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Monday, November 30, 2009
title: Arabella
author: Georgette Heyer
published: 1949
pages: 312
genre: historical fiction/regency romance
first line: The schoolroom in the Parsonage at Heythram was not a large apartment, but on a bleak January day, in a household where the consumption of coals was a consideration, this was not felt by its occupants to be a disadvantage.
rated: 4 out of 5
Arabella Tallant is the eldest daughter of a humble vicar and his wife, and she is expected to marry well. She is sent to London to stay with her godmother in hopes of finding a suitable husband.
On her way to London, Arabella's carriage breaks down and she and her companion end up staying at the nearest home. It is the home of rich, eligible bachelor, Robert Beaumaris. Beaumaris is used to females trying to catch his attention, so he thinks that Arabella faked her carriage trouble in order to stay at his home and catch his eye. Arabella dislikes Beaumaris from the start, thinking he is conceited and arrogant. At dinner, while drinking wine and feeling a bit 'toasty', she decides to lie to him. She tells Beaumaris that she herself is rich and heir to the Tallant fortune and is going to London to escape all her would be suitors. Beaumaris believes her story and soon enough the whole town is buzzing with rumors about the new heiress.
When her godmother throws a ball, and Beaumaris shows up, the party is considered an instant success. Beaumaris is known for being a confirmed bachelor and a flirt, and he does gives Arabella his attention at the ball. Soon enough, she has many would be suitors after her as well as a few marriage proposals. These men think that if Beaumaris is after Arabella, she must be quite the catch. Beaumaris figures he'll just flirt with her, but Arabella is already onto him, she knows what he is up to and she decides to use his attentions to her advantage. She wants to stay one step ahead of him, and refuses to take him seriously or fall in love with him. When Beaumaris realizes that Arabella is smarter than he first took her for, he decides to really charm her and make her fall for him. Before they know it, what started out as just a game, turns into something more serious for these two.
I'm a fan of Georgette Heyer and found Arabella to be sweet, funny and entertaining.
The characters were great and the storyline was fun. I liked Arabella and Beaumaris's characters. It was cute how they flirted with each other, yet each played hard to get.
As always, I liked Heyer's style of writing, here's a few of my favorite passages.
They presented a charming picture, as they sat poring over thier book, thier dark ringlets intermingled, and thier arms around each other's waists. They were very plainly dressed, in gowns of blue kersemere, made high to the throat, and with long tight sleeves; and they wore no other ornaments than a knot or two of ribbons; but the Vicar's numerous offspring were all remarkable for thier good looks and had very little need of embellishment.
She now perceived that she had much mistaken the matter. No one she had ever seen approached the elegance of Mr. Beaumaris.
Lord Fleetwood, or any of his cronies, could have recognized the tailoring of that coat of olive-green superfine at a glance; Arabella, to whom the magic name of Weston was unknown, was merely aware of a garment so exquisitely cut that it presented all the appearance of having been moulded to its wearer's form. A very good form too, she noted, with approval. No need of buckram wadding, such as that Knaresborough tailor had inserted into Bertram's new coat, to fill out those shoulders! And how envious Bertram would have been of Mr. Beaumaris's fine legs, sheathed in tight pantaloons, with gleaming Hessian boots pulled over them!
It was impossible to fathom the intricacies of his mind, but one thing was certain; the great Mr. Beaumaris and the Vicar of Heythram's daughter could have nothing to do with one another, so that the less the Vicar's daughter thought about him the better it would be for her. One could not deny his adress, or his handsome face, but one could-and one did-dwell on the many imperfections of his character. He was demonstrably indolent, a spoilt darling of society, with no thought for anything but his fleeting pleasure: a heartless, heedless leader of fashion, given over to selfishness, and every other vice which Papa's daughter had been thought to think reprehensible.
Nothing he wore was designed to attract attention, but he made every other man in the room look either a trifle overdressed or a trifle shabby.
About the author:
http://www.georgette-heyer.com/
Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, who made the Regency period her own. Her first novel, The Black Moth, published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.
Special thanks to Danielle over at Sourcebooks for sending me this book to read and review.
