When I went looking for fat heroines in historical romance, I quickly learned to be skeptical of book covers. A main character might be plump, abundant, generously rounded, or my favorite, “a lady of healthy appetite,” but the model on the book cover will still be thin.
A reader of fat histrom has to be a detective, examining each cover for clues:
Is most of her body covered by a sheet?
Is there a flower on the cover instead of a person?
Is only a half of the heroine visible, the rest demurely hidden behind the hero’s naked back, or off the page entirely?
Book blurbs rarely give us hints to characters’ size, even when the story includes fat-positive representation. I understand this as a marketing decision to get the widest audience. But for me, obscuring the fatness of characters implies their bodies are shameful, and best hidden. Despite these difficulties, I persevered, and I’m sharing a few of my favorite historical romances with fearless fat heroines.
But first, I want y’all to know how much I loved the suggestions in the comments on my Fat Representation article last month. Especially the hot stories about being carried and thrown around by lovers as a fat woman, despite my skepticism! I have no problem admitting when I am wrong. Clearly, my love for short kings and wispy goth bois has limited my perspective, Bitches. I needed to expand my experience.
So I watched Michael Strahan give a fat beauty an acrobatic lap dance in Magic Mike XXL. You know, for research purposes.
More than any other subgenre, I read historical romances for pure escapism. I don’t care about historical accuracy, unless I need to pull out stats to argue that POC were indeed hanging out in England before 1900. I live blissfully free of potato rage, but like many readers, I still love historical details.
The survival bias in historical clothing means Western costume museums are filled with tiny gowns, and we have few existing examples of what larger women wore. That’s why I revel in the gorgeous photos of vintage fat babes from @historicalfatpeople on IG. I recommend scrolling through when you need a reminder that size diversity is not a new trend.
My ideal fat historical heroine begins her story having already learned to value her body or at least, treat it with indifference. She may have insecurities and challenges because she lives in a fatphobic society, but she’s not trying to lose weight. She accepts that she is desirable to potential partners, and her body is worshiped by her lover.
If she’s overcoming self-doubt or trauma, please let’s make it unrelated to her body size. She’s focused on her plans for societal domination, her annoying relatives, or any other plot device that has very little to do with her being fat. And while I can handle a few passing mentions of bullying or size discrimination, that crap better get smacked down quickly. You wouldn’t believe how many fat heroines get humiliated in the first chapter of their books, y’all!
❤ ❤ ❤
If my ideal historical heroine is what you’re looking for, here are a few recommendations:
The Pretender by Celeste Bradley
The first book in Bradley’s Liar’s Club series is an old-school romp with a fake relationship, and entertaining euphemisms for the heroine’s body.
Agatha “an armful not a handful” Applequist is stubbornly determined to find her missing brother, so she moves to London and hires a chimney sweep to pretend to be her husband.
But sheltered Agatha fails to realize that her unusually tall chimney sweep is a spy who thinks she’s her brother’s mistress. These two are often clueless, but stop just short of TSTL. There are too many misunderstandings—and seduction attempts by Agatha—for her weight to be a focus.
❤ ❤ ❤
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
I love this lighthearted novella about women’s rage. Mrs. Bertrice Martin is a 73 year-old widow and misandrist who’s done with her useless nephew. Violet is his beleaguered landlady, a middle-aged fat woman who feels disposable and unseen by society.
The two embark on a scheme to teach their mutual adversary a lesson, and they fall in love along the way. This book is both bitingly funny and sweet. Bertrice’s descriptions of Violet’s body are so tender and adoring, they made me sigh.
❤ ❤ ❤
Proper English by KJ Charles
Set during a house party mystery, this f/f pairs Pat, a shooting champion and the Edwardian version of a sporty dyke, with Fenella, a ray of sunshine in ruffles. Fen’s the fianceé of Pat’s friend, but it doesn’t take long for the two of them to fall into love, and mystery-solving, together.
Charming Fen is depicted as highly desirable, and nearly every man at the party is struck by her. I loved the contrast of “angular, plain Pat” with vibrant “delightfully plump” Fenella. They have a little grumpy/sunshine energy, and the mystery is engaging without distracting from the romance.
❤ ❤ ❤
Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner
Sweet Disorder is one of my favorite romances of all time, and the fat representation is stellar. Starting with that cover!
A sharp-tongued fat widow is embroiled in a nineteenth-century political drama when a wealthy man tries to marry her off to a merchant in order to influence a local election, but falls for her himself. The historical politics are as juicy as Scandal and the banter is top notch. Phoebe’s suitors openly appreciate her body, and the main obstacles to her relationship are class differences, and her disinterest in marriage, not her ability to attract a lover.
❤ ❤ ❤
I often struggle to find contemporary f/f with fat characters, but they’re abundant (pun intended) in historical romance. I wonder if it’s easier for us to imagine the plump White women in old paintings as romance heroines since they fit dominant standards of beauty at the time. Which brings me to the main gap in my historical romance reading, finding fat characters of color.
Where are my plump brown girls in ballgowns and bloomers? I love reading fabulous historical romances with Black women, Asian women, Native American/First Nations women and more, but they are still a minority in the books I see in this genre. Most of these are generally body positive, but fat heroines are rare. Are two points of marginalization just a bridge too far?
Bitchery, have you read any great fat historical romances lately?
Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Bride is dumped by boyfriend because she’s not skinny enough. Vane loves her just as she is
I happened upon this article a few weeks ago (after which it vanished as the morning mist, wtf?) and ended up reading KJ Charles’ “Proper English”. So extremely charming, sweet, surprisingly tense and often very funny. I have their “Think of England” in my TBR pile, as well as the Courtney Milan. “The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows” by Olivia Waite also has two heroines who are not only not skeletal and corseted half to death, but also *gasp* deep into middle age.
My mistake! It went live before it was supposed to – entirely my fault. Sorry about that! But I’m so pleased you found a great book amid the disappearing/reappearing post!
One of the usual plot devices is that a plump to fat heroine loses weight and becomes beautiful (if she takes off glasses, doubly so).
There is a movie that uses this device – The Girl Most Likely To – starring a young Stockard Channing, written by Joan Rivers. Heroine is fat, heavy eyebrows, badly dressed – the whole thing. She’s treated badly by all kinds of people until she’s driving away from the scene of the last debacle, crying, and is in a car crash. She’s wrapped in bandages until the doctors unwrap her and she walks through the hospital and all the men turn and stare at her. She then embarks on a series of pay-backs, in which those who humiliated her die in inventive ways. The detective – played by Ed Asner – admires the cleverness of the person responsible for the series of deaths; when he tracks her down and expresses his admiration, she appreciates having a man admire her intelligence. There’s kind of a happy ending … sort of.
Love the Rose Lerner and KJ Charles. That isn’t my favorite of Courtenay Milan’s, but only because novellas are inherently challenging for me. It was absolutely among the most satisfying novellas imaginable.
Agree to disagree about The Pretender, as a book. I’m sure you’re right about the fat rep, that was a thing I liked about it. I am in it for dialogue, though, and Charles, Lerner, and Milan all write dialogue that is a cut above.
I don’t actually pay much attention to the physical characteristics. I don’t think I have any good recs but I might not have noticed. I need people to sound right, l don’t much care how they look. It’s possibly related to my face blindness, but I don’t really bother to picture the people, not even qualities like size or hair color that I *can* differentiate. It’s not like a landscape description that I straight up skip, but it’s close.
Oh! Does Talia Hibbert have any historicals? Can she be enticed to write any? I would read the hell out of that.
I don’t have any recs but I have my fingers and toes crossed that they will do Penelope’s story in Bridgerton justice when it is her turn. I know the book handled things differently but that was 20 years ago and the fact they cast Nicola Coughlan gives me hope.
Sweet Disorder’s Kobo link is broken
I’d read the post in January but never circled back around to read the comments-thanks for the follow up, and everyone for the recommendations!
I seem to recall that Charlotte Holmes in the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas might qualify. Is she described as plump?
I think so, Kareni! I always imagine her looking like a twenty-year-old Sophie Dahl.
@Kareni and @Tam, yes! And thank you for the Sophie Dahl image. That’s perfect.
Ah-HA! Laura Kinsale, “A Midsummer Moon”. Merlin is “a shade too softly rounded to be in vogue”.
I can’t speak for how well the book has held up overall, but I can tell you how smug I am to have remembered that detail… (very. I am very smug.)
Yes! Charlotte Holmes loves food, especially sweets. She starts cutting her intake when she feels she’s reached “maximum allowable chins”.
Would Sarah MacLean’s Brazen and the Beast fit this query? I don’t own the book so I can’t check the details but I seem to recall that Hattie is curvy (see the cover model too). It’s also my favorite book of the series. She is absolutely worshipped by Whit and she also knows her worth even though others in her life underestimate her.
ah yes!! here we go! My chubby friends, I just read ‘If the shoe fits’ specifically because the blurb I read mentioned the heroine being overweight AND the pic on the cover showed a heavier character. I’m not a big fashion loving person, or reality tv watcher, but I loved this book. It was witty and charming and the focus of the story was not that she was big!
As for historical fat women of color — not the heroine, but a major secondary character with a delightful subplot in KJ Charles’s Will Darling trilogy is Maisie, a black Welsh woman in the 1920s who designs stylish clothing for women of her size — that’s right, in the 1920s you didn’t have to be flapper-flat to be recognized as looking great — although it took some creative design work on Maisie’s part.
Olivia Dade writes gorgeous books with fat positive heroines
I find the food policing in the Charlotte Holmes novels to be really annoying, which is a bummer because they are otherwise so fun! But YMMV!
Tessa Dare’s Say Yes to the Marquess. I reread that book like all the time.
I am not positive, but I seem to recall the heroine in This Duke is Mine by Eloisa James is content with her larger body and ignores her mother’s reducing diet wishes.
Jennifer Crusie’s “Bet Me” has a curvy heroine, and this is not a book to read while hungry. Min’s mother is always after her to lose weight, especially as Min’s sister’s wedding approaches, but Cal very much appreciates Min’s curves. This is also a good book for those who don’t like baby epilogues.
My favorite term for heroines who are far from svelte is “traditionally built”. Credit goes to Alexander McCall Smith and his No. 1 Lady’s Detective Agency books for this.