Monday, January 14, 2013

The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

Title: The Grand Sophy
Author: Georgette Heyer
Paperback: 372 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published date: 1950/2009
FTC: Won from either Jane Austen's World or Jane Austen Today - both fun blogs


I read this book over the holiday season just like my last non-serious read.  I was just in the mood for light reads.  When you are in that type of mood you can't go wrong with Georgette Heyer.  The Grand Sophy is one of her Regency romance books and if you enjoy a Jane Austen-esque type of book you must check her out.  This is my second Georgette Heyer book (my review of These Old Shades) and I think the next time I pick one of her books up I'm going to try one of her historical fictions.


Back of the book:

The Grand Sophy has arrived.  And when Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on Diplomatic Business he parks his only daughter, Sophy, with his sister in Berkeley Square. Sophy can immediately see that her cousins are in a sad tangle: Charles is engaged to a bluestocking, and Cecelia's in love with a poet of all things. It seems Sophy has gotten there just in time...

And the Hon. Charles Rivenhall's life will never be the same.  While Sophy is going to outrageous lengths to solve everyone else's problems, she finds that she herself might have some big surprises in store.

The Grand Sophy is one of Heyer's most beloved heroines.

My thoughts:

I think it would be hard not to have fun with a Georgette Heyer novel.  I can see why the blurb on the back said that Sophy is one of Heyer's most beloved heroines.  She has so much spunk and spark and plans up elaborate schemes to get everyone to be where they need to be - happy and in love.  Aww.

You obviously don't go into a Heyer novel expecting intricate plotlines or award winning writing. But like Jane Austen, there is a ton of subtle jabs and wit that make you smile and outright laugh as you read.  I also enjoyed the characters that the siblings where obviously not supposed to be with.  They were so annoyingly irritating to be extremely hilarious.

Heyer also must have done a ton of research into the Regency era: in this book especially horse-drawn vehicles owned by the ton.  I checked out pictures of phaetons,  barouches, and curricles.  Quite interesting!

Tiny spoiler oddity thing:  I'm still not comfortable with the idea, in books like these, based on the time period's acceptance, of first cousins being married.  So creepy and odd.  Period.


Anyways, have you read a Georgette Heyer novel?  If you liked them, what ones do you recommend?  Have you read any of her historical fiction?




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