Emily Sullivan’s Duchess Material (Forever, Nov.) pairs a social justice–minded schoolteacher with a conservative duke in Victorian London.
Why make your heroine a schoolteacher?
When I was writing my second book, The Rebel and the Rake, I knew I wanted the heroine to be some kind of suffragist. I thought the heroine I had in my head for that book was radical for the period I was writing, but I came away from my research with the thought that she wasn’t radical enough because there were Victorian women who called themselves anarchists and promoted free love and fought for working women’s rights. The 1890s was a pretty important period for women during which more women than ever were working. So for this book, I knew I wanted Phoebe to do something where she was out in the world and wasn’t just stuck in ballrooms or drawing rooms. Those places are great and fun to write about, but I wanted her to have something else to do too. I was really inspired by all these real-life women who made spaces for themselves, pushing for more rights, advocating for the poor, and doing all this important work.
Phoebe also has her own wealth.
I always like the idea of having heroines who have some sort of financial independence and are not so beholden to their heroes. When I was doing my research, I found that there were lots of Victorian women who had some money and some education and still went out and found their own way. I felt it was interesting to look at a character from this privileged background where her parents are willing to give her anything or do anything for her but she just finds that suffocating and instead wants to try to make her own way in a different world.
Will, the hero, is initially very concerned with propriety and keeping up appearances. How did you approach his character growth?
Will is an unexpected heir. He’s not somebody who was brought up to be a duke, so he’s not really prepared for that kind of life and when it does happen, it’s really shocking to him. So he’s lost for a while, and he thinks the easiest thing to do is go along with the situation he’s found himself in and try to be the best, most conservative duke he can be. Then he reconnects with Phoebe and she reminds him of who he used to be and the things he used to care about. She challenges him to remember his roots. Their relationship pushes him to evolve more than he would have on his own. He has to reconcile the position he’s in: he didn’t choose to be a duke, but he’s also really benefiting from it, at the expense of other people in society. He has to confront that and he does as best as he can.
