Historical Romance Book Club discussion
Chamber Pot
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Help me with the 1000 Dukes project
Thanks for setting this up Sha. It will make it much easier to add a new duke rather than sift through messages.
Thanks, Sha! I would like to know if there is a way to know which books are newly added. Please let me know.
Also, I think it would be easy if the books are listed in alphabetical order (Title/author's last name).
Hey, sorry for the lateness my GR feed is a mess. Okay so there should be a way to automatically re-order new entries according to name and I have plans to set it up that way but my Excel skills are strictly beginner level so it might take a while. I'll let you know when I'm done.
I'm also going to leave the family/children (or non hero/heroine) stuff to people who've actually read it because those are the most confusing bits.
Okay let's see what I can do here... //knucklecracks
*45 minutes and a lot of clicking/typing laterLink to Google Sheet for Convenience;
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
All right. So. Lorien (who started this thread) has not posted since 2018 but I think it's pretty safe to say that all of us still hanging around here are at least tangentially interested in collecting the 1000 Dukes (they are like pokemon), as staggered as our progress may be. So in case we are still planning to do this, here are a couple of questions/notes/etc. on going forward.
1. I've added in the Dukes posted in the thread so far (except the books added without names of Dukes etc), but there are details (such as siblings and children) which don't lend themselves very easily to an excel format and I would advice we don't consider that going forward. (But if someone can find a way to easily add them in I can do that instead.)
2. I would advice adding in the heroines names and backgrounds, just to see what the distributions are for marrying high into the aristocracy and all that.
3. I can add similar tabs for Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts, Barons, Knights and Non-Aristocrats, if we want to make a whole project out of this.
4. I've added in A-Z filters! Which means that if you want to add in a new Duke all you have to do is (a) check the alphabetically ordered book titles to see if your Duke is already on the list and (b) if he's not, to go to the bottom of the list where the serial #s are in sequence again and add in your duke.
I've tried to give everyone editing access so you can re-order the title list once you've added your duke, but it's okay if you can't. I'll come in periodically and alphabetize the titles anyway.
5. ...I think that's it? Let me know if I'm overstepping any boundaries or if there are other things I've failed to consider, please.
oops forgot to add in this one;
6. Titles for Dukes from Anthologies should be added in as "Anthology Name (Anthology) Story Name (Story)"; check the entry Dancing in the Duke's Arms for reference.
im in. on Scribd ifound an autor Ive not read before and all her heroes are dukes. and hey multile pages with the lower nobility would make such a fantastic perspective on how we suck up to the upper 10000 even in 21st century
I've feeling a little uncomfortable taking over Lorien's thread so I think I'm just going to move it to a new thread and let this one continue the way it has been, but thanks guys. ^_^
Andreajanel wrote: "So my two favorite dukes are : Leopold Villiers in Eloisa James' Duchess series, finally featured in A Duke of Her Own as the MC love interest. I love him because he is the perfect example of the..."
Duke of Villiers one of my FAV Dukes
Name Leopold Dautry
Marries Eleanor Lindel
Period Georgian
Children A lot, mostly out of marriage
Sha wrote: "I've feeling a little uncomfortable taking over Lorien's thread so I think I'm just going to move it to a new thread and let this one continue the way it has been, but thanks guys. ^_^"Hi guys, sorry I stopped commenting on this thread, I was still checking until you know... 2020 happened. I'm really glad you are still going.
At one point I had an end goal to do some sort of website or something, but a spread is probably more practical.
So Priya okayed me sharing my google sheet link here. Hopefully it's set so anyone with the link can edit.
1000 Duke google sheet.
Mod
I stumbled across this thread, and realized that the Wildes of Lindow Castle by Eloisa James hasn't been mentioned yet. In that case, it would be Duke Hugo Wilde and his (third) Duchess Ophelia. Their story is My Last Duchess.Time period: Georgian
Spouse Details: Widowed mother
*note: unable to edit the google spread sheet myself.
I think this is a very admirable project but it also makes me smile because it reinforces the difference between the fictional world and reality. There are only 31 Dukedoms in Britain. That never stops authors creating them of course but f we actually had as many Dukes as that I think we would have had had a revolution to match France's!
I belive we as readers are becoming so classist that recent historicals feature only dukes. :))
Leena wrote: "I belive we as readers are becoming so classist that recent historicals feature only dukes. :))"I have to agree with you Leena. I was very please to recently read where there was a role reversal..ie., a Lady who fell in love with a miner. What a culture and status change but was a very very nice story.
Susan in Perthshire wrote: "I think this is a very admirable project but it also makes me smile because it reinforces the difference between the fictional world and reality. There are only 31 Dukedoms in Britain. "Ha ha ha. Yes, historical romancelandia is heavily populated with robust, fit, intelligent, rich, handsome young dukes with all their own teeth, no receding hairlines or receding chins. Right.........
I suspect the whole obsession with dukes started with publishers demanding it - believing it will sell best. That may have been the case once, but now I think we could be heading towards duke-exhaustion. I'm frankly a bit tired of dukes, even though I do have some favourites LOL. But now I look for other tropes in new reads.
Funnily enough, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way, and we are starting to get stories with 'footman' in the title! Not sure how I feel about that. We'll see!
Still, I like this 1000 dukes project in spite of all that. As I said, I have some definite fav dukes! Let's go for it, and keep adding to the list! Yay for the wonderful world of historical romance.
Christine L. wrote: "I stumbled across this thread, and realized that the Wildes of Lindow Castle by Eloisa James hasn't been mentioned yet. In that case, it would be Duke Hugo Wilde and his (third) Duchess Ophelia. Th..."Doing some end of the year updating on my list, thanks Christine.I have definitely found less Dukes in 2021
Hi everyone, I am new to the group and I have to say I absolutely love this idea. Thank you, Lorien for creating a google doc sheet that has the titles listed.Are we still making suggestions to reach the 1000 goal?
Amber wrote: "Hi everyone, I am new to the group and I have to say I absolutely love this idea. Thank you, Lorien for creating a google doc sheet that has the titles listed.Are we still making suggestions to r..."
I am still working on it, I usually only update it every few months, but if the link works for you, you can add titles.
The only thing I really need on it is the Book title, Author and the Dukes Title and just about everything else is fluff.
I don't have the ability to add directly to the list but I have a couple books that could be added.
: Dukes Title: Duke of Aquilla
: Dukes Title: Duke of Weston
Julian St David, Duke of Haverford .and Elizabeth Windham by Grace Burrowes No Other Duke Will DoHamish MacHugh, Duke of Murdoch and Megan Windham by Grace Burrowes The Trouble with Dukes
Duke of Ashbury - The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare(Scarred hero, sassy and sarcastic, had insecurities but wasn’t willing to let them get the best of him. I laughed every time he spoke - in a good way-)
Duke of Hawthorne - Something Wonderful by Judith McNaught
(Older, mature, loyal, willing to do anything for Alex, always thought of her even when he was mad, came back from “death” in style)
Trying to complete this list, I realized I am way more in love with Viscounts than Dukes…
I don't know if you want to include titles with LGBTQ representation but if you do then Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall
Duke Name: Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern
Never Kiss a Duke by Megan Frampton Duke Name: Sebastian Dutton Duke of Hasford
Tall, Duke, and Dangerous by Megan Frampton
Duke Name: Nash, Duke of Malvern
What an amazing idea! Did you ever get to 1k, Lorien?
So I have finally reached 200 Dukes. Still very very far from my goal. But it still feels like a milestone.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
👏👏👏 Great job!I created a shelf for dukes for this project. Feel free to browse through it to include any books not already on your list. 😊
Missy wrote: "👏👏👏 Great job!I created a shelf for dukes for this project. Feel free to browse through it to include any books not already on your list. 😊"
Thank you!!!
So far I am most surprised by the lack of repeats, out of 250 Dukes there is only a handful. Some of my favorites are the Ash's
Duke of Ashbourne
Duke of Ashbrook
Duke of Ashbury
Duke of Ashcott
Duke of Ashebury
Duke of Ashford
Duke of Ashmont
Duke of Ashmore
Duke of Ashton
Duke of Ashvale
I broke 500 dukes tonight!!(It helped that I stopped thinking I had to read them all to count them.)
Thanks to Missy for her hero-duke shelf
And Joanna Loves Reading for their Mofo Dukes shelf
I still have about 300 books to list too which will put me close to 800 when I finish those.
Lorien wrote: "So I have finally reached 200 Dukes. Still very very far from my goal. But it still feels like a milestone.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/......"
Wow! That is a lot of duke, lol!
Well done!
So I'm beginning to wonder what should I do with this data, now that I've hit some big numbers. What would people find interesting,
A interactive website maybe? Or just a map or were they are all located?
Any idea's?
Hmmm... am interactive website sounds amazing!
Lorien, maybe create a group just for hr dukes and find different themes with them, like one for angry dukes. I'd join cause I'm a sucker for a Duke H.
Can I just say you guys are awesome and I love this ?!?! So much!!Thanks for all the effort though my tbr is ever so gonna hate me for it...
I have reached 1000 Dukes, and I still have about 200 books on my To Duke list to enter.
Lauren wrote: "Lorien, maybe create a group just for hr dukes and find different themes with them, like one for angry dukes. I'd join cause I'm a sucker for a Duke H."Like group here on goodreads?
Woohoo! Congratulations! 1,000 dukes?! That's amazing!
Some some fun bits, There are 5 Dukes of Huntington,
and there is 4 Dukes of Ashten, Malvern, Montrose and Trent.
The two authors with the Highest duke counts, Emma Linfield at 33 and counting and Christi Caldwell at 24.
Cobalt Fairy appears to be the publisher with the highest count, and I have a feeling there's some AI writing going on there.
A surprising number of authors don't give their Dukes last names, and few have no names at all. Just titles. Poor dudes.
A surprising number of Dukes fought in the Napoleonic Wars and/or worked for the home office as spys or such.( I know my count on this is low because I didn't note them all at first.)
If you are a governess, you have about a 6 out of a 100 chance of marrying a duke.
You seem to also have a good chance of having dead parents and being broke, but maybe that's just HR heroines.
Lorien wrote: "Some some fun bits, There are 5 Dukes of Huntington,
and there is 4 Dukes of Ashten, Malvern, Montrose and Trent.."
This is fantastic.
Thanks Lorien for giving me a good laugh!
Ha ha. Loving your stats, Lorien. Love your work! Thanks for sharing.
Lorien wrote: "Some some fun bits, There are 5 Dukes of Huntington,
and there is 4 Dukes of Ashten, Malvern, Montrose and Trent.
The two authors with the Highest duke counts, Emma Linfield at 33 and counting a..."
This is very entertaining!
Mariana wrote: "I need to add some of my Dukes. Collette Cameron seems to only have Dukes for Heroes."Right now I only have 2 books by her entered,
A Diamond for a Duke
The Debutante and the Duke ( but this one has two dukes)
I am up to just over 1100 Dukes and with these numbers I can actually produce stats and find odd trends. Like for example, if you marry a Duke and your name is Lydia you have a 1 in 8 chance of dying.
Historical Romance Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Never Kiss a Duke (other topics)Tall, Duke, and Dangerous (other topics)
Something Fabulous (other topics)
The Trouble with Dukes (other topics)
No Other Duke Will Do (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Collette Cameron (other topics)Collette Cameron (other topics)
Jane Ashford (other topics)
Mary Balogh (other topics)
Laura Lee Guhrke (other topics)
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Something tells me I will be adding books to my TBR :)