For most of us, our insights into Regency England has been provided by TV and cinematic adaptations of Jane Austen. In the Huntington Library’s “Revisiting the Regency: England, 1811-1820) at the Library West Hall, you get a glimpse of both sensibility and decadence.

Austen (1775-1817) wrote her novels between 1811-1817, two were published posthumously in 1818: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814), “Emma” (1816), Northanger Abbey (1811) and Persuasion” (1818). Austen died at age 41.

The Regency era didn’t end, but continued and while it was gloriously fashionable, it was not a time of a great king or kings. The period is named because a regency was established so that a prince could rule in place of the king. The king, George III, was found to be unable to rule due to mental illness (perhaps porphyria, a blood disease), and in 1810 his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, was made the Prince Regent.

King George was 72. He would live another 10 years, totally blind and falling into dementia. He did not understand that he had become the King of Hanover in 1814 or that his wife was dead in 1818. The Regency officially ended with his death, when the Prince of Wales (his eldest son) became George IV, but informally, the Regency era has been used to refer to the time from 1795 to 1837 which includes the reigns of the sons of George III (George IV and William IV) as well as the Regency. In 1837,  Victoria, the child of George III’s son Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and George III’s only legitimate grandchild, became queen.

If we think of the Victorian era as a time of prime formality, the Regency period was just the opposite. It was a time of excess and scandals. If you think the current Prince of Wales and his first wife with their adulterous affairs and their media savvy divorce were shocking, the Prince Regent was even more soap opera worthy.

Prince George was dashingly handsome, witty and intelligent. He was a patron of the arts, reading and admiring both Jane Austen and Walter Scott. He loved the theater and collected works of art. He commissioned beautiful examples of architecture such as Brighton Pavilion and Carlton House, but it was with money he did not have.

As Prince George in 1785,  he married a Roman Catholic commoner, Maria Fitzherbert, who had already been twice widowed. The marital contract was religious but not legal because a prince could not marry a Catholic and also required the king’s consent. Prince George would marry again in 1795, this time with his father’s consent to his cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick and the understanding that his father would help him settle his debts. The union would prove disastrous. The two separated in 1796, after the birth of their only child Charlotte in 1796. George wouldn’t allow her to attend his costly coronation on 19 July 1812. Caroline died on 7 August 1812.

Princess Charlotte would die in childbirth in 1817 at age 21. She was a fan of Austen.

The exhibit “Revisiting the Regency” looks at Prince George, contrasting his promise and attractiveness with the man he became and was at the time of the Regency. It also looks at all the things he loved: reading, fashion, art, theater, music and science.

Divided into nine segments, this modest exhibit includes: George, Prince and Regent; Icons of Polite Society, Books and Readers, Fashionable Art, Theater and Music, War and Peace, Hardhip and Cries for Reform, Improving London and Science and Technology.

You can see a watercolor on ivory of Prince George as he appeared in 1790 and a socio-political cartoon which portrays the Prince Regent as a whale with both of his wives in George Cruikshank’s 1812 “The Prince of Whales,” a hand-colored engraving.  No longer slim and dashing, the prince regent was obese and still fancied himself a dandy.

Cruikshank also took on the dandies of London with his “Monstrosities of 1816.” The exhibit also includes Thomas Hartwell Home’s “Battle of Waterloo.” Waterloo being a great victory against the French while King George III had lost the American colonies during the American Revolution.

“Revisiting the Regency” continues at the Huntington until 1 August 2011. It’s a modest but balanced representation of a time of great change, fashion and wild spending. George IV was a gentleman with lovely manners and great style, but he was also a glutton and his indulgent nature caused him to squander his talents.

If you wish to sample more Regency-related activities:

An Evening with LA Opera: Music of the Regency
July 21 (Thursday) 7 p.m.
Join us for a summer evening of music on the Huntington Art Gallery’s loggia as curator Mary Robertson shares insight into the exhibition and artists from LA Opera perform music that was popular during the Regency period. Members: $45. Non-Members: $55. Registration: 626-405-2128.

Friends of the English Regency regularly hold dance evenings in Culver City.

• Lindberg Park hall
• 5041 Rhoda Way at Virginia Avenue
• Dates for 2011: 4 June, 6 August, 3 September, 1 October, 5 November, 3 December.