What a delightful book.
Somehow I made it to this point in my life without reading any Heyer, and it was clearly time to remedy that. I went into this book knowing that it was a foundational text in terms of regency romance tropes and plots and characters, and it was so lovely reading it and seeing exactly how and why it works so well, now and then.
The titular Sophy returns to England from many years on the Continent to stay with her aunt's family while her father travels to Brazil. Her mother died many years ago and she had been on her own, more or less, from a young age, and has the desire to break lots of rules and the charm and intelligence to pull it off. She completely takes over the household and manages to break some engagements and create others, and by the end of the book everyone is happier and better off for it. She is a truly wonderful character.
The one caveat about this book is that it was written in 1950 and is set during 1816, and it includes a plot point involving a Jewish moneylender which is historically accurate in terms of characters' views at the time but which also took me aback. I wouldn't recommend not reading it because of it, but there is definitely no softening or omission of antisemitism in England during the Regency in this book. Even with that plot point, I enjoyed this book immensely though. It was the perfect vacation read.
Grade: A
Somehow I made it to this point in my life without reading any Heyer, and it was clearly time to remedy that. I went into this book knowing that it was a foundational text in terms of regency romance tropes and plots and characters, and it was so lovely reading it and seeing exactly how and why it works so well, now and then.
The titular Sophy returns to England from many years on the Continent to stay with her aunt's family while her father travels to Brazil. Her mother died many years ago and she had been on her own, more or less, from a young age, and has the desire to break lots of rules and the charm and intelligence to pull it off. She completely takes over the household and manages to break some engagements and create others, and by the end of the book everyone is happier and better off for it. She is a truly wonderful character.
The one caveat about this book is that it was written in 1950 and is set during 1816, and it includes a plot point involving a Jewish moneylender which is historically accurate in terms of characters' views at the time but which also took me aback. I wouldn't recommend not reading it because of it, but there is definitely no softening or omission of antisemitism in England during the Regency in this book. Even with that plot point, I enjoyed this book immensely though. It was the perfect vacation read.
Grade: A
No comments:
Post a Comment