While researching another book, I came across a reference to a handbill from about 1820 that described a subscription matchmaking service based in London. I never found the original advertisement, but I found several references to it, including the one cited at the beginning of My Dear Friend.
All the references included the listing of “classes” of people, separated by gender, that outlined the subscriber’s age and financial situation. Some references to this London-based business politely refer to the matchmaking concept as a “strange device in our own time for catching would-be lovers”. Others outright mock it, even suggesting that a wealthy widow might match with her own scheming, gold-digging son.
I found another reference to the same concept as early as 1805, but the specific ad mentioned above I can date to no earlier than 1817-1818. While Georgians put lonely heart-style ads in the agony column of newspapers looking for partners, matrimonial advertising didn’t take off as a business—or give women more agency—until the Victorian era.
Darcy and Elizabeth didn’t technically need the matchmaking service to find one another, but it could have been an option in the regency era.
My Dear Friend is available September 2024.
They never get along whenever they unfortunately cross paths. But when a matchmaking service anonymously links them up, will they pen a romance?
Elizabeth Bennet is an excellent judge of character. Eager to prove to her brokenhearted sister that worthy men do exist, the spirited and witty young woman subscribes to the new matchmaking service taking London by storm. And she’s pleasantly surprised when the female-empowering agency anonymously connects her with a fascinating correspondent.
Fitzwilliam Darcy is determined to move on from unwanted feelings for the alluring but inappropriate Bennet girl. He hopes his captivating prose partner from the matchmaking service might be the distraction he needs. But when he inadvertently reveals his inner thoughts, he can’t keep the letter-exchanging relationship from becoming something more.
As Elizabeth starts to fall for the mysterious man, her dislike for Mr. Darcy only grows whenever they meet in person. While the man in question still admires Elizabeth, he realizes in alarm that he may have also given his heart to his anonymous correspondent…
Can two reluctant hearts fall assuredly, delightfully in love?
The Agony Column of the “Times” 1800-1870. DigiCat, Jun 3, 2022.
Phegley, Jennifer. “Victorian Girls Gone Wild: Matrimonial Advertising and the Transformation of Courtship in the Popular Press.” Victorian Review 39, no. 2 (2013): 129–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24497074.
Sampson, Henry. A history of advertising. United Kingdom: Chatto and Windus Piccadilly, 1874. Pages 488-490.
The Spirit of the Public Journals: Being an Impartial Selection of the Most Exquisite Essays and Jeux D'esprits, Principally Prose, that Appear in the Newspapers and Other Publications. United Kingdom: James Ridgway, 1805. Pages 329-331.
The Table Book, Volume 1. William Hone. W. Hone, 1827 pages 21-24.
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