'A young man married is a man that's marr'd': Homosocial desire and the appropriation of Shakespeare and Austen in the romances of Eloisa James

In her 2005-2006 Essex Sisters series, Mary Bly, who writes under the pseudonym Eloisa James, appropriates Shakespearean comedy and the romances of Jane Austen, and in doing so highlights the gender dichotomy enforced in Regency England as well as the social significance of same-sex friendship. The disruptive power of heterosocial agents on homosocial bonds causes heroes and heroines to experience pervasive anxiety surrounding heterosexual romantic interactions. Characters attempt to distance themselves from heterosexual romantic interests with antagonistic rhetoric, as Shakespeare and Austen's heroes and heroines do. Additionally, in imitation of the characters in Shakespeare's comedies, James's protagonists refuse to perform normative gender and often disguise themselves so they might interact with romantic interests freely and still protect their homosocial group. Though these subversive attempts may initially ward off romantic interests, marriage is a social expectation that men, and especially women, must fulfill in Regency England---and in the genre of romance. In her 2003 book A Natural History of the Romance, Pamela Regis suggests that the denouement of the romance is the union of the hero and the heroine. Regis's formula is fulfilled by James's Essex Sisters novels, since in each individual novel the hero and the heroine are betrothed or married. However, because James's characters have experienced new ways of performing gender by experimenting with rhetoric and disguise, their appreciation of the gender divide has weakened and heterosexual romantic bonds no longer threaten homosocial ones. Unlike Shakespeare and Austen's protagonists, who return to performing normative gender at the ends of their texts, James's characters are able to retain strong homosocial bonds. Consequently, the denouement of the entirety of the series depicts the character's true achievement as being able to obtain a fulfilling marital relationship while simultaneously retaining meaningful and influential homosocial bonds. James's texts fulfill the formula outlined by Regis, but also go beyond this formula by addressing concerns about the impact of a heterosexual romantic relationship on homosocial bonds and ultimately suggesting the significance of both types of relationships.