Debutante ball

A major part of the high society life in Victorian London and in turn a major part in all the Bridgertons’ lives, were debutante balls.

“Debutante” is french for “debuter” which basically means “to lead off”.

The reason to throw a debutante ball is to introduce a girl between the ages of 16 and 18 to society as a woman. Another main reason to throw a debutante ball is to let it be known that the woman is eligible and is seeking a marriage proposal.

All of the eligible and rich bachelors are invited to attend in hopes one or multiple will become infatuated. In addition, debutante balls were a way to show how high in society you were so the more “need to know” upper echelon members in attendance, the better.

Debutante balls are still held in modern days in certain places.

Julia Quinn

I have been reading up on Julia Quinn and the way in which she came to be a romance novelist is kind of funny, so I am going to share a brief outline of events with you.

It was her senior year at Harvard, receiving a degree in Art History, when Quinn realized she really had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. After some debating she decided becoming a doctor was the ideal choice. In the meantime, before entering medical school and choosing between Yale School of Medicine and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Quinn thought she had the talent to write a romance novel. And so she did, and she sent it to her agent.

Two years later her agent called and told her her first two pieces were at the center of a bidding war between two publishing companies.

This news inspired her to take two more years to enter medical school, in which she wrote a novel a year.
She then finally entered into medical school to only, months later, decide it definately was not for her and she has been writing ever since.

And thank goodness for that! I do not know what I, or the rest of the romance novel reading community would do with out our beloved Bridgertons!