to whom I give a life of their own, but I never get into their heads or have scenes outside of the protagonists. But television requires a wider range of stories. What the writers did was take characters that become more important later in the saga and give them to them from the beginning and plant seeds for later conflicts. They read all the books and that allows them to think from a perspective. Word-for-word adaptation wouldn’t have worked very well.
First book in the Bridgerton saga (Editorial Urano), now reissued with the characters from the series on the cover.
– What stood out about your work is that you play with elements from historical novels, such as the role of women. Did you think certain platitudes needed to be “updated”?
-The genre has always evolved. When they point out to me that my heroines are feminists, my answer is that if you read other books of the genre, you will find many other characters who are also feminists, even if that word didn’t exist then. What I want to do is stay historically realistic: my characters are feminists in terms of what society allowed them and their life experience allows them to imagine. They are revolutionary because they are starting to ask questions.
-How does this work?
-In the Netflix series, Eloise wonders what it would be like to go to college. I don’t think it occurs to her to march to Oxford and demand that she be admitted; it is something very far from its context. But the fact that you are questioning your reality is a start: recognizing when something is not fair is revolutionary. It is historically correct to give characters these feminist sensibilities. Looking back, there are certain women we call pioneers. But we should also celebrate those who made that empowerment possible: Before these extraordinary feminists tore down the walls, there were others who removed the stones to make throwing down easier. This is how I think of my women.
The period romances seem to generate a very special appeal in the 21st century. Why?
-The historical time I choose for my novels, set at the beginning of the 19th century, is one of the most popular for the Romantic novel. Partly because we grew up reading Jane Austen or looking at adaptations of her works. But they are also at a fair point far enough to feel like a fairytale, but not too far away that the characters’ actions are incomprehensible or hard to imagine.
If someone said, “There were no dukes with Simon’s skin color,” I would answer that there probably weren’t many attractive single men without syphilis either.
Julia Quinn, writer
-The fact that these novels are often resolved with a “happily ever after” makes them the target of criticism. How do you stand for them?
-The happy ending is the definition of a novel. If it doesn’t have it, it isn’t. It could be love, or it could have elements of romance, but it’s something else. What happens is you get more credit when you avoid the happy ending: we’re taught that tragedy is more important. How many of the award-winning films are comedy? It’s a shame: dark is great, but it’s not all there is. Thereafter there is a certain disdain for the happy ending, but that deepens with romance.
-Why?
-Because it is mainly written and read by women. It’s something we do as a society: we devalue the things we consider “feminine.”And so it is thought, although many people read these books and they are very profitable financially. The sale of these novels allows publishers to publish poetry: they subsidize it with romance. I hope Bridgerton’s success as a series helps change these prejudices. A lot of people have seen the show without knowing they were going to see a romantic novel and maybe now they are looking for something else like that.
-The series has changed the features of some characters to be more inclusive. For example, black-skinned nobles in 19th-century British aristocracy. How did you see this?
-I think it’s cool and I feel gratefulThe show’s creative team expanded my world in ways I couldn’t have. I am only one person and my diversity is limited to myself, while the writers of the series are a diverse group in terms of gender, sexual orientation, race and religion. Each was able to bring their own imaginations to the narrative universe and I appreciate that they did.
Julia Quinn, happy on the set of Bridgerton.
– Were you concerned that it was being questioned as historically incorrect?
-When we talk about romance, the only thing that matters is the feelings. The show did a great job of bringing that to the screen in a way that more people can now relate to as part of that experience. If someone said, “There were no dukes with Simon’s skin color,” I would answer that there probably weren’t many attractive single men without syphilis either. If you’re already in a fantasy land, why not make more people feel worthy of your happy ending? My concern in writing is sentiment and second, or third, historically correct.
-There is a scene that has caused a stir in which Daphne forces the Duke to have sex. Did you expect the show’s success to spark a debate over consent?
-It’s not a simple scene. Some suggested taking it out, but these characters aren’t perfect and I think it’s too important to the story. It is fascinating to analyze the reaction the scene has elicited over time; it is a window into the evolution of our society. But the most important thing is to see it in the context in which the characters live, because it’s about power and how it’s distributed. Society taught Daphne that her job is to get married and have babies, and her husband denies this, adding to the fact that he has total dominance and that he could do whatever he wanted to her. Many are shocked to ask what would happen if the sexes were changed, but it’s not that easy because one of them has all the power.
