Freddie is almost certainly Heyer's most unusual 'hero' -- he is definitely neither of the types she describes as Mark I or Mark II (the big chivalrous fair-haired one or the grumpy harsh-featured dark-haired one). In fact, his is a very familiar type that generally pops up in her novels as the dim-witted friend played for comic effect: inarticulate, fashion- (or more often sport-)obsessed, and runs a mile from ladies or romance. I wonder if she made a deliberate choice to see what would happen if she made a Gil Ringwood ("Friday's Child") or Cornelius Fancot ("April Lady") into the actual protagonist of a book, or whether these gormless young dilettantes just represented a very common Regency social group, like the 'jocks' and 'nerds' of American high-school novels... (Dorothy L Sayers portrays a similar 20th-century exemplar of this type in the person of the Honourable Freddie Arbuthnot, who despite his blithering-idiot persona courts Rachel Levy with dogged determination and is last glimpsed as a devoted family man.)
Freddie's relationship with his father is unusual, as well, because Legerwood is a sardonic intellectual in the Duke of Avon's line, and one can only assume that his amiably inarticulate son and heir is probably something of a disappointment to him. Over the course of the book his father comes to regard him with a good deal more appreciation (and, Avon-fashion, divines the true state of affairs between him and Kitty at an early stage).
I'm afraid that on my first reading I completely failed to realise that Kitty was supposed to be hinted to be in love with her cousin Jack, since he was so obviously a completely unappealing character and features so infrequently in the course of the book, and in consequence I was very confused by the ending :-p But this is one of the books that scores highly for its vividly-drawn minor characters, featuring not one but *three* entertaining romantic sub-entanglements -- if you count the Fish -- to compensate for the absence of conventional romantic flights between the central couple. I think Lord Dolphinton's improbable love-story was probably my favourite (and far more memorable than Cousin Jack's dubious charms), but Kitty's questionable cousin Camille is endearing as well. And Freddie manages to win over not only the heroine but the reader by demonstrating that, while he may be known as 'the fool of the family', he is gifted with considerable wisdom and competence and a genuinely sweet nature -- he has 'emotional intelligence' as opposed to school-learning.
(Heyer's other most improbable hero is probably the gentle, sheltered and physically unimpressive Gilly in "The Foundling", who tries to escape from the overpowering affection and protectiveness of his household and discovers (a) that he is a great deal more resourceful than anyone believes and (b) that there were things to be appreciated about his old life after all...)
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Freddie's relationship with his father is unusual, as well, because Legerwood is a sardonic intellectual in the Duke of Avon's line, and one can only assume that his amiably inarticulate son and heir is probably something of a disappointment to him. Over the course of the book his father comes to regard him with a good deal more appreciation (and, Avon-fashion, divines the true state of affairs between him and Kitty at an early stage).
I'm afraid that on my first reading I completely failed to realise that Kitty was supposed to be hinted to be in love with her cousin Jack, since he was so obviously a completely unappealing character and features so infrequently in the course of the book, and in consequence I was very confused by the ending :-p
But this is one of the books that scores highly for its vividly-drawn minor characters, featuring not one but *three* entertaining romantic sub-entanglements -- if you count the Fish -- to compensate for the absence of conventional romantic flights between the central couple. I think Lord Dolphinton's improbable love-story was probably my favourite (and far more memorable than Cousin Jack's dubious charms), but Kitty's questionable cousin Camille is endearing as well. And Freddie manages to win over not only the heroine but the reader by demonstrating that, while he may be known as 'the fool of the family', he is gifted with considerable wisdom and competence and a genuinely sweet nature -- he has 'emotional intelligence' as opposed to school-learning.
(Heyer's other most improbable hero is probably the gentle, sheltered and physically unimpressive Gilly in "The Foundling", who tries to escape from the overpowering affection and protectiveness of his household and discovers (a) that he is a great deal more resourceful than anyone believes and (b) that there were things to be appreciated about his old life after all...)