Sylvester

** spoiler alert ** Sylvester felt to me decidedly different from other Heyers in certain ways. I felt like we were repeatedly made to face the flaw of our hero, the flaw being pride, and at the same time that we actually got to hear a lot of the hero's thoughts for a change which made things interesting! Apparently Sylvester was originally called Snowbound and Heyer said of it "It could and should have been better. And it was better until I got cold feet, and cut out what wouldn't please the Fans". But I liked Sylvester a lot and am now wishing so much that we could have found out in what ways she had meant to make it better!? Apparently she cut a lot of it because it was getting too long which is so sad! What I find interesting about Heyers books are that sometimes the set up of some books are the same but she decides to make the plot go in one direction for one book and another for some other book. Take Friday's Child for example: Sherry is all prepared to marry the Incomparable but he gets rejected and in a fit of pique decides that he shall instead marry the first girl he sees who tunrs out to be Hero, a childhood friend of his who need to escape the evils of her awkward position. So when we see Phoebe Marlow escaping with her childhood friend Tom in order to escape receiving addresses from Sylvester I was reminded a lot of that book but knew that things would turn out quite differently in this one and liked seeing things from a different angle. Sylvester is about the Duke of Salford who alarms his mother by saying matter of factly to her that he thinks it is time to get married and he has five women in mind and she should pick one. Sylvester isn't a romantic at all. Hearing that Phoebe is the daughter of his mother's dear friend he adds her to the list and decides to see if she is suitable or not. However Miss Marlow doesn't wish at all to be proposed to by a man she has cast as the villainous Count Ugolino in her roman à clef novel and decides that running away is the only way to avoid the situation, something which her childhood friend Tom decides to assist her in. Of course they did not count on their journey falling into a disaster which Sylvester chances to rescue them from. As always Heyer's characters are utterly delightful be it because of how adorable they are or deplorable. I love Tom as the wonderfully faithful friend and it is so nice to see a deep, platonic friendship between the heroine and a male character. Besides Phoebe and Tom are SO similar in the way they think sometimes - I found it utterly hilarious how they both continually puncture Sylvester's pride by their eloquent looks and sardonic set-downs. Sylvester's mother was wonderful as an intelligent poetess who intervenes to bring the story to its happy conclusion and I like the Dowager and her schemes to bring Phoebe and Sylvester together. And I cannot not marvel at the dandiest of dandies - Sir Nugent. The last half of the book would suffer a lot from his absence because he brought the humour to the already wonderful wit the novel had. Edmund and his constant quarrels with Nugent were the perfect blend of comedy and absurdity especially since Sir Nugent constantly felt the need to argue the point with a kid!! Just thinking about the Button incident or the Tassled Boots catastrophe puts me into a fit of giggles. Phoebe, the heroine, was wonderfully written as a writer who has a knack for caricatures and who has a strong sense of empathy and is a keen judge of character - I liked that she guessed Sylvester's plan of making her fall in love with him because his ego had been bruised by her refusal even when as he thought of it. Finally, I really enjoyed seeing Sylvester's journey from one who thinks a lot about his position and what it is owed (though not in a mean way) to someone who learns to also think about other people, be a little more warmer and genuine in his interactions and someone who finds it in his heart to heal the pain that was left by the death of his twin brother. I really liked the whole conclusion where Sylvester makes a mess of things with Phoebe and confesses the whole to his mother who then helps bring about a reconciliation.

I had never read a Georgette Heyer before - but have Garth Nix to thank for the experience. He came to our school last year and when I got on the topic of favorite books (as I quiz all visiting literary dignitaries), he mentioned her (and pointed me to his online list - Books Remembered - making it clear not all her books are the same. So I bought a few of his recommendations for our library shelves. As escapist and entertaining as watching "Downton Abbey".....

3.5 stars. It is completely possible that Regency romance is a genre I will explore more in depth in the future. Now, however, is not that time, so the fact that remains is that I chose to listen to this just to have Richard Armitage relate tales of romance into my keen ear. And I am not ashamed. It was an immensely enjoyable experience for that fact alone. He did a pretty good job with all the voices, even the female ones, and I was thoroughly impressed. The story itself was actually pretty good too. I'll admit that I was a little bit hesitant at first, because it seemed to be a book that I would put on my to-read list with the intention of reading it some day, but would never actually get around to. But because of their excellent choice of narrator, I did. It brings me hope that I will also like Jane Austen novels as well, since Georgette Heyer's books are often compared to Jane's. Georgette has written a couple other books that Richard Armitage has also narrated, but this one sounded the most interesting. I do think if I had paid a bit more attention (I zoned out a considerable amount in the middle and near the end), the story would have flowed much nicer, so I am here to say that because of my own choices, the reading/listening experience was not actually all that it could be. But anyway, I did enjoy the bits I paid attention to, and I would definitely be open to reading more of Georgette's books in the future. Especially if Richard Armitage was narrating them.