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The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer 9780099474425 Books

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The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer 9780099474425 Books

What a fun book! A joy to read, and it moves at a fast clip. Only last week I posted a review of one of Heyer’s most thoughtful novels, A Civil Contract. But there’s nothing dark or complex about The Convenient Marriage, only romance, gambling, swordplay and contentious mix-ups in the fashionable world. Be aware this isn’t a Regency. It’s one of her so-called Georgian novels, taking place during the American Revolution, though it very much has the texture of one of her Regencies, particularly in the sparkling dialog. It’s one of her early works, published in 1934 during a burst of creative output. I think it’s what the critics of her day would have called “a frothy confection,” and good for them, because that’s what it is.

It opens with a small family catastrophe. The lovely and level-headed Elizabeth Winwood, eldest of three daughters, has received an offer of marriage from Marcus Drelincourt, the Earl of Rule, an offer she knows her financially-strapped family can’t turn down. Unfortunately, she’s deeply in love with a young army captain named Edward Heron. Heyer never bogs down the story with a lot of reasons for the proposal – Rule knows it’s past time to marry, a thing his sister Louisa is pressing him to do, and the Winwoods are the family his parents had expected him to marry into. Elizabeth’s younger sister, Charlotte, is much like her, though she has no desire to marry. The youngest, Horatia, at seventeen, is nothing like her sisters, either in appearance or temperament, being more like her dippy brother, Viscount Winwood. She shares with her brother the “Winwood curse,” a fatal attraction to gambling, the most common amusement in the period. Though she may be a bit of a flake, and she may have a bit of a stammer, she’s also honest, loyal and loving. And headstrong, which compels her to ignore all the family hand-wringing and solve the problem herself. She simply goes to Rule, who’s never met her, and asks politely if he wouldn’t be just as happy to marry her instead. This opening scene between them is priceless, and it sets the stage beautifully, since Rule is captivated by her, while Horatia can’t quite figure out why anyone who had an offer from Rule would marry someone else.

I absolutely loved the character of Lord Rule, and much that’s funny in this book comes from the younger, flakier characters trying to put one over on him. He’s so level and unruffled he becomes something of a parental figure, not only for his wife but her dim-bulb, handsome brother, his friends, Captain Heron, the earl’s cousins and just about everyone else who quakes in their boots at the thought of getting on his bad side. And he does have a bad side, particularly when his family is threatened. Although, as the story progresses, getting him angry seems to be something Horry can’t manage to do, no matter how outrageous her behavior as she tries to find her feet at the start of their marriage, navigating the dangers of becoming fashionable, as well as the traps set for her by older and more sophisticated members of the ton who have some dark axes to grind where Rule is concerned. Marcus Drelincourt is one of what Heyer called her Mark II heroes, handsome, a little older, mid-thirties in his case, enigmatic and a bit disdainful, watching the passing parade with amusement. Rule has what’s often described as a sleepy appearance; for sleepy, read “bored,” yet not in a nasty or unpleasant way. In fact he’s a nice man, open-handed with money, kind to employees and all that. He’s just not particularly driven towards anything, until Horatia Winwood appears on scene.

Like Avon in These Old Shades, Rule feels he can give Horatia a good life, but he also thinks he’s probably too old for her, and that she couldn’t love him on that account. Remember that love in a marriage wasn’t a necessity at that time; it was only a happy accident if you got it. Heyer never wrote sex scenes of course, but she handles the sexual issues very adroitly in this book, and it’s implied that Rule never presses his young wife for anything she doesn’t want to give. He stands back, indulges her incessantly, and patiently waits for her to decide how she feels about him.

A good deal of the playfulness in this book is in the character of the young Viscount Winwood, particularly when he, his best friend Sir Roland Pommeroy and Captain Heron set out to get Horatia out of a jam over a lost brooch, a Drelincourt family heirloom that figures prominently in an attempt by one of Rule’s enemies to destroy her reputation. No one ever wrote funnier dialog between young and none-too-bright aristocrats – shades of Friday’s Child! Heyer herself said the young viscount, Sherry, in Friday’s Child is a retread of Winwood, and it plays just as well as the dizzy antics of Sherry, Gil and Ferdy, laugh-out-loud funny. It all, of course, comes to a happy ending, an absolutely delightful one. This would make a great first Heyer, I think, but if you’re a fan, don’t miss this lesser-known and light-hearted story.


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The Convenient Marriage Georgette Heyer 9780099474425 Books Reviews

As other reviewers have said, this is not a standard Heyer , neither a mystery , nor certainly, a romance. It is psychological study rather than anything else,and quite timeless in the sense that it might, except for few details of cars and telephones etc have been set at any time. Though perhaps not many modern families would be so immobilised by the tyrannies of a patriarch such as Adam Penhallow. Then again, many women and children perforce stay in seemingly intolerable situation due to just such tyranny as Penhallow wields.

I have always thought highly of GH's ability to create a character, some of which, indeed, I have hated for their revolting class attitudes etc ( eg Death In The Stocks) but Penhallow is an absolute tour de force of character creation. Everybody, likable or more likely , highly unlikable is somehow believable , even though there is more than a touch of Cold Comfort Farm here and there. You find yourself thinking things like 'oh no, how is Aubrey going to handle this', or 'no doubt Clay will stuff this up, he's bound to say exactly the wrong thing' . Or even 'hmm, that's not like Vivien'. Perhaps towards the end there are relationship aspects between major characters which were not made as evident as they might be, but really, that a minor quibble.

The pyschological tapestry is, to my mind, most excellently crafted and the states of mind of the major players, though convoluted and irrational in places, actually makes perfect sense given their situations and characters. It's a sad, emotionally violent, dark book with no neat ending but my goodness, its a good read from start to finish!!!
I've read just about all of Georgette Heyer's books in the past, but now I am rereading them—not for the stories this time, but for sheer enjoyment of dialogue and turn-of-phrase. "The Convenient Marriage" never was one of my favorites as to plot, involving as it does a marriage between an ingenue and an older man, but I found it amusing just the same, There aren't many authors who produce the gentle, humorous kind of novel that appeals to me, but Heyer almost always manages to please.
Georgette Heyer's mysteries have interesting characters and some humor without the total silliness of her Regency Romances. I am not a good judge of how well the mystery is planned, since I tend to get more caught up in the characters, how the dialog is handled and if they stay in character, rather than plot twists. Her dialog was usually clever and moved the story along quite well. It did seem that the most unlikely person turned out to be the villain most of the time, but she kept adding some fresh concepts to the stories and I just wish she had written more mysteries and less romance novels.
I have enjoyed most of Georgette Heyer's mysteries, but this one is a little strange. There is no resolution. I can guess her objective in writing the story but felt it needed a warning for those who might be undecided about whether to purchase it or not. Be aware that the murder is never solved and the story just ends with some speculation about how the characters will get on with their lives. If she wanted to show that the police do not always solve a crime then she succeeded. If she wanted to show the results of a crazy, manipulative patriarch on his financially dependent and dysfunctional children, then she succeeded. Go ahead and read the book. She sets up the situation well and the quality of the writing is professional. Just do not expect your typical, police procedural ending.
What a fun book! A joy to read, and it moves at a fast clip. Only last week I posted a review of one of Heyer’s most thoughtful novels, A Civil Contract. But there’s nothing dark or complex about The Convenient Marriage, only romance, gambling, swordplay and contentious mix-ups in the fashionable world. Be aware this isn’t a Regency. It’s one of her so-called Georgian novels, taking place during the American Revolution, though it very much has the texture of one of her Regencies, particularly in the sparkling dialog. It’s one of her early works, published in 1934 during a burst of creative output. I think it’s what the critics of her day would have called “a frothy confection,” and good for them, because that’s what it is.

It opens with a small family catastrophe. The lovely and level-headed Elizabeth Winwood, eldest of three daughters, has received an offer of marriage from Marcus Drelincourt, the Earl of Rule, an offer she knows her financially-strapped family can’t turn down. Unfortunately, she’s deeply in love with a young army captain named Edward Heron. Heyer never bogs down the story with a lot of reasons for the proposal – Rule knows it’s past time to marry, a thing his sister Louisa is pressing him to do, and the Winwoods are the family his parents had expected him to marry into. Elizabeth’s younger sister, Charlotte, is much like her, though she has no desire to marry. The youngest, Horatia, at seventeen, is nothing like her sisters, either in appearance or temperament, being more like her dippy brother, Viscount Winwood. She shares with her brother the “Winwood curse,” a fatal attraction to gambling, the most common amusement in the period. Though she may be a bit of a flake, and she may have a bit of a stammer, she’s also honest, loyal and loving. And headstrong, which compels her to ignore all the family hand-wringing and solve the problem herself. She simply goes to Rule, who’s never met her, and asks politely if he wouldn’t be just as happy to marry her instead. This opening scene between them is priceless, and it sets the stage beautifully, since Rule is captivated by her, while Horatia can’t quite figure out why anyone who had an offer from Rule would marry someone else.

I absolutely loved the character of Lord Rule, and much that’s funny in this book comes from the younger, flakier characters trying to put one over on him. He’s so level and unruffled he becomes something of a parental figure, not only for his wife but her dim-bulb, handsome brother, his friends, Captain Heron, the earl’s cousins and just about everyone else who quakes in their boots at the thought of getting on his bad side. And he does have a bad side, particularly when his family is threatened. Although, as the story progresses, getting him angry seems to be something Horry can’t manage to do, no matter how outrageous her behavior as she tries to find her feet at the start of their marriage, navigating the dangers of becoming fashionable, as well as the traps set for her by older and more sophisticated members of the ton who have some dark axes to grind where Rule is concerned. Marcus Drelincourt is one of what Heyer called her Mark II heroes, handsome, a little older, mid-thirties in his case, enigmatic and a bit disdainful, watching the passing parade with amusement. Rule has what’s often described as a sleepy appearance; for sleepy, read “bored,” yet not in a nasty or unpleasant way. In fact he’s a nice man, open-handed with money, kind to employees and all that. He’s just not particularly driven towards anything, until Horatia Winwood appears on scene.

Like Avon in These Old Shades, Rule feels he can give Horatia a good life, but he also thinks he’s probably too old for her, and that she couldn’t love him on that account. Remember that love in a marriage wasn’t a necessity at that time; it was only a happy accident if you got it. Heyer never wrote sex scenes of course, but she handles the sexual issues very adroitly in this book, and it’s implied that Rule never presses his young wife for anything she doesn’t want to give. He stands back, indulges her incessantly, and patiently waits for her to decide how she feels about him.

A good deal of the playfulness in this book is in the character of the young Viscount Winwood, particularly when he, his best friend Sir Roland Pommeroy and Captain Heron set out to get Horatia out of a jam over a lost brooch, a Drelincourt family heirloom that figures prominently in an attempt by one of Rule’s enemies to destroy her reputation. No one ever wrote funnier dialog between young and none-too-bright aristocrats – shades of Friday’s Child! Heyer herself said the young viscount, Sherry, in Friday’s Child is a retread of Winwood, and it plays just as well as the dizzy antics of Sherry, Gil and Ferdy, laugh-out-loud funny. It all, of course, comes to a happy ending, an absolutely delightful one. This would make a great first Heyer, I think, but if you’re a fan, don’t miss this lesser-known and light-hearted story.