Major spoilers for Bridgerton’s second season.
When Bridgerton was released to critical acclaim in December 2020, its radical rethinking of a regency romance, one with a diverse aristocracy supposedly free of racism, received praise for diversifying the genre. The recast of white characters as people of color is the biggest difference between the books and the show, and many fans were excited that Kate Sheffield became Kate Sharma in season two.
You are reading: How is bridgerton different from the books
but that’s not the only thing that has changed in the adaptation. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest differences between The Viscount Who Loved Me and Bridgerton’s second season, including, yes, that bee sting scene between Anthony and Kate:
the sheffield sisters became the sharma sisters.
One of the biggest changes between the books and the series is the background of the Sheffield sisters. in the book, they are blond and pale. In the show, they are Indian and come from India for the social season to find Edwina a husband. Author Julia Quinn is excited about the change, calling it “fantastic.”
In the first episode, Kate emphasizes that Edwina speaks French and knows Latin, Greek, Marathi, and Hindustani. In the last episode, when Anthony declares her love for Kate, she calls her by her full name, Kathani Sharma.
“Making the sharmas of South Asian descent was actually a very easy choice,” explained executive producer Shonda Rhimes. “I wanted to feel like the world we were living in was as three dimensional as possible, and I wanted to feel like the rendering was as three dimensional as possible as well. Find some South Asian women with darker skin and make sure they were rendered on the screen of authentically and truly feels like something we haven’t seen enough of. I felt it was time we made sure we saw as much as possible.”
Seeing a South Asian woman in the lead role of a blockbuster is significant. and it is not historically inaccurate; During the Regency period, there were many Anglo-Indian aristocrats in England.
there is no plot around maria’s parents and inheritance in the book.
one of the main tensions of the show is a deal kate made with her grandparents. When Kate and Edwina’s mother, Mary, married for love and went to India, her parents disowned her in a huge scandal. But Edwina’s grandparents have agreed to include her in her inheritance if she marries a titled man. Edwina, however, doesn’t know: Kate tries to protect her younger sister from her plans and blows up in her face.
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there is nothing of this plot in the book.
lady danbury is not in the viscount who loved me.
Lady Danbury is only mentioned once in the entire book: a passing reference to her dance. On the show, Lady Danbury welcomes the Sharmas for the season social, they stay at her house, and she is a key figure in helping the sisters navigate high society.
kate is much older in the tv show.
in the books, kate is a “spinster” at 21. In the TV show, she is 26 years old and insists that she is not in London to find a husband, but to help her younger sister, Edwina, find a match.
kate’s bee sting scene ends very differently.
in the viscount who loved me, kate is stung by a bee. panicking, anthony pulls down the bodice of her dress to expose the stinging and sucks on her skin to get the poison out of her. Anthony’s beloved father died of a bee sting, something Kate is unaware of at the time, and she is mystified by her frantic attempts to help her with the sting. In her rush to “help”, she doesn’t think of proper behavior, and Kate’s mother Mary, Anthony’s mother Violet, and Lady Featherington all see them. To protect Kate’s reputation, Anthony readily agrees to marry her.
In the show, the bee sting scene still occurs, but it’s rendered very differently. At the end of the third episode, Kate and Anthony walk through the gardens. a bee stings kate in her chest, and anthony has a panic attack and starts gasping for breath. Kate assures him that she is unharmed and places her hand on her chest in an effort to calm him down. they take a deep breath together and she tells him, “she was just a bee.” they almost kiss, but then they don’t, and no one sees them together.
kate doesn’t have panic attacks in thunderstorms.
In The Viscount Who Loved Me, after Kate and Anthony get married, Kate deals with night terrors during thunderstorms. It is revealed that they are caused by the death of Kate’s mother, who died during a terrible storm. when kate’s stepmother mary explains her mother’s death, anthony comforts her, and that’s when kate realizes she loves him. “With every thought, every emotion, every part of her being, she loved him.”
there’s a sleepless night during a thunderstorm where the two meet in a library, and kate mentions how her father used to read to her to comfort her during the monsoons, but kate doesn’t fight storms to the extent that she does in the book. .
anthony and edwina never (almost) get married.
In a dramatic scene on the show, the Queen arranges the wedding of Anthony Bridgerton and Edwina Sharma. when kate starts fiddling with her bracelets, they fall off her and anthony rushes to her aid. this is the moment edwina realizes that anthony is in love with kate, and not her, and runs out of the chapel. It’s the biggest moment of Season 2, and one that never existed in the books, because Anthony and Edwina’s courtship never goes too far before Anthony and Kate tie the knot.
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what exists in the books is a wedding between anthony and kate, but to our disappointment, that doesn’t happen on screen in the tv show.
there is no carriage scene in the show, but kate gets injured.
in the books, anthony realizes he loves kate when she is crushed by a carriage towards the end of the story.
anthony telling kate that he loved her was the last obstacle they had to live happily ever after. this does not happen in the program.
on the show, kate and anthony share an exciting night outdoors. The next morning, Anthony wakes up in the rain to find Kate gone, and she scrambles to find Bridgerton’s heirloom ring to propose to him. When she arrives at Lady Danbury’s house, her servants tell her that Kate is not home. as she pours rain, anthony rides a horse to find kate and sees her fall off the horse and hit her head. she is unconscious and he rushes her to a doctor, but kate doesn’t wake up for a week. Anthony is wracked with guilt for her, thinking that he is the reason she is hurt and he can’t bring himself to visit her.
finally, this is a romance after all! Kate wakes up, Anthony proposes to her but she says no, then they dance together at a dance and the two get over their stubbornness and end up together. because how could they not!?
simon is in the plot of the book (a bit).
Because much has been covered, Regé actor Jean Page, who plays Simon, Duke of Hastings, did not return for the second season. his character only appears marginally in the viscount who loved me plot, especially in the pall mall scene, so his absence barely affects the plot. In the iconic Pall Mall scene, Eloise and Benedict join in on the show’s competitive fun.
the history of the featherington family is totally different.
In the books, Lady Featherington is already a widow at the beginning of the series. however, in the show, lord featherington dies at the end of the first season, causing much of the second season’s plot to revolve around the new lord featherington, aka “cousin jack”. This leads to a story in which Lady Featherington (Polly Walker) tries to marry off her eldest son Prudence (Bessie Carter) to Jack (Rupert Young). However, when Lady Featherington discovers that Jack has no money, they soon begin plotting to get money from other high-society families. The season ends with Lady Featherington throwing Jack under the bus and sending him back to America.
queen charlotte is not a character in the book.
An important plot point in Bridgerton’s second season is Anthony’s determination to marry the diamond of the season. When Queen Charlotte appoints Edwina, Anthony decides to marry her, much to Kate’s frustration. the queen has a vested interest in her partner succeeding, and even arranges her wedding, increasing the pressure to make it work when it obviously isn’t.
edwina’s love interest, mr. bagwell, does not exist in the program.
in the books, edwina is relieved not to have the pressure to marry rich after kate and anthony’s sudden marriage. she ends up falling in love with mr. bagwell, an oxford archaeologist, and it is implied that they ended up together.
In the show, edwina has no love interest after leaving anthony at the altar, except that the queen mentions to her in the last episode that her nephew, a prince, is single. so maybe we will have a real romance with edwina in bridgerton season 3?
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