The Unknown Ajax

by Georgette Heyer (read by Daniel Philpott) c. 1959

an annual re-read

Never assume

When Major Hugo Darracott's father married a "weaver' brat" he was disowned. Hugo was born and raised in Yorkshire, schooled at Harrow, joined the Army, fought in the Peninsula and later resigned his commission. When the heir apparent to the Darracott title (and estates) and his son both die suddenly, Hugo is next in line. Grandfather Darracott summons him home to meet the family, marry his cousin Anthea and start learning about the estate he will soon inherit. Son of a "weaver's brat," the family expected a loutish country bumpkin -- and that is exactly who sat down to dinner that first evening. His Yorkshire accent was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

The book floats along on a river of misconceptions about the Heyero, who uses the family's own snobbery to learn more about them than they learn of him. This doesn't bother me. Heyer has gone this route before and her humor shines through. Such as in the scene between to the two valets Crimplesham and Polyphant. But the best scene of all is the final act, in which she describes in detail, sometimes hilarious, how Hugo saves a member of the family after he is shot by troopers trying to catch a band of smugglers. I read this book always in anticipation of this scene.

With a simple plot and a lot of embroidery to fancy it up, The Unknown Ajax is as much about Heyer's Regency world as it is the romance of Hugo and Anthea.

Four stars because the book is so subtle and delightful. It's not about the getting there as quickly as you can but about enjoying the scenery along the way.

 

The Toll Gate

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Daniel Hill ) c. 1954

an annual re-read

 

 

 

 

 

More mystery than romance

I like this one. I like the characters -- both the romantic leads and the entire cast of secondary characters. I like the setting -- a bit outside the normal "life among the titled gentry" as it is set at a wayside toll gate in the middle of nowhere. I like the dark, gloomy atmosphere; there is not a lot of sunlight, warmth, bright colors and happy people in this tale. I like that the romance takes a backseat to the mystery.  In other words, I like everything about this very entertaining read.

Not quite four stars.

 

P.S. Terrible cover for a story that is anything but light and bright.

The Talisman Ring

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Phyllida Nash ) c. 1936

an annual re-read

 

 

Jealousy runs in the family

 

Wrongly accused and on the run, heir to the title Ludovic Lavenham must find the signet ring that will prove his innocence -- and fall in love with the ingenue along the way. 

I love when Heyer combines a mystery to be solved with a budding romance, or two.  This one has all the hallmarks of a GH romance -- melodrama, quirky secondary characters, laugh out loud dialogue -- with enough twists and turns in the mystery to entertain a broad audience of readers.

Not quite 4 stars

 

 

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Nicholas Rowe) c. 1957

an annual re-read

 

 

 

The Duke of Salford grows up

Sylvester, Duke of Salford, is a 30 year-old arrogant prig of the first stare. OMG is he self-important. He has decided it is time to get married. So he draws up a list of 5 names, of women he has never met and consults his mother as to which one he should marry. Fortunately, it is all up-hill from there. Miss Phoebe Marlow pulls the rug out from under him, teaches him a thing or two about life in the real world and they live happily ever after.

Sylvester also gives of one us one of my favorite secondary characters: Sir Nugent Fotherby, a very rich fop with very opulent taste --and very unlikeable. I group him with Sir Bonamy Ripple (False Colours), Robert Barham (Masqueraders) and Mr. Jonathan Chawleigh (A Civil Contract), older gentlemen, a bit rotund, outlandishly dressed, without financial worries, who give some comic relief to the story.

Four stars for a most entertaining and enjoyable romp. 

 

And, yes the cover is an abomination. For a book set in Regency England, the use of photography is an anachronism and entirely off-putting.

Sprig Muslin

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Sian Phillips) c. 1956

an annual re-read

 

 

Sprig muslin: a fine white cotton fabric embroidered or woven with a pattern

 

 

Sometimes it is interesting to me to delve into the titles that Heyer chooses for her books. Cotillion and Black Sheep are two of my favorite title choices but Sprig Muslin is another one that is fun to explore.  Sprig muslin was a popular fabric starting in the early 1800s and used mostly for daytime wear. It is not as luxurious as silk, satin or brocade and therefore more suitable to young un-married women.

The book centers around a schoolroom miss who has runway from home because her grandfather won't let her marry the man of her choice.  Sprig muslin was worn by young women, especially unmarried women, so as a title it very quickly indicates that this story centers around a young woman of marriageable age. But Amanda lived in her own little fantasy world where the truth was, shall we say, flexible. In other words, she embroidered her stories, to deflect the truth, to get her own way or just because she like the way it sounded.  Spring muslin is a light-hearted fabric and so is this story.

Almost four stars. 

 

PS The cover choice for this audio edition is terrible. This book does not take place in Bath or any other city or town.

 

Arthur Barbosa, artist on the first edition covers, is the winner time after time as far as I am concerned..

 

The Reluctant Widow

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Cornelius Garrett )

an annual re-read

 

 

 

 

"It's the outside of enough"

Oh, I do so enjoy this story. It is so much fun even though it is a romantic mystery.  Once again, it is the secondary characters that are the icing on the cake -- the hero's younger brother and his very obedient dog, the bad guys, the old nanny.

Poor Elinor Rochdale, orphaned without an inheritance or relatives to who she might turn, makes her living as governess, which was really a thankless job.  As she is heading to her new posting, there is a bit of a mix-up when she gets off the mail coach in a remote village late one afternoon and she ends up at the wrong house and then reluctantly into a death-bed marriage and widowhood all within a dozen or so hours.  The rest of the book deals with the mystery that the dearly-departed was involved in and the slow development of the relationship between Elinor and Lord Carlyon, the man responsible for pushing her into the death-bed marriage. 

Almost four stars.

Halloween Bingo: Romantic Mystery

Regency Buck

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by June Barrie ) c. 1935

annual re-read

 

 

Regency Buck was Heyer's first  foray into the Regency period but with over a dozen books behind her, it was a smooth transition. 

With complete disregard for her guardian's wishes,  wealthy and still under-aged Miss Judith Taverner travels to London to take her place in society. When she finally meets her guardian in person, Lord Worth is not the sexagenarian friend of her late father  she had expected to be meet but his son.  Still, that doesn't stop Miss Taverner from taking the town by storm nor from ignoring most of the rules of proper behavior that a debutante is expected to follow. She drives her own  carriage and is anything but a shy, retiring young woman. She is intelligent and independent minded in a period of time when young women were anything but.  Meanwhile, Lord Worth is trying to protect her from those who are trying to marry her for her money, especially one young man who has more than marriage in mind, without telling her what he is doing and why. What is it about these strong silent types who think they know more than everyone else and don't have to share what is on their mind?

If I were to finally make an ordered list of my favorite  GH titles, RB would not fall into the Top-10.  It is not a bad story but Lord Worth just does not do it for me.  While it is obvious that he is quite taken by her, I can't understand a hero who would not be forthright  with his lady-love and tell her what is going on.  Of course, then there would be no story and no mystery to solve, so I am just back to square one: having to put up with an annoying  hero. C'est la vie.

So three and half stars for this one.

The Quiet Gentleman

 

by Georgette Heyer (read by Cornelius Garrett)

No longer available on Audible 

 

 

 

Someone is trying to bump off the *Heyero

Gervase Frant, heir to Stanyon Castle and the family title, was pretty much disowned by his father, for no fault of his own. Now Pop has died and Gervase has returned from the war to assume his rightful place as head of the family, owner of Stanyon Castle and Earl of St. Erth.    But, someone is out to kill him and St. Erth has to figure out who and why. The book was written and published as a Regency Romance (a genre created by Heyer, who has been imitated but never equaled), so all of this intrigue is sprinkled among the budding romances and the merry dance of who will end up with whom.

Heyer is known for her secondary characters and in this tale , Gervase's valet/former batman  and his stepmother are the two stand-outs. I just love the valet's  Spanglish-- his blue collar, for want of a better word, English mixed with words and phrases picked up  on campaign in Spain (somewhat in the mode of the educated nobility and gentility littering  their speech with Gallicisms). Stepmother is the quintessential  Heyer dowager.

The Quiet Gentleman is one of a handful of Heyer Regencies that mixes romance and intrigue .

Not quite four star Heyer.

Definitely a contender for Halloween bingo:  Genre: Mystery, Cozy Mystery,  Murder Most Foul,Romantic Suspense

*  A fandom conflation of Heyer and hero.  There are also Heyeroines.

Frederica

 

By Georgette Heyer (read by Clifford Norgate)

The jaded and bored Marquess finds his she-marquess.

While the title of the book is Frederica, this story is more about the hero, the Marquess of Alverstoke, who at the age of 37 had given up on love and marriage. He was a prize in the marriage sweepstakes -- money and a title -- but had no interesting in marrying anyone who was only after either of them. He could spot them a mile away. Then, he met Frederica, who was looking for neither. In fact, she had only sought out her distant cousin so that his wife could help her and her sister, Charys, navigate the London social season; imagine her surprise when Alverstoke said he wasn't married. And that was the meet-cute.

The story takes off when Alverstoke sees what a beauty Charys is and decides to use it to get a bit of revenge on his widowed sister who has asked him to give (and pay for) a ball in his niece's honor to launch her into society. Add a few more secondary characters into the story -- some school boy siblings, the heir to the Alverstoke title, some unwanted suitors --and you have a classic Georgette Heyer Regency romance. And they all live happily ever after.

Written barely 10 years before her death and in the fifth decade of her career, Heyer has long since hit her stride as an author. She has long since set the parameters of the genre that she is credited with inventing, the regency romance, and now she is knocking it out of that park time after time.

This is one of her best. Four and a half stars.

The Foundling

 

Georgette Heyer (read by Phyllida Nash)

 

The Foundling is the adventures of the orphaned at birth, young Duke of Sales, who manages to escape the loving and well-intentioned bonds of his family and retinue in order to prove to himself and his family that he has reached maturity and is quite capable of taking care of himself and his dukedom. It is absurd and most entertaining, in a word, a farce. Pure escapism. Nobody does this kind of historical fiction with the same eclat, the same sense of humor and same writing talent as Georgette Heyer. 

 

Four stars and a bit, because it is laugh out loud funny.