‘What will you do with yourself when you grasp that your mind is only different, not deranged?’: Madness and Neurodivergent Heroes in Historical Romance Novels

While there has been a noticeable increase in contemporary romance novels with neurodiversity representation, historical romance novels with autistic-coded characters should not be overlooked. This paper aims to analyse the representation of neurodiversity in two historical romance novels: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley and The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian, arguing that today, the “madness” of the protagonists would be recognised as neurodivergence, specifically autism. However, the love interests consistently disagree with the perception that the protagonists are mad, arguing instead that their minds are simply different, and they encourage the protagonists to embrace these differences and their unique expressions of emotions. Consequently, the novels offer contemporary readers who are familiar with the contemporary notion of autism a historical context for the ongoing debate on whether autism should be considered a disorder, or a form of neurodivergence. Additionally, there is a contrasting representation of autism as genius, as the protagonists are characterised as both madmen and geniuses. The novels also depict four forms of isolation – voluntary, involuntary, emotional and physical — as a consequence of the protagonists’ neurodivergence, which they believe to have inherited from their abusive fathers.