The Conqueror, by Georgette Heyer: A Review

The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer has arrived just in time for the holidays. This historical saga of William, Duke of Normandy, who defeated the Saxons in The Battle of Hastings in 1066, is told vividly, accurately, and with mastery by an author who was able to do her research using the rare resources in the London Library.* The story covers William from his infancy until his victory. Although this book is mostly historical, it wouldn’t be a Georgette Heyer novel without some romance. The proud Matilda, daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders, balks at her betrothal to the baseborn William, which sets up an interesting tension:

The Lady Matilda rose slowly to her feet, and made a reverence to her father. Speaking in a cool, very audible voice, and with her hands clasped demurely together, she said, picking her words: “My liege and father, I thank you for your care of me. If it be your will that I should wed again be sure that I know my duty towards you, and will show myself obedient to your commands as befits my honour and yours.” She paused. Watching her close, Raoul saw the smile lift the corners of her mouth, and was prepared for the worst. Veiling her eyes she said: “Yet let me beseech you, beau sire, that you will bestow my hand upon one whose birth can match with mine, and not, for the sake of our honour, permit the blood of a daughter of Flanders to mingle with that of one who is basely descended from a race of burghers.” She ended as coolly as she had begun, and making a second reverence went back to her stool and sat down, looking at her hands.

A stricken silence hung heavily over the company. There were startled looks, and men wondered how the Norman envoys would stomach this insult. Montogoméri flushed, and took a step forward. “Rood of God, is this to be our answer?” he demanded.

Raoul intervened, addressing himself to Count Baldwin. “Lord Count, I dare not take such an answer back to my master,” he said gravely. Surveying the Count’s shocked face he came to the conclusion that the discourteous reply had been prepared without his knowledge. Curbing Montogoméri with a frown, he said: “My lord, I await Flander’s reply to my master’s proposals.”

Count Baldwin availed himself of the loophole gratefully. He rose to his feet, and made the best of a bad business. “Messires,” he said, “Flanders is sensible of honour done her, and if she is obliged to bestow our daughter in marriage on the Duke of Normandy, were it not for the repugnance the Lady Matilda feels towards a second marriage.” So he began, and went on at length, smoothing away the insult. The envoys withdrew, one thoughtful, the other smouldering with indignation. What Count Baldwin said to his daughter is not known, but it is certain he sent for Raoul de Harcourt late that evening and was closeted with him alone for a full hour.

As with Simon the Coldheart, Georgette employs a more old-fashioned writing style for this early era in both language and detail. This makes the book harder to read than her regencies, but also more realistic in tone. She also writes the tale through Raoul de Harcourt’s eyes, a fictional character, so that we never quite get into William’s mind or understand his motives.  However, for those who cannot get enough of historical biographies, this newly reissued Georgette Heyer history is a must read! Order the book at Amazon or at Sourcebooks.

Other Georgette Heyer Reviews Sit Below

• Our other The Conqueror Review

• The Reluctant Widow

• The Spanish Bride

• Lady of Quality

• False Colours

• Cotillion

• Royal Escape

• Simon the Coldheart

• Faro’s Daughter

These Georgette Heyer books, available this holiday season, will be reviewed on this blog and Jane Austen’s World through mid-December: Cotillion, Simon the Coldheart, The Reluctant Widow, Faro’s Daughter, and The Conqueror.

*The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Jane Aiken Hodge, The Bodley Head, Ltd, London, 1984.

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Faro’s Daughter, by Georgette Heyer: A Book Review

Inquiring reader: Faro’s Daughter is reviewed by Lady Anne, my good friend and one of Georgette Heyer’s biggest fans.

Max Ravenscar is one of Georgette Heyer’s favorite hero types: he is 35 years old, single, and the head of his family for many years. He is a powerful athlete and superb horseman. He is harsh featured, strong-willed, and suffers no one to cross his will. And, oh yes, even more importantly, he is extraordinarily, amazingly wealthy. Deborah Grantham is also a favorite type: well-born and gently raised, but her family has suffered reverses, and she is forced to make her way. Her father was a military man, but more importantly to our story, a gamester. Her aunt, with whom she resides since her father’s death, is a widow forced to make ends meet by running a private gaming club. She was successful on a small scale, but is in no way equipped to run a profitable business, and inevitably, has fallen into debt.

Max’s nephew Adrian has fallen hard for Deb Grantham, and his mother, Max’s aunt, one of the women who depend on Max to keep their worlds untroubled, implores him to extricate the young man from this potential pitfall. Deb Grantham, a lovely 25 year old Juno-esque blonde, has a strong will and temper, along with a finely tuned moral code and sense of her own worth. At their first meeting, Ravenscar is surprised by her, but also beats her badly at piquet. The following day, he offers her money to turn his nephew loose. Deb has been playing with Adrian to keep another suitor, one who wishes to make her his mistress, at bay. Incensed at Max’s blunt offer, she plays a role that suits what he thinks she is, rather than showing her very real anger. Predictably, they show each other their worst sides, misconstrue actions, get into and out of scrapes, forestall any serious problems, and inevitably, end up in each other’s arms.

Other characters include the raffish sidekick, her father’s friend and confidante who is devoted to Deb, a spoiled younger brother, who is appalled at the slide into not-quite-respectable territory his aunt and sister have begun, an enchanting younger step-sister who gives her older brother something to think about, and a very young and foolish ingénue who is not so foolish as to allow herself to be married to a far older man of worse than dubious reputation. It is a great mix and a lot of fun.

Faro Dealing Box

Along the way, Heyer, who knows her periods well, reveals some of the cracks in the world of upper class Eighteenth Century England. The wellborn do not work; their money is inherited. If the families waste their fortunes, the choices for their children are harsh. Improvident parents marry children off to the highest bidder they can find, no matter how unsavory the reputation. Few opportunities present themselves for those girls who do not marry: companion or governess for the not so lucky. Deb Grantham shows this when she responds to Ravenscar’s comment that she is accomplished. “No,” she says, “drawing, singing or playing an instrument are accomplishments.” She means of course, suitable for a young lady. She was not fortunate to acquire those skills, but instead has learned card games like faro and piquet. She does not expect to marry because of her slightly tarnished reputation. Max is cynical in part because he has been the head of his family since far-too-young an age. Not only has he had too heavy a burden caring for his various family members, but ambitions mamas trying to marry off their daughters have disgusted him with their headlong pursuit of his name and his fortune. Naturally strong-willed, no one has crossed him in a long time. Deb’s expert fencing with him, whether playing cards or pitting her will against his, comes as a not entirely welcome surprise. They are equally matched; he may have doubts about her eligibility to marry into his family, but her behavior actually is more honorable than his. When he plays for high stakes against Lord Ormkirk, his lordship is drunk. The race, for breathtakingly high stakes, is against a man who he knows has inferior driving skills. It’s all right; both his competitors are bad men, but Deb, for all that she is plays in her aunt’s gaming establishment, would not take unfair advantage. She cannot afford to.

Faro Betting Board

But, being a rollicking romance, all ends well, and Deb can stop playing faro, Max will pay her aunt’s debts, and everyone ends up happy. Including Georgette Heyer’s loyal readers.

About Lady Anne, the reviewer: A confirmed Janeite and co-founder of Janeites on the James (our Jane Austen group), an expert on all things Georgette Heyer and the Regency Era, a lady well read and well bred, Lady Anne is known for her discerning eye for both literature and her breath-taking garments made by a select mantua maker. Cloth’d and coifed, Lady Anne knows few equals, and when she enters a room she is a commanding presence. She is also Ms. Place’s special friend and confidante.

To read more about gambling during this era, please read the post that sits below this one or click here.

• Faro: 19th Century Gambling Craze

• Faro: Or Bucking the Tiger, The Gentleman’s Page

Our Other Georgette Heyer Reviews Sit Here:

• The Reluctant Widow

• The Spanish Bride

• Lady of Quality

• False Colours

• Cotillion

• Royal Escape

• Simon the Coldheart

These Georgette Heyer books, available this holiday season, will be reviewed on this blog and Jane Austen Today.

Cotillion, Simon the Coldheart, The Reluctant Widow, Faro

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Simon the Coldheart, by Georgette Heyer: A Book Review

Inquiring readers, Simon the Coldheart, an early Georgette Heyer novel, was reviewed by my co-founder of our Jane Austen book group. Lady Anne would be the first person to admit that she is addicted to reading Ms. Heyer’s novels. Her collection of Georgette Heyer’s novels is complete – she owns all her regency romance novels, mysteries, and historical novels. (With 51 titles, that is saying something.)  This is Lady Anne’s review of one of Georgette Heyer’s earliest novels, which will be reissued by SourceBooks just in time for this holiday season.

No one gets period better than Georgette Heyer. Whether she is writing about England in the Regency era or the 15th Century, she has the details and the language perfectly.

In Simon the Coldheart Heyer uses period language to excellent effect. The story, characterized as a tale of chivalry and adventure, tells of young Simon, a base-born bastard of one Geoffrey of Malvallet, as he is off to make his way in the world. Our young hero is not one to feel sorry for his accident of birth, nor does he look to his father to support him. Simon instead styles himself Beauvallet – a nice little wordplay — and seeks to become a member of the household of one of his father’s enemies.
Matters would have gone ill with Simon but for the appearance of a boy, a little younger than himself, who came strolling towards them, followed by two liver-coloured hounds. He was dark, and magnificently clad, and he carried himself with an air of languid arrogance.

“Hola there! he called, and the soldiers fell away from Simon, leaving him to stand alone, arms folded and head turned to survey the newcomer.

The boy came up gracefully, looking at Simon with a questioning lift to his brows.

“What is this?” he asked. “Who are you who strike our men?”

Simon stepped forward.

“So please you sir, I seek my Lord the Earl.”

One of the men, he whom Simon had dealt that lusty blow, started to speak, but was hushed by an imperious gesture from the boy. He smiled at Simon with a mixture of friendliness and hauteur.

“I am Alan of Montlice,” he said. “What want you of my father?”

Simon doffed his cap, showing his thick, straight hair clubbed across his brow and at the nape of his brown neck. He bowed awkwardly.

I want employment, sir, he replied.

Simon is strong and sure of himself. His great confidence amuses and charms Fulk of Montlice, in whose household he seeks to live, and he is awarded a place. Fulk’s son is about Simon’s age, and the two very different young men become close friends. No jealousy or tiresome infighting here.

The book is set in the early 15th Century, and before long, we find ourselves with King Henry IV and young Prince Hal fighting Hotspur and Owen Glendower, in that famous uprising. Young Simon proves himself in battle – no surprise – and comes to the rescue of his half-brother, the young Geoffrey of Malvallet. The rescue earns him a knighthood and begins another surprising friendship, this time with his half-brother. During the next few years, Simon is a knight in the household of Fulk, and young Alan of Montlice, always in love, despairs over Simon. But Simon is looking for a home. On the day that he finds a baronetcy in disarray, he also learns of a plot against King Henry. Gathering some of the men of Montlice around him, he goes to London to tell Henry, and so is awarded the home he needs. His father comes to ask him to live in his household, but he refuses. Because he goes his solitary way, he earns the soubriquet of Coldheart.

But here, Heyer is on firm psychological ground. The base-born child of a servant-girl who died in his childhood is likely to keep his own council and wish to establish his own line. At our first meeting of Simon he claims to be going to his goal, and throughout the book, he stays clear on that. He does not have the luxury of excuses, or whining, or wasting time over women or poetry. He is intent on making his way. It could be an interesting portrait of a complex person, but Heyer only alludes to it. Her business is with the history, and the fun of a group of young men.

Soon enough, Prince Hal, now King Henry V, calls on Simon, his half-brother Geoffrey, and his great friend Alan to assist with the war in France. This is Shakespeare’s Henry at Agincourt, and the battles that Simon and his men fight are a continuation of that part of the Hundred Year’ War. Like his King, Simon meets a strong-willed Frenchwoman at Belremy, and in the end, of course, the lady Margaret falls before Simon and Simon is Coldheart no more. Ultimately, King Henry makes Simon his lieutenant and warden of the lands and marches of Normandy. Heyer, ever the careful scholar, notes in a footnote that in fact the Earls of March and Salisbury held that title.

Simon the Coldheart is an early book, originally published in 1925. As always, Heyer’s details describe the period, and in this book, she takes the further step of using language suited to the time: slightly inverted, filled with pomp and chivalry. It adds greatly to total experience. The book is a romp, fun for those of us who loved the transformation of Prince Hal into Henry, and fun for anyone who would want to read of that bygone age of chivalry. Click here to order the book.

Click on More Book Links Here:

• Simon the Coldheart, Georgette Heyer.com

• Georgette Heyer: Fantastic Fiction

Our Other Georgette Heyer Reviews Sit Below

• The Reluctant Widow

• The Spanish Bride

• Lady of Quality

• False Colours

• Cotillion

• Royal Escape

These Georgette Heyer books, available this holiday season, will be reviewed on this blog and Jane Austen Today.

Cotillion, Simon the Coldheart, The Reluctant Widow, Faro's Daughter, and The Conqueror

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Cotillion: A Review of a Georgette Heyer Novel

It’s been years since I’ve run across the word “clodpole”, which Georgette Heyer uses to great effect in Cotillion, one of the splendid Regency romance novels that Sourcebooks had brought out and is available for order, including as an E-book, in this link. Half the fun of reading Ms. Heyer’s books is discovering which of her stereotypical characters will court or insult each other in that ironic British upper class way we Heyer fans have come to love.

In Cotillion we meet a veritable bevy of the typical Heyer characters:

• Eccentric, old and tight-fisted uncle? Check.

• Young and pretty heiress? Check.

• Silly spinster chaperone? Check.

• Buffoonish impoverished earl? Check.

• Darkly handsome rake? Check.

• Foppish Pink of the Ton? Check.

• Long-suffering but pleasantly surprised father? Check.

• Beautiful but vapid beauty in distress? Check.

The list of Heyer archetypes goes on and on, but we don’t care. We WANT the familiarity of Georgette Heyer’s typical characters, for they play off each other so well. Like an audience at a concert that has been performed in other music halls, we are interested in how this new orchestration of a well-known arrangement will compare to the others. In Cotillion, Heyer’s particular brand of Regency music reaches the heights of perfection. The rich uncle hopes that by bequeathing his entire estate to his orphaned ward, Kitty, he will force his favorite nephew, Jack, to vie for her hand in marriage. For the sake of equality,  Jack must propose alongside his other male cousins so that all may have an equal chance. But Jack won’t be manipulated and forced to court Kitty. An inveterate gambler,  he bets that Kitty and the considerable fortune she stands to inherit will always be available to him, for she has had an unhidden crush on him since the schoolroom. Jack didn’t count on the one variable that would put a spoke in his plans: Kitty’s anger at his absence and her stubborn determination to teach him a lesson.

Enter the Honourable Frederick Standen. The reader first meets this Exquisite in typical Heyer style:

The young gentleman who alighted from the chaise must have been recognized at sight by the discerning as a Pink of the Ton, for although his judgment, which, in all matters of Fashion, was extremely nice, had forbidden him to travel into the country arrayed in the long-tailed coat of blue superfine, the pantaloons of delicate yellow, and the tasselled Hessian boots which marked him in the Metroplolis as a veritable Tulip, or Bond Street Beau, none but a regular Dash, patronizing the most exclusive of tailors, could have presented himself in so exquisitely moulded a riding-coat, such peerless breeches, or such effulgent top-boots.

Freddy, though fond of Kitty, is not in love with her, and he is out of his depth when it comes to countering her will. Before he knows it he is engaged to her and has promised her a month in London before she must return to her uncle’s stuffy old mansion. Ms. Heyer takes her time setting up this fun plot, but knowing the particulars will be important, for when she sets events in motion they roll along seemingly of their own accord and with some unexpected twists that are sure to delight.

Can Frederick successfully introduce his faux Intended to his family and Society without having to submit to the Shackles of Marriage?

Will Jack be able to forgive Kitty for (unsuccessfully) trying to make him jealous?

Will Kitty, a total Innocent when it comes to London Society, be able to stay out of trouble?

As the plot thickens, we are treated to one priceless scene after another, including those of Kitty dragging Freddy to all the Sights of London. Our fastidious Freddy is aghast when forced to enter the musty rooms of the Egyptian Hall, and feels downright incensed when viewing the Elgin Marbles. “Why, they have no heads!” he expostulates, feeling very put upon at having to escort Kitty to places that he’d never intended to see or ever see again. He’d have much preferred to take her to Astley’s Amphitheatre or the Royal Circus, but both edifices did not open until Easter Monday.

Freddy’s family adds spice to this hugely enjoyable novel. His sister Meg, whose taste in Fashion is questionable; his mother, who spends most of the novel tending to her sick children; and his father, whose encounters with his son are all too brief and rare, add to the deliciousness of this convoluted plot. The title of the book hints at plot developments that are not so obvious at first, for when dancing the Cotillion, partners must switch and change within the dance formations.  If you are looking for a book to read during the Thanksgiving holidays, I cannot recommend Cotillion enough, for its conclusion is as satisfying as its very promising beginning.

• Egyptian Hall: Georgian Index

• Cotillion on Georgette Heyer.com

• William Bullock’s Museum

• The Real Story of the Elgin Marbles

• Elginism: An Act of Cultural Vandalism

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Lady of Quality: Georgette Heyer

Miss Annis Wychwood, at twenty-nine, has long been on the shelf, but this bothers her not at all. She is rich and still beautiful and she enjoys living independently in Bath, except for the tiresome female cousin, who her very proper brother insists must live with her.

When Annis offers sanctuary to the very young runaway heiress Miss Lucilla Carleton, no one at all thinks this is a good idea. With the exception of Miss Carleton’s overbearing guardian, Mr. Oliver Carleton, whose reputation as the rudest man in London precedes him. Outrageous as he is, the charming Annis ends up finding him absolutely irresistible. - Sourcebooks blurb

I discovered Georgette Heyer just after I graduated from college. Having run out of new Jane Austen novels to read, I began to search for other regency stories set in similar settings. One day at the library, I stumbled across Charity Girl and Arabella, and my love affair with all things Georgette began.

In those days I was barely older than the youngest of Heyer’s heroines, and could identify closely with The Grand Sophy. I reveled in Georgette’s world filled with bored aristocratic gentlemen who, usually as they traveled by coach or horse to a country inn or walked the streets in London in the middle of the night, stumbled across an innocent and disarming chit who needed rescuing. This plot device was a popular one with the author. Another one of Georgette’s plots was that of the “older” beautiful, rich, and independent spinster (almost on the shelf, but not quite) who is determined to live her life as she likes it and skirt convention when she can. Because she has independent means, she rules her roost and will brook no interference from any man. Invariably, these strong willed women meet their match in an even richer, stronger-willed man, usually a Duke or Earl, but not always as in a Lady of Quality.

I learned about Bath through Georgette Heyer’s eyes, not Jane Austen’s. Oh, Jane mentioned Molland’s on Milsom Street, and her characters take the waters in the Pump Room and attend assembly balls in the Upper and Lower Rooms. But Jane is spare in her descriptions, and could barely be bothered to describe dresses, fripperies, and interiors, or how well a man’s broad shoulders fit into his tailored coat, or that his valet polishes his tasseled Wellington boots with champagne. Georgette revels in these descriptions, and takes them to the extreme. Her characters are rather shallow and predictable, and she uses the same “type” over and over again. However, one doesn’t read a Georgette Heyer novel to learn something new and wondrous about the human character – one reads her stories to learn about Regency manners and mores, and how bored the aristocrats are with their privileged lifestyles, and about carriage rides in Hyde Park, and intrigues in Bath, and elopements to Gretna Green, and for descriptions of satin ball gowns and sprigged muslin day dresses. Georgette’s world is filled with high perch phaetons, and visits to Gentleman Jackson’s salon and Astley’s Amphitheatre, and a night at the opera. When I think of Georgette’s descriptions of matrons, I think of formidable ladies dressed in puce and ostrich feathers, bosoms heaving, and faces pinched with displeasure. Or I think of an older, fluffier, high maintenance woman dressed too young for her age, wearing too many ruffles, always fainting or expostulating about something inconsequential, and driving everyone but our heroine to distraction.

Jane Austen’s novels are meaty and take a long time to digest; Georgette’s frothy, sparkling, and often funny romances are as light and sugary as a meringue, and just as filling, which is to say that one becomes hungry to read more after having just finished the previous book. I have read all of Georgette’s regency romances, but I can barely recall one plot from the other, whereas Jane’s six novels are different and distinct. There is no confusing Persuasion with Pride and Prejudice!

To give Georgette her due, she KNOWS her stuff. Not only was her own “breeding” impeccable, but she married well. She and her husband rented rooms in a grand house in Mayfair, and they knew London inside and out. Georgette visited museums, and filled her notebooks (right) with drawings of costumes, uniforms, carriages, and the like. One of the characteristic that sets Georgette’s books apart from all other romance novels is her use of language and aristocratic cant. She made up many of her phrases, including “A Banbury Tale,” but they sound so authentic that other authors began to copy her, much to her dismay. A frustrated historian, who yearned to be recognized for her serious historical novels, she lived long enough to see her regency romances take off in popularity, and printed in many languages all over the world. Her artist of choice for her hard cover book jackets was Barbosa, (illustration of second book cover) whose talent for portraying the regency world was incomparable.

Georgette and her husband rented space in Albany House in Mayfair, London for 24 years. Turned into bachelor chambers in the early 19th century, its famous renters included Lord Byron and Lord Macaulay.

Georgette is a sweet romance writer, which means that she writes no X-rated sex scenes. In fact, she writes no sex scenes at all. Her characters might kiss and hug, but that is towards the end of the story to seal the deal. Unfortunately, Georgette’s light-hearted books have inspired other, lesser writers, like Barbara Cartland, whose awful repetitive romances about barely post-pubescent heroines with heart-shaped faces and huge liquid eyes are barely digestible. Writers like Cartland have given the entire genre a bad name. As with all genre writers, there are good ones and bad ones. Georgette’s works stand out as among the best. Having said that, her plots about 18-year-old misses catching the interest of 38-year-old dukes attract me the least. When I was young I could barely stomach the age difference, and now that I am longer in the tooth and a tad world weary, I refuse to read them. However, her novels about the older feisty heroine of independent means verbally sparring with her hero still strike my fancy.

Which brings me to the real topic of this post: a review. If you haven’t read a Georgette Heyer book, and you are of a certain age, I would like to recommend that you first read a Lady of Quality, which combines both of Georgette’s two basic plots. The book starts predictably, with our older, stubborn heroine, Miss Annis Wychwood, who has set up her own house in Bath (in a fashionable part of town, of course), returning from a visit with her brother and sister-in-law.  Her chaperone is a meek mannered spinster cousin, who doesn’t dare to cross her rich patroness, which is exactly how Annis had planned it. The hero of the story is Oliver Carleton, the uncle and legal guardian of a silly chit, (Lucilla) who has run away. Annis becomes her protector, which sets up frequent opportunities for Annis and Oliver to verbally spar with one another.

He came forward to shake hands with Miss Wychwood, paying no immediate heed to Lucilla, following her into the parlour. “You can’t think of how relieved I am to see that you haven’t brought your cousin with you,” he said, by way of greeting. “I have been cursing myself these three hours for not having made it plain to her that I was not including her in my invitation to you! I couldn’t have endured an evening spent in the company of such an unconscionable gabble-monger!”

“Oh, but you did!” she told him. “She took you in the greatest dislike, and can’t be blamed for having done so, or for having uttered some pretty sever strictures on your total want of conduct. You must own, if there is any truth in you, that you were shockingly uncivil to her!”

“I can’t tolerate chattering bores,” he said. “If she took me in such dislike, I’m amazed that she permitted you to come here without her chaperonage.”

“She would certainly have stopped me if she could have done it, for she does not think you are a proper person for me to know!”

“Good God! Does she suspect me of trying to seduce you? She may be easy on that head: I never seduce ladies of quality!” He turned from her as he spoke, and put up his glass to cast a critical look over Lucilla. “Well, niece?” he said. “What a troublesome chit you are! But I’m glad to see that your appearance at least is much improved since I last saw you. I thought that you were bidding fair to grow into a Homely Joan, but I was wrong: your are no longer pudding-faced, and you’ve lost your freckles. Accept my felicitations!”

“I was not pudding-faced!”

“Oh, believe me, you were! You hadn’t lost your puppy-fat.”

Her bosom heaved with indignation, but Miss Wychwood intervened, recommending her not to rise to that, or any other fly of her uncle’s casting. She added severely: “And as for you, sir, I beg you will refrain from making any more remarks expressly designed to put Lucilla all on end, and to render me acutely uncomfortable!”

“I wouldn’t do that for the world,” he assured her.

“Then don’t be so rag-mannered!” she retorted.

An experienced reader of romance novels can divine the plot from this short scene, in which Lucilla is induced to speak to her uncle after having run away from him. One thing leads to another, with many plot twists and misunderstandings and heaving of bosoms, until Georgette neatly ties up her various threads, and her hero and heroine live happily ever after. The author was nearly seventy years old when she sent this note to her publisher about the book’s progress:

“I’ve left [Carleton] making himself thoroughly obnoxious to Lord Beckenham in the Pump Room, and must go back to him, and think of a few more poisonously rude things for him to say…I have only to add that Mr. Carleton is not merely the rudest man in London, but has also the reputation of being a Sad Rake, to convince you that he has all the right ingredients of a Heyer-Hero.” (Hodge, p 196*)

SourceBooks is issuing a select number of Georgette Heyer novels in Trade Paper for the first time. Click here to enter the site and see the selections. If you find my description of the book intriguing, then you will not be disappointed reading it. Georgette’s breezy romances are a perfect accompaniment for a summer’s day at the beach or a relaxed afternoon in your lawn chair.

For additional information about Georgette Heyer, click on the links below:

• My other review: False Colours: A Sparkling Regency Novel

• Georgette Heyer.com

• The Romantic Novels of Georgette Heyer: BBC h2g2

• An Appreciation of Georgette Heyer, Jay Dixon

• *The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Jane Aiken Hodge, The Bodley Head, London, 1984. Quote and illustration of Heyer’s notebook and house are from this book.

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