Corset and Crown

Holiday (belated) hijinks abound! We read The Dukes Who Stole Christmas!Sarah MacLeanTessa DareJoanna ShupeSophie JordanIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Two for the price of one - Novella November!Olivia Waite’s Hen FeverInstaWebsiteWomen in Crimean WarNational Archive - No Place for a WomanFlorence Nightingale - yeah, that’s why she was famous.Bec McMaster’s Tarnished KnightInstagramIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Joanna ShupeAboutInstagramThe Gilded HeiressAnastasia NotesAnastasia Romanov: The Russian princess who defied death?Podcast Ep: Anastasia RomanovAnastasia RomanovIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Drink up me hearties, yo ho! The Duchess and Lady get piratical again to finish out spooky season with Eva Leigh’s newest release - The Sea Witch!Eva LeighWebsiteFantasticfictionTikTokInstaBlueskyIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Spooky season is upon us - and so we diverge to a bit of fantasy. Join the Duchess and Lady as they share all their thoughts about The Wraith King by Juliette Cross.Juliette CrossWebsiteInstagramIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Victorian politics, unfortunate feelings, and a whirlwind passion?? Come read Ana Maria and the Fox by Liana De La Rosa.**Please forgive Duchess Katie's poor audio quality on this one - she forgot to update her mic settingsLiana De La RosaAboutBooksAna Maria and the Fox on GoodreadsHistoryLibrary of Congress on Adelitas - while it still exists.Texas Women’s College Historiography of the AdelitasAdela - inspiration for the Adelitas nameIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Get Gothic with us as we talk all things Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti!Alexandra VastiBooksLadies in Hating on GoodreadsHistorical NotesLady Caroline Lamb biography on GoodreadsInteresting YouTube about Lady CaroIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Duchess and Lady head to Victorian England to start the Doves of New York series by Harper St. George.Harper St GeorgeAboutDoves of New YorkInstagramSources and Sites for Victorian Era SexualityBritannica - Victorian England’s Double StandardsAsa Briggs on Victorian EnglandSources and Sites for Victorian Era ContraceptionAtlas Obscura - 19th Century Women’s Secret Guide to ContraceptionNational Museum of Civil War Medicine - Mother’s FriendIf you want to be full of rage - How Anthony Comstock, Enemy to Women of the Gilded Age, Attempted to Ban ContraceptionEarly Example of a Contraceptive SpongeDemisexualityWhat is Demisexuality?Why Demisexual is as valid as any other sexual orientationIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Duchess and Lady go to the Old West with Ms Bev’s Night Hawk!Kanza PeopleThe Kanza PeopleThe Oklahoma Historical SocietyTribe that gave Kansas its name has reclaimed a big piece of its sacred heritageChinese Exclusion ActFacing HistoryNational Archives - Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882I would also feature something from the United States Office of the Historians but that article has been removed and I need to go through the WayBack Machine to access it.Jim Beckworth (sometimes spelled Beckwourth)From Enslaved African to Crow ChiefJim BeckworthBeckwourthIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Lady Sadie gets to make the Duchess read the first PsyChangeling!Information about Nalini SinghLadySadie’s first PsyChangeling review (March 2021!)BiographyPsyChangeling SeriesSpin Off/ Second Season of PsyChangeling - PsyChangling Trinity SeriesBonus StoriesGigiReads’ Guide to PsyChangelingLadySadie’s Guide to PsyChangling - Part I and Part IIIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Duchess Katie picked Ilona Andrews’ Burn for Me for Lady Sadie to read.Show NotesDuchess Katie’s Original Review of Burn for MeInformation About Ilona AndrewsWebsiteAbout Husband and Wife Writing TeamHidden Legacy Series - Burn for Me is book oneIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Spies, lies and wedding crashing - we read Diana Quincy’s From London With Love!Show NotesFrancis DrakeThis Dark Business - nonfiction book about Napoleonic spying.Friends and Enemies by Christopher Gibbs - abstract of an academic paper, link to full academic paper as well.Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Two for One NovellasMrs Milner Gets a Kitchen by Jane HadleyPTSD - history, diagnosis, USVA informationA Little Light Mischief by Cat SebastianBoston MarriagesAnn Lister, “England’s First Lesbian”Clandestine QueernessOuthistoryQueerWomeninHistory12 Women They Didn’t Tell You About in Queer History ClassLesbianHistoryArchivesIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Enemies to lovers? Pirates? Absolutely bananas ride? Join us for The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries.PiracyGolden Age of PiracyInfamous PiratesPrivateers in the War of 1812True Crime Campfire, Episode Named: Black Flag: The Story of the Pirate BlackbeardSabrina JeffriesFacts and FiguresPirate LordAll AboutI didn’t know this about Sabrina Jeffries - but she is openly neurodivergent. Check out this link for more details about her why and book recommendations.Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

A risky and risque romance of opposites with a background in radical reforms - join us for the The Charmer by Madeline Hunter.Sources:Further reading on women's property and independent rights in the UK.:National Archive of the minutes of the debates.Representation of All Peoples Act - first expanding in 1918 it to men over 21 and women over 30. In 1928, the age for voting for women dropped to 21. Both of these were expansions on the Reform Bill from 1832.Rights of women in marriage and property - 1882. 51 years after Sophia would have appreciated it.On the 1832 Reform Act:Here is a whole lesson set on teaching What caused the 1832 Great Reform Act this is also just available with some stuff to read.Just the facts can be read here The Great Reform Act of 1832Madeline HunterWebsiteBackground and Reading order on The Seducers SeriesThe CharmerIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie this week as they cover a highly anticipated romance from one of C&C's favorite authors!I will say that this is one of the densest books we have covered since we restarted C and C. All the Las Leonas feature some pretty intense moments and topics, and all take place during or right after The Exposition Universelle of 1889 better known as the 1889 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The most famous structure created for the exposition, and still remaining, is the Eiffel Tower.This Leona specifically is a medical doctor who predominantly treats women, and tries to advocate for and support women who are disenfranchised, women who have recently immigrated or women who have no one to be their champion. She also provides abortions which have always been a form of healthcare. This does of course put Aurora in places that are dangerous and puts her in the cross hairs of those that would prevent those with uteruses from receiving the healthcare they required. A lot of this is actually based on documented groups that ran safe abortion clinics through the end of the 1960s. Though it isn’t unlikely that similar things existed earlier in history.Adriana also touches on some truly horrifying and bananas history that is feeling a little too real in 2025. Such as hymenology - yeah… that is a real thing…I also want to give a shoutout to Unsuccessful Book Club and The Naptime Reader on instagram - because they created an awesome historical reference post for this whole series and I will post those in our story when this episode comes out.Sources:La Tour EiffelProject Muse: Ambivalent Argentina Nationalism, Exoticism, and Latin Americanism at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition Alvaro Fernández BravoModern Latin American Art - Latin American Countries Represented at World’s Fairs and other ExhibitionsIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join the Duchess and Lady on their latest read, The Runaway Duchess!Ok so this takes place in the late 1800s - specifically 1883. This was the height of colonialism and a lot of that colonialism looked like - stealing things from other places. In this book, Neal was essentially a botanical adventurer.Botanical expeditions during the 18th and 19th centuries were often state-sponsored endeavors aimed at cataloging and exploiting the flora of colonized territories. These collections were not merely scientific pursuits but were deeply intertwined with colonial objectives, including economic exploitation and the assertion of imperial dominance.In the 1800s, the demand for exotic bird feathers in Europe spurred extensive hunting and trade, often involving Indigenous peoples and enslaved individuals as collectors. This trade was integral to the fashion industry, with feathers adorning hats and garments, symbolizing status and exoticism. The exploitation of bird populations led to significant ecological disruptions and the endangerment of various species.​ And a shoutout to one of my favorite nonbookish pods - True Crime Campfire which did a wicked cool case about a feather heist. I will put it in our sources.Sources:True Crime Campfire, Bird Brain: The Great Feather HeistBiodiversity Heritage Blog - No Egrets: The Story of Fashion and Feathers Through BooksCornell Library - Fashion and FeathersMuseum Victoria - Flight of fashion: when feathers were worth twice their weight in goldIn the 1800s, the fashion industry’s obsession with feathers drove some bird species to extinction.I didn’t use this source but found this article super interesting: The Guardian - ‘We need other logics for our approach to nature’: the woman uprooting colonialism in botany.Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie as the venture in to the world of medieval historical romance!New author backgroundSusan King was born in 1951 and has been publishing since the 1990sHas also published under the nom de plume Sarah Gabriel, Susan Fraser KingHas worked as a lecturer in medieval history with a background in studio art, medieval english and now is a teacher at a private school.Runs a very fun blog called the Word Wenches with some other more 90s romance authorsHistoric highlightsTakes place between Scotland and England during the 1300sSet during what is known as the First Scottish War of Independence. This lasted from 1296 under 1328. Yes - a total of 32 years and 34 days. The wars were caused by the attempts of the English kings to grab territory by claiming sovereignty over Scotland while Scots fought to keep English rule and authority out of Scotland. I know it is shocking that the English never walked into places and declared that they were now in charge… the committed brutal atrocities and treated many of the prisoners of war so badly that they were actually censured by the Pope.This is the same war that has Robert the Bruce - a side character in this book and William Wallace of Braveheart fame. Because nothing says Scottish patriotism like an anti semitic Australian? So I don’t recommended you watch that if you haven’t seen it, but I will recommend the Netflix film Outlaw King from 2018. It has a pretty awesome cast of Chris Pine and Florence Pugh.FantasticFiction - Susan KingWordWenchesSusanFraserKing.comOutlawKingIMDBNQHigherScottishWarsofIndependenceBBC-WarsofIndepdenceIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie as they dive into the world of historical BDSMFor those of us that we raised in a school system that doesn’t talk about colonialism… I know it is shocking but in 1910 Great Britain owned Egypt. By 1922 Egypt will be an independent nation. 1910 is a wild time in the world anyways. There is a lot of colonialism in this book - I mean the cast are all expats or colonizers themselves. There is a lot of the energy that will lead to the xenophobia and nationalism that is the cause of the first world war. This doesn’t directly deal with any of that but it is the backdrop. 2. I went down a rabbit hole on salons in Cairo: HIGHPOINTS: A Palestinian immigrant named May Elias Ziade hosted a wildly popular Salon and corresponded with the brilliant poet Kahlil Gibran.I also learned that the first literary salon was in the Arab world to a ruler named Suayna Bint Husayn and it is highly likely that it then hit seventeenth century europe. There were a lot of salons in Cairo - and one that was hosted by a woman named May Elias Ziade, She was originally from Palestine to a Born in Palestine to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother. Ziadeh attended school in her native city and in Lebanon, before immigrating along with her family to Egypt in 1908. She started publishing her works in French (under the pen name Isis Copia) in 1911, and Kahlil Gibran entered into a correspondence with her in 1912. Being a prolific writer, she wrote for Arabic-language newspapers and periodicals, along with publishing poems and books. The history of the literary salon in the Arab world, of which little is known, dates back far longer than one would expect. Sukayna bint Husayn (735 / 743), began running her salon centuries during the Umayyad dynasty, well before the idea was first introduced to seventeenth century Europe.She was a highly regarded woman of great intelligence, and an expert in fashion and literature. She was the first woman to open her house to male and female guests, and organised evenings of music, literary criticism, and poetry3. ONE LAST THING: so i adore old planes and my dad was in a flying circus back in the day but I just had to mention that Bleriot was a real inventor/ aviator and was the first to fly over the English Channel and (almost) land. He did survive his many many crashes and went on to design more planes. He also worked closely with Voison which is the designer for the very real human that shows up - Raymonde de Laroche. Who will actually die in her own tragic crash just nine years after this bookCari Silverwood Website Fantastic FictionNational ArchivesWebArchiveIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie as they discuss "The Finest Print" by Erin Langston!Fun fact - most British pubs are named like the duck and dog because so much of the population was illiterate for so long that was the only way for people to know the names of places.“These factors led to greater production of books, newspapers, magazines and ephemera than ever before. Between 1800 and 1835, twenty-five thousand titles were published in Britain; between 1835 and 1862, this figure more than doubled, at 64,000. In 1801, the number of copies of stamped newspapers was 16 million, but by 1849 newspapers numbered at 78 million. Still, books weren’t cheap enough for everyone to be buying them for their own collections. The ‘triple decker’ novel of the early nineteenth century, published in three volumes, might cost between fifteen and eighteen shillings - over half the weekly wage of a printer, and nearly all of a teacher’s. Even the cheaper yellowbacks weren’t appealing to everyone as a purchase item.”Ironically the fastest way to help the population of England start to learn to read wasn’t education but lending libraries. “Circulating libraries like Mudie’s often satisfied more ‘popular’ tastes, and offered cheaper subscriptions for varying periods. Philanthropic efforts resulted in libraries for the benefit of the working classes, such as the Mechanics’ Institutes. However, working class readers also pooled their resources to purchase texts of their own choice, setting up reading rooms and libraries within their own communities”On the note of Ethan Fletcher’s Debt: using an inflation calculator £100 in 1850 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £17,203.29 today and then if I exchanged pound sterling to US dollars today it is actually $21000.91.Reference to a book on sexual health - it is a real book and Langston discusses it in her research section which I had so much fun with! It was a book called What is love? Or Every woman’s book. Published in 1826 and it discussed contraceptives! This was unusual but actually pretty readily available AND IT WAS literally published at the real 62 fleet street. Later in 1918 Marie Carmicheal Stopes wrote Married Love which also helped women “enjoy intercourse” and essentially discussed organsms as well as birth control.Sources:Asylum LibrariesIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

A Short History of Queerness in The New YorkThis book takes place in 1960 in NYC so for some cultural and Queer context for this I thought I would just share a brief overview of Queer history. Before colonization from white Europeans many indigenous tribes had a very different view of Queerness and homosexuality. The area that would become New Amsterdam and later NYC was predominantly Lenape who had very accepting views of gender expansiveness or who someone could love. From 1600-1799 homosexuality could be punished by flogging, being dunked in the Hudson River as well as the death penalty. During the 19th century, the NYC legislature had various levels of sodomy attempting to prevent sexual violence or violence to children. Please know that this was the intention but let’s all give it a very skeptical eye. Also in the 18th century in NYC1888 - Everard Baths opened and would gain a reputation as a “safer” space for homoesexual men through the 1960s.1895 - Cercle Hemaphroditos was formed. This was a self-described androgynes "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution".The group included Jennie June (born in 1874 as Earl Lind), who described herself as a "fairie" or "androgyne", which to her meant an individual, as she said, "with male genitals", but whose "psychical constitution" and sexual life "approach the female type". Hermaphrodite is no longer a term used but is the era specific term for intersex. Unfortunately for everyone in NYC Anthony Comstock came around with his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice by the end of the 19th century.This group would raid bathsshut down plays such as Sappho (because it was just tooooo lesbian) Preventing contraceptives from being easily accessible to women - The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe talks a lot about this By the 1950s - there was a suggestion of lobotomy as an appropriate way to “cure” people of their homosexual tendencies. In 1950, New York made legal history when it became the first state in the Union to reduce sodomy to a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of six months in prison. There continued to be anti-LGBT policies around liquor licenses for gay bars - shoutout to the mafia for providing “security for a price” to many of these bars. The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, both of which are respectively early queer rights activities, were formed. So. That brings us to 1960 where You Should Be So Lucky takes place. Show NotesGLADLawNYCHistoricSitesProjectSeveral Episodes of the Strange and Unexplained Podcast by Daisy Eagan BBC articleHuman Dignity TrustIntro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/