A Civil Marriage - Georgette Heyer

[watervole]

 

I think this is one of my favourite Heyers of all. Both of the protagonists are sensible people, who don't actually want to spend all their lives at parties and routs, people drawn a little deeper and with more character. They're not quite your typical romance stereotypes. I love many Heyer books, but Jenny and Adam feel the most like real people. Adam, Viscount Lynton, was happy with his career as an army Captain and a big fan of the Duke of Wellington. Unlike many books set in the Napoleonic era, we get a lot more awareness of the progress of the war with Napoleon. Many of Adam's friends are still in the army, and his awareness of just how little interest the people he interacts with in London society have of the war, is galling to him. Jenny is the daughter of Jonathan Chawleigh, an extremely wealthy businessman. Her father wants a title for his daughter. Adam has come home on his father's unexpected death to discover that all he has is debts and mortgaged property. He had plans to marry his sweetheart, Julia, but all that is now impossible... The most interesting thing about the book is how Jenny copes with the knowledge that her husband is still in love with another woman - Julia. And she with him. Jenny is very sensible in her approach to the situation, and the contrast between Jenny's sense and Julia's sensibility is in many ways the heart of the novel. (Sensibility is a word far less in use these days, but 'sensibility' refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. (or, in short, a propensity to get over-emotional about things...) If you want a novel in which people do all the usual romance cliches like denying their mad sexual attraction for each other, falling out because they misinterpreted something the other did, doing something really stupid to try and make the other, etc. then this won't be your book. If you want a novel where two people in a marriage that neither of them had anticipated, and where only one of them has feelings for the other, but who treat each other like adults and grow gradually in friendship and understanding as much as affection - then you may like this as much as I did.

Comments

[replyhazy]

My VERY favorite Heyer book. One of my interests in that book is how Jenny is constantly emphasizing how practical she is, how she hasn't any feelings to hurt, et cetera, when in fact she does feel things deeply-- it's just that she doesn't display her hurt like others do. I feel terrible for her when she has to continually apologize for things her father does (Oh! Adam, I knew you wouldn't like it!).

But anyway, "Lambert says..."

[watervole]

I'm so glad we both love Jenny! It's her quiet way of making Adam feel happy and relaxed. Little things like no muffins at breakfast,

And she never gets emotional visibly, but I like that Adam learns to read her after a while, and tries not to hurt her.

"Lambert says" Giggle.

[vera_j]

Thank you for this interesting review! I do not know Heyer´s books, of course, but I believe it would be worth trying. Sometimes.:-)

[watervole]

Heyer wrote romances set in the Georgian era in England and she did good historical research.

It's usually easy to find cheap second-hand copies, if you want to try one.

I think you'd like them.

[msilverstar]

Time for a re-read! I wish Richard Armitage had recorded this one, I love his voice.

[igenlode]

Joanthan Chawleigh is a wonderful character; I think Heyer had a soft spot for cheerful and impossibly vulgar relatives, because they pop up in a few books, but he is much more fully developed. And I always loved the scene where Adam goes to see him at his place of work and gets ranted and raved at, and the young employees expect to see him walk out of the office in the usual state of white-faced annihilation and are astonished to find the aristocratic son-in-law apparently entirely unmoved. He is able to let obviously childish temper-tantrums slide off his back (an ability I very much envied).

The story is also interesting in that it takes place over a much longer time-period than most of her novels -- I imagine she had to work carefully backwards in order to establish at what stage in the war the plot needed to begin in order for the climax to take place at the necessary date, while fitting in a pregnancy and confinement :-)

(And with hindsight, it occurs to me that there were probably some strong unconscious parallels being drawn upon when I was writing 'sensible' Hertha...)

[pickledginger]

Thank you! I do enjoy Heyer's books, but may not have read this one.

[watervole]

It feels far more rooted in reality. There's a real sense of the Napoleonic war happening in the background.

That's because Adam was in the army and still has close friends there.