I Read Books: The Reluctant Widow
Georgette Heyer created the Regency Romance genre as much as anyone did with her historical novels. However the books don’t know they are Regency Romances because, of course, what a Regency Romance is had not yet been defined. Which is why this novel is at least as interested in the plans stolen by French agents as the relationship between the principles, and perhaps even more interested in another character entirely.
Elinor Rochdale is on her way to be a governess when a mix-up brings her to Lord Carlyon. Lord Carlyon is looking for someone to marry his dissolute cousin Eustace Cheviot, so that he (Lord Carlyon) won’t inherit Cheviot’s estate. The family relationship is complicated. Then news arrives that Carlyon’s brother has stabbed Cheviot and he’s going to die, and the marriage takes place almost before Elinor can catch breath.
Left in charge of Cheviot’s dilapidated house there’s several chapters of people turning up to explain the family backstory, and maybe offer their condolences. Eventually Francis Cheviot, the dandiest of Regency dandys, turns up for the funeral, and the novel regains its momentum and fun, as they suspect he too is after the stolen plans that Cheviot was going to sell to Napoleon to cover his debts and maybe his uncle’s debts too.
Anyway with this things move rapidly to a conclusion, and SPOILERS two people who have been antagonising each other throughout the novel agree to get married.
Read This: For a fun, crazy novel about French spies and weird 18th century inheritance.
Don’t Read This: If you hate it when the most interesting character doesn’t turn up until well over halfway through the story.
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