The T.V. show Bridgerton has been all over apps such as Tiktok and Twitter, but not many people know that it is based on a book series. The book The Duke and I is the first season of Bridgerton. The first season of Bridgerton was beautifully portrayed, but there were many major differences that I wish would have been included in the show. 

Similarities and Differences

Simon (the male lead) stuttered and stammered as a kid and in the prologue, they showed how he struggled with speaking and how his nurse helped him recover from it. The T.V. show would show flashbacks of Simon’s past life with his dad, his stutter, and how he evolved from it. However, I felt as if the T.V. show didn’t genuinely portray Simon’s stammer very well because in the book, it would show how he would breathe or pretend to cough to cover up his stammer and there wasn’t much of that in the T.V. show. 

One of the many things the producers of Bridgerton did an amazing job on was with the actors, they also heavily included people of color and didn’t include racism which I heavily enjoyed because I felt as if the books were missing that since there weren’t any people of color.

There was a major difference in how Daphne and Simon greeted each other. In the T.V. series, it showed Daphne running into Simon to get away from Lord Berbrooke, but in the book, they met in the hallway when she had just punched him. She didn’t punch him in the garden like in the series. But it was more obvious in the book series that Simon found Daphne attractive from the beginning even though others didn’t believe so–in the book. 

A major difference between the book series and the T.V. show series is that there was no courting in front of the queen. The ladies did not have to bow down to the queen and there was no “diamond of the first water” and if there was, Daphne would not have been that in the book series. I did love that the producers made her very amiable and very likable in both the book and the show, but in the book, she was seen as more of a friend than a suitable wife which is why Simon proposed the fake courting. In the book and the series, Simon was the one to propose the fake courtship so the “vicious mamas” would be out of Simon’s way and suitors would view Daphne as more likable. 

A sad thing that didn’t appear in the book that I wish would have was the speech Simon gave to the queen about Daphne. It never appeared because there was no queen in the book whatsoever, but I wish there would have been because the speech was beautifully written. It was in that speech that was more apparent than ever that Simon truly did love Daphne and it wasn’t just infatuation, it was indeed love. Although throughout the books, Simon had a feeling about Daphne, I still wished there was still that speech. 

One small difference was Simon bringing flowers for her mom and not for her. It truly made Violet (Daphne’s mom) cry because it was the first time that she had received flowers since her husband passed away. That scene also made a comeback with the second book in the series The Viscount Who Loved Me when Anthony brought flowers to Kate and Edwina’s mom. He even said, “I must confess, a suitor for my sister’s hand once did the same for my mother, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her more delighted,”. 

If there was one thing that I was truly ecstatic about was Lady Whistledown’s gossip column and how it was big her role was in the book and in the T.V. show. 

Recommendation

I truly do believe that the producers of Bridgerton made the books come to life and added so much more life to them due to all the major differences like the courting, the addition of Lady Danbury’s involvement, and the people of color. Even though I do wish there were scenes that could have been implemented into the show, they did an amazing job. For those who have watched the show and not the book I most definitely recommend it because I watched the series first and then found out about the book series and genuinely found a new experience in the books because I got to read from both characters’ perspectives on how they felt about one another. On the other hand, if you have read the books and haven’t watched the show I would extremely recommend for you to do so because it’s a genuine newfound experience having the book series brought to life. Now if you haven’t read or watched the Bridgerton series, it is a must that you do because it is one of the best shows/books to binge.