I’ve had Covid – the omicron version I’m told. Not too bad, but on the second or third day of feeling bleugh I decided to read a Georgette Heyer novel. Better than sitting on the couch unable to concentrate on anything. I was hopeful of the same I discovered when I turned to them in lockdown last year, as I’ve written about in this blog here
In that earlier blog I identified four more Heyer novels for future reading. First up The Foundling because it was described as Austinesque in Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller by Jennifer Kloester who said echoes of Jane Austen pervade the book.
Secondly Friday’s Child because this is the one that Georgette herself considered her best; The Black Sheep because I wanted to see whether Georgette really could create a New Model Heyer-Hero as she said she had in this novel; and Sylvester because I could remember reading it and liking it but could remember nothing about its content!
So these are the ones I read, supplemented by a couple of others. In all I read six in about four days. They were perfect; easy to read but compelling. It’s strange, even though you know what’s going to happen you are on tenterhooks until it does. At least I am. I read them very quickly and have to go back and re-read the endings to ensure I understand exactly how everything happened! Mad I know. Still it was a brainwave that I thought to do this. It meant I rested properly while I was unwell – basically with the symptoms of a heavy head cold and that feeling of bleugh. I spent all day, including while having meals prepared by Joe, reading. And I didn’t go mad!
The terrific thing about all these books is although they basically tell the same story – boy meets girl etc – they are so different. A huge variety of characters who you either root for or hate, lots of different, chaotic situations all expertly manipulated for you to believe they could actually happen, lots of humour and lots of information about the Regency period in England.
The Foundling, 1948
My mother bought this book in January 1950, inscribing it with her maiden name and carefully covering it in brown paper. Which is why this cover is in such good shape. I love these original covers.
Our hero is the Duke, fortunately referred to throughout as such; given his full name is Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, Duke of Sale plus (amongst other titles) Baron Ware of Rufford. He was a sickly boy and is oppressed by those around him treating him with kid gloves lest he succumb to illness. He is a gently soul and cannot bear to upset people – so consents to this gentle and not so gentle bullying – so doubly constrained. To the frustration of his good friend and cousin Gideon whose father, Sir Lionel, is the Duke’s guardian.
So not quite your usual rake waiting to be reformed sort of Heyer hero. Prevailed upon by another cousin to assist him escape blackmail over breach of promise the Duke takes the opportunity to go undercover as plain Mr Dash. His objective being to see whether he can single-handedly retrieve a bundle of his cousin’s impetuously written letters from a silver tongued villain. Also not your usual Heyer villain.
In the opening chapters our hero has become, at the behest of his guardian and seemingly not at the behest of his heart, betrothed to the rather drab and certainly tongue-tied Lady Harriet Presteigne. An arrangement arranged by their elders who tell both of them separately that well born folk like themselves should not set store by romantic feelings and heaven forbid show that they like each other!
In pursuing his cousin’t ill-advised correspondence our hero finds himself in the company of the most ravishing looking female he or anybody, as it emerges, has ever set eyes on. This is the lovely Belinda. That’s the two of them on the cover, the Duke carrying Belinda’s hat boxes which contain all her worldly possessions and which feature in lots of scenes.
Everyone who encounters them together supposes her to be his piece of muslin leading to a number of complications. This young woman is likened by Kloester to Harriet in Austen’s Emma but I didn’t find the comparison compelling. She’s as silly as a wheel. And the foundling of the title. Eventually our Duke is forced to seek assistance from his hitherto shy and retiring betrothed in managing this flighty female.
He has also managed to become embroiled in the life of a high spirited young fellow. Tom is fleeing his father who, seeking to better his family above their mercantile present is intent on making him a gentleman. To this end he has engaged an overbearing, supercilious tutor from whom Tom is intent on departing. This draws into the fray the outraged father and the long arms of the law. Tom is a quick witted fellow and plays a central role in a number of events – always to his rescuer’s advantage.
The villain, against his better judgement, over-reaches himself somewhat and draws cousin Gideon into the Duke’s affairs prompting the older, wiser, soldier cousin to hasten after him. To add to subsequent confusions, the Duke’s cosseting valet deduces the young cousin may have something to do with his disappearance and the two of them are along for the ride.
The scene is set for a typical Georgette Heyer farce. It’s wonderful how she manages to get all these characters into the frame, then, finally, into the same room! Various lessons are learned by all and sundry – the Duke, his future bride, his loyal courtiers, Tom and his father; we are only left wondering whether Belinda has learnt anything from her escapades.
Theirs lots of humour to be had – especially via the young runaway and (unusually) the villain. Throughout you get a good understanding of the morés of the Regency period – manners, dress, language, behaviour, class distinctions and so on. I liked it a lot, but didn’t consider it especially Austenesque, nor one of Georgette’s best.
Friday’s Child, 1944
Despite this being published earlier than The Foundling, mum is married when she gets hold of it, inscribing Margaret Doran inside with no date. Another lovely cover but which of the lovely ladies whose stories are told does it depict?
I agree with Georgette that this is one of her best – although not perhaps THE best. I think that distinction goes to The Grand Sophy. And I think both that novel and this one are the most Austinesque.
Georgette said of this novel, It’s good escapist literature; & I think I would rather like it if I were sitting in an air raid shelter or recovering from the flu … The best I ever wrote. Perhaps because it wrote itself. Perhaps because it contains Ferdy Fakenham, who not only stole it, but inspired me, years later, to write Cotillion.
It certainly was good for this person enduring a bout of Covid. It’s hard to write about these novels without spoilers but I will give it a go. One of the pleasures is identifying first up the likely romantic pairing. Here we start with Viscount Lord Anthony Sherringham (Sherry), a handsome, rakish, Heyer hero, proposing to his childhood friend Isabella Milborne, heiress and notable beauty. The cover illustration looks like her I think.
His offer is peremptorily refused. Enraged he promptly determines to marry the first woman he encounters, which happens to be another childhood acquaintance – we are in the country where our protagonists have their country estates and where they have grown up together. This new lady is the very young Miss Hero Wantage, an orphan who has been raised, and largely ill-treated, by her aunt. She’s tearful at the prospect of now being sent away to be a governess.
One wonders whether the Sherry and Hero marriage will have to be annulled as quickly as it has been sealed. To be sure the marriage is a shock to Sherry’s friends, the silly but endearing Ferdy Fakenham, the completely mad, bad and dangerous to know (Byronesque), George Lord Wrotham who is hopelessly in love with Isabella and the staid and steady Mr Gil Ringwood. Nevertheless they assist in accomplishing the task in hand.
Our heroine, now called Kitten by her husband and his friends is unlearned in the niceties of polite society and gets into any number of scrapes. Mostly because she takes her husband’s words at their face value. Thus we are educated in the differing standards set for women and men in Regency England.
Kitten is a tender-hearted soul which brings her into conflict with the villain of the piece Sir Montague – who is very much in the regular Heyer villain mould. Not much humour to be had with this suave gambling rake who needs an heiress to help him retain his already shaky foothold in high society, the ton.
We are in familiar Heyer territory here: courtships of varying degrees of passioned, lovers at cross purposes, flight from a husband’s wrath, refuge offered by a friend who twigs to the true lay of the land, threatened duels, an innocent drawn into a doomed courtship and attempted abductions – friendly and not friendly. Everyone ends up in a country inn where all is resolved, a villain disposed of and two lots of lovers locked in passionate embraces.
It’s the minor characters that cause this to zip along. Sherry’s male friends who befriend Kitten are a delight. Georgette herself described Lord Wrotham as a different sort of character to her normal ones and so he is. I liked them all. And this novel, a lot. If you’re going to try a Georgette Heyer for the first time, this would be a good one to start with.
Cotillion, 1953
Another cover that perfectly illustrates the book. This is Kitty entering a room where her cousins await to propose marriage. She’s accompanied by her governess Miss Fishguard, later to be referred to as Fish. I wasn’t aware while I was reading it that the hero of this novel, Freddy, was inspired by Ferdy Fakenham in Friday’s Child. But having discovered it I certainly see the connection. He is a delight. Koestler claims, based on Georgette’s own words that this was written under the influence of dexedrine and gin, and calls it one of her funniest books, with an unexpected heroine and one of her best endings. I love the endings of all her books, but I agree it is very funny. Thanks to Freddy, who is a very unexpected hero.
An irascible, and of course rich, old man has raised Kitty although she is an orphan and no blood relation. He has issued an ultimatum to his great-nephews, to whom Kitty has hitherto been a cousin, that he intends to leave his fortune to whichever of them is accepted by as her husband. Otherwise he will leave his money to the Foundling Hospital.
We start off with three nephews gathered at Arnside, their uncle’s abode, considering this state of affairs. George is out because he’s married. The cover perfectly illustrates the book. This is Kitty entering the room where her cousins await to propose marriage. She’s accompanied by her governess Miss Fishguard, later to be referred to as Fish, who has instilled in her charge a taste for romantic fiction. Kitty is dressed in a most unbecoming manner with an unprepossessing hairstyle to boot. Her guardian is a miserly man. Perfectly captured I’d say in the illustration above.
Dolph, a simple young man required by his mother to attend and not happy about having to make the offer is pleased when he is refused. The slightly patrician and very formal Hugh, a clergyman, also makes an offer out of sympathy for his cousin and is refused.
There are two other nephews; Jack who is the old man’s favourite and who has been Kitty’s great friend, has refused to appear, considering the whole matter contemptible. Or does he? He’s a handsome, rakish fellow, the very image of a Heyer hero. Bit of a flirt, bit of a gambler – the very sort of chap a young girl would set her heart on.
Freddy Standen has only come because he is ignorant of the reason for the summons but was intrigued when both his cousin Jack and his Aunt Dolphington alerted him to the fact something shady was going on.
He has the good sense to get himself a decent meal before descending on the cold and uncomfortable house of his uncle. Unusually for a Heyer hero he is a fashion plate. And he is loving described in all his glory. He would be recognised at sight by the discerning as a Pink of the Ton. He’s 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 is not in the petticoat line and is more interested in the cut of his coat and the folds of his cravat than anything else. There is much humour as he peppers his conversations with views about what people are wearing rather than what they are up to. As Kitty discovers when she surprises him during his repast. And quite upsetting his enjoyment of it.
She has decided to flee the whole arrangement and is on her way to London. Finding Freddy there she entreats him to enter into a sham engagement – only for a month – for nefarious purposes of her own. Freddy is horrified but eventually persuaded to assist.
So off to London we go. Freddy’s family is quite lovely – there’s often a nice family, matriarch or patriarch in Heyer stories as a counter-balance to the horrible ones. His mother is unavailable to chaperone Kitty as Freddy had thought she might because her younger children have measles (this alarming condition also featured briefly in Friday’s Child). But Kitty would be doing Freddy’s sister a great favour if she resided with her, because in the absence of the sister’s husband (on a work trip to China!) she needs a chaperone to stay involved polite society. So, a win win for both young ladies.
There’s great fun to be had on the subject of taste in clothes, colours, styles etc. Freddy’s sister has none, Freddy has much as does his mother. Like Kitten in Friday’s Child, young Miss Kitty Charing, blossoms into a pretty young thing once she is properly dressed and coiffed. Like Kitten she is tender-hearted and not quite up to date with respect to polite society. Though she doesn’t get into so many scrapes as Kitten, she does take up the cause of those less fortunate than herself.
There’s another breathtakingly beautiful young girl, who is burdened by vulgar relatives and looks like being consigned to a future as a kept woman. Kitty resolves to help her and the dashing French Maquis who has fallen in love with her at first sight. The Maquis is related to Kitty through her French mother; but the question arises is he who he says he is?
Kind-hearted Kitty also takes notice of the simple-minded cousin Dolph, who is largely ignored by others because he is soft in the head. Dolph is an Earl with land (very encumbered) in Ireland. He’s very good with horses. And lo and behold he has a secret admirer. Kitty resolves to help them.
Freddy becomes vicariously involved in these affairs as he comes in and out of Kitty’s London life. Jack also makes an appearance from time to time – not to his advantage.
When Kitty left Fish with the her irascible guardian the poor woman was appalled at the thought of being left alone with the mean old gentleman. Kitty abjured her to be firm with him and to threaten to leave should he fly into one of his absurd rages. By and by comes a missive from the lady which despite being very hard to decipher, references to Henry VIII abounding, would indicate that she has taken this advice to heart.
Once again, it’s a regular occurrence in a Hayer novel, couples take flight. One pair to France. Another, relying on Kitty, fly into the country in search of a clergyman to marry them – remember pompous nephew Hugh? Freddy, as always hiding his resourcefulness under digressions and irrelevancies, turns up with an important document. Finally cousin Jack turns up to make his offer for Kitty. Is he the hero we have been expecting? Or is someone else.
Everything is satisfactorily resolved. In this book we have four pairings! One of which is a great surprise, although I (who never do this) guessed it immediately it was hinted at.
All very satisfactory.
The Nonesuch, 1962
I’ve always wondered about this title. It turns out Nonesuch is the Regency equivalent of GOAT which my children had to tell me meant Greatest Of All Time. In Regency England a nonesuch was perfection, paragon, the greatest of all goers. Makes sense: none such as he!
As you can see from this lovely cover, we are in the country. Where Georgette Heyer has taken Jane Austen’s famous (apparently) advice the 3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on.
As can also be seen on the cover, the Nonesuch, Sir Waldo Hawkridge is the leader of – the Top-of-the-Trees – Corinthians. Renowned for their horse-riding and carriage driving skills and whip wielding finesse. When he inherits from a distant relative (another irascible old man) a property in the village of Oversett in the West Riding he immediately sets forth. Thus setting the locals agog with curiosity. The local squire thinks the silly young greenheads in the Shire with break their necks trying to outdo their precious Nonesuch.
So it turns out that Sir Waldo’s descent on the little village turns the local upside down. There is of course a young beauty, self-centred and narcissistic but used to having every male around fall at her feet. There is the demure daughter of the Vicar, reasonably good looking but good-hearted as well. And there is Miss Ancilla Trent, a gentlewoman who has decided to make her own way in the world so as not to be a burden on her family which as fallen on hard times. Wise, observant and responsible.
It’s pretty easy to predict how all this is going to end up but it is fun getting there. Sir Waldo has two relatives who also descend on the village. His good-hearted but impressionable young nephew who takes one look at the beauty and loses his head. A rogue of a cousin intent on extracting money from the more fortunate Nonesuch.
Sensible Sir Waldo sees through our young beauty but seeks to draw her away from his young nephew. Shopping and sight-seeing excursions – along the lines of the one s to be found in Jane Austen’s novels – gradually reveal the true nature of both the beauty and the vicar’s daughter.
Things seem to be going swimmingly until the good-hearted nephew puts a spoke in the wheel of fortune. Reminded me of Wally Curran’s oft repeated the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
Amidst confusion and mayhem true love finds its path. Unexpectedly helped along by the mercenary cousin.
More good fun, but I agree with Kloester that this is one of Heyer’s quiet novels.
The Black Sheep, 1966
Awful blurb but not a bad cover on this ebook. I’m surprised Mother didn’t have this in her collection which is why I had to resort to Amazon. Unfortunately doing so means I’ve buggered up the algorithm that I used to offer up all sorts of interesting things. Now I’m going to get reams of romantic novels. I don’t mid getting Heyer even though she wrote so many. The others look unspeakable!
Kloester says this novel was prompted by a story heard at a dinner party about a difficult son sent to Australia who returned grown up and with a fortune. I misread that and thought the character in the novel had been sent to Australia but it was not so.
Miles Caverleigh has returned to Bath from India where he was sent after a failed elopement which was subsequently hushed up by families on both sides.
Miss Abigail has returned from London where she has been helping one of her married sisters deal with an outbreak of measles. She has been prevailed upon while there to take care that her young niece does not succumb to a fortune-hunting young suitor. Who just happens to be the nephew of Miles Caverleigh – although neither has met the other.
The niece is the orphaned heiress Fanny, very young, very romantic, who has indeed come under the sway of the young Mr Caverleigh. She has been under the care of Miss Abigail and her much older sister Miss Selina since she was two years old.
Miles Caverleigh is what Georgette described as the New Model Heyer-Hero and she said she had a lot of fun with him. I’m not so sure how new he is. Not handsome, with a sunburned rugged face from being out in the sub-continent. Careless of both clothes and high society manners. He nevertheless has extremely long legs that he’s forever stretching out in front of him! And is fetchingly straightforward in his language and intentions.
It doesn’t take long for him to fall for the heroine, and for her to be troublingly attracted to him. The issue that predominates throughout the novel is what is to become of the beautiful heiress?
Mr Miles Caverleigh is resistant to all attempts to enlist his aid. He is more taken up with trying to get Miss Abigail to step out from the oppressive social rules that govern the behaviour of single females in Bath’s high society. Gossip ensues when she dares accept an invitation to attend a theatre performance alone with him!
Having achieved this victory he disappears from Bath for a period. While he’s away ill-health interferes with a planned elopement and a mysterious new arrival to the Bath social scene sets the gossips talking.
Miss Windover’s family loyalties are another impediment to be countered should anyone wish to whisk her away into matrimony. She has a strong sense of responsibility to both her older sister and to her niece. And has no intention of leaving either in the lurch.
In fact family relations run through this novel in all sorts of ways. The senior Mr Careleigh will have no truck with family ties, not surprising given he was cast off by them. His nephew is attached to what name and a family pile in the country will provide to support his high living lifestyle. He is appalled by Miles’ lack of sentimentality towards his blood relations.
Windhover family history is explored at length; uncovering a long suspected skeleton in the closet. Relations between brothers and sisters, husbands and wives are explored. There’s not as much humour in this story as in many of the others. And not so many complications.
However I did love the ending, when Mr Miles Caverleigh intuits the best way to deal with the obstacles that arise.
Sylvester, 1957
I was surprised at not being able to find this in Mum’s collection. Maybe I misplaced it. Anyway this is another I had to get as an ebook from Amazon. Look at this unspeakably awful cover. Apparently the Netflix series Bridgerton has re-ignited interest in these novels. According to Kloester and their publication history interest in them has never flagged. Whatever, I hate this cover!
I remember very clearly that I’d read and enjoyed this novel, but apart from that could recall nothing! And nothing returned to me during the reading – unlike my re-reading of The Devil’s Cub. I also didn’t know it had an alternative title, The Wicked Uncle – not as good as Silvester.
But my second reading confirms that this is one of my favourite Heyer novels. It is satisfyingly complicated with lots of peripheral characters who are great fun.
We start with the very proper Silvester, Duke of Salford surveying his domain and satisfied with what he sees. He is a very proper Duke, treating everyone around him with the correct amount of curtesy and politeness. He is the guardian of his late twin brother’s son, Edmund, now aged six and much beloved. Much to the chagrin of the little fellow’s flighty mother Ianthe, Lady Henry Rayne.
The story proper starts with him conversing with his mother, a wonderful character, wise and fore-bearing. Also an author of verses, published anonymously but of course knowledge of the authoress soon leaked.
Her son advises he thinks it time he was married; it is his duty to do so. He has considered, in his usual quietly correct manner, just the sorts of attributes he desires in a wife – well-born, intelligent, not a great beauty but some countenance, and elegance. He has selected five candidates. His mother wisely refuses to give an opinion as to who should be preferred. She advises him to wait until he has fallen in love. Shock horror!
And so the scene is set. We know that whatever else is going to happen none of these five are likely to get to the alter. However Mama did once have a favourite; the daughter of her dear friend Verena and Lord Marlow, granddaughter to the Lady Ingham, his Lordships godmother.
The same conversation with his godmother leads to her blunt advice to marry Phoebe Marlowe which sets the good Duke’s back up. He likes more finesse in these matters; a discreet looking over from a distance is what he had in mind. Which is why he accepted an invitation to Lord Marlowe’s house at Austerby to check out a horse.
Unfortunately the household was told he was coming to make an offer for Phoebe. Which did not have quite the effect Silvester might have thought had he considered the matter at all. What follows is a series of events that pile up against each other until the whole course of events seems to be completely out of control
Phoebe is a great horse-woman and an author to boot. She has come out in London, to no great effect, except for her sharp observation of the characters all around her. Including an imperious looking Duke, notable for oddly shaped eye-brows that go up at the ends giving him a somewhat scary countenance. And an individual one. Encouraged by her governess she has written a novel, The Lost Heir, starring an evil Duke Ugolino who makes away with his young nephew. The Duke has an arresting countenance notable for the odd slant of his eyebrows. It is a matter of great joy in the school room when the governess’s cousin agrees to publish it.
All of this precedes the visit by their distinguished guest. A visit which goes as disastrously wrong as it possibly could. In the event Phoebe is intent on flight and enlists the aid of her good friend and neighbour Tom Orde, the son of the Master of the Hunt and another whizz with horses.
Weather intervenes; the combination of snow and a donkey hinder the runaways. A homely local inn plays host to an assemblage of characters. Phoebe’s skill at mimicry is noted. By and by our young people reach London where the young Phoebe blossoms in the care of her grandmother.
The only fly in the ointment is her novel. She tries to get it suppressed, without success. Upon publication it becomes the talk of the town. Who can the author be? As with the Duke’s mothers writing it is soon discovered. Disgrace threatens. A flight to France is arranged but hijacked by the good Lady Ianthe who is taking a leaf out of the damnable book. With her husband SIr Nugent – a foolish Ferdy lite character – she is intent on abducting the young Edmond. Phoebe and Tom attempt a rescue. Things don’t go according to plan.
And so it goes. Lots of hi jinx, lots of humour, lots of plain speaking, lots of opportunities for Silvester to be jolted out of his calm self-assurance. In the final pages we see him call in on his wise old mother again and a very different conversation ensues.
Thoroughly recommended.
Meredith says
Crazy stuff. Thankyou for revisiting these regency treats for us Jenny. Your reviews are as witty as Ms heyer’s romps. I love the covers of your mum’s editions and your intrepid attempts to circumnavigate the convoluted plots without spoilers.