Who doesn’t love a bad boy? Okay, plenty of people! But there’s no denying that the archetype of the rake—both in history and literature—is one that has captured the heart (and loins) of popular culture. Me? While I love a good fake rake like the kind that finds his home in historical romances, I tend to find that the real rakes of yore are kind of terrifying for their entitlement and lack of feeling. And, real talk, you know those rakes—real or fake—likely have mommy issues and venereal disease but that’s a topic for another time!
In any case, rakes are beloved because they represent a rejection of social norms. They’re just above all. Literally. They have the class, money, and prestige to do whatever they want and get away with it. That’s also why the figure of the rake isn’t quite everyone’s cup of tea. Like the bad boy billionaire in romance (aka the rake reincarnated), the rake also represents typically white male entitlement and privilege, along with a real sense that other bodies—typically female bodies—are commodities for his amusement. So on the one hand, we have the titillating fantasy of the freedoms wealth and position can buy a person and on the other, we have the terrifying realities of the freedoms wealth and position can buy a person. Of course, we also have everything in between, most notably fake rakes in historical romances that are charming, good at the sexy stuff, and secretly harboring a heart of gold.
The history of the rake is, in many ways, the history of the romance novel, and I can think of no better scholar to unpack this figure than Dr. Angela Toscano. She walks us through the origin of the rake in the 1600s to the modern manifestations of the character in romance novels. Prepare yourself for a lecture on drinking, gambling, whoring, and general rakish behavior! Oh, and politics, royal beheadings, religion…you know, all the low-stakes first date topics. Enjoy!
Guest Contributor Bio
Dr. Angela Toscano specializes in the long history of the romance, from the Byzantine period to the present. She received her doctorate from the University of Iowa, specializing in early modern fiction. Currently, she is the book review editor for the Journal of Popular Romance Studies. Most recently, her chapter on the Gothic was published in the Routledge Companion to Popular Romance Fiction. Her lectures, writings, and other work can be found on her website: angelartoscano.com and on Twitter at @lazaraspaste.
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