Oh, about voting… yes, well, I don’t think that happens here. There is no compulsion (unless you are actually a member of the Royal Family) to marry certain people based upon it. To be clear, the gene-matching program in That Inevitable Victorian Thing is purely based on individual choice. Now, one asks, what reason could there be for wanting to run DNA tests to find good matches? Is there any other term for this type of practice? Why yes, there is, and its origins are also firmly rooted in the Victorian epoch.

Did I mention this service is run by the Church of England, which at this point now encompasses all religions practiced in the Empire? It’s just interesting, especially in light of other things.īecause then you have that hybrid DNA test and dating service which finds promising romantic matches based on a person’s genetic makeup. I’m not arguing that it’s a flaw or that it shouldn’t have been like that. Which is to be expected since it’s in the title. Which may be fine, as Fanny shows no desire whatsoever to be a member of the ruling class. Helena’s servant Fanny is never going to be a member of the ruling class. Which is all swell, and will be a dynamic familiar to anyone who ever read a Jeeves novel.īut… it’s still a class system. Now, in keeping with the principle of noblesse oblige, and because Helena and August are good people, they treat their servants well, and they, in turn, are deeply devoted to their employers.

Helena and August both have family servants.

Gorman’s review, the Victorian class system is very much intact. I breezed past some of the world-building elements of this book in the first part, but now I want to get into the nitty-gritty.įirst, as mentioned in H.R.R. But you want to know “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say. You could have just left well enough alone by reading the first part and marking this down as a gentle romantic comedy.

That inevitable victorian thing