By Georgette Heyer

As familiar as I was with this story, listening to it being read (Audible-Jasmine Blackborow),as always, gave me a fresh outlook and enjoyment. The narrator was excellent, and I must credit her with making the ever-irate Judith a little less irritating and childish-seeming and Worth’s highhandedness understandable. This was the first Regency Romance by the mother of the genre. So this is the book, folks. The origin of it all. The urtext if you will. And as such, a more archetypal example there could not be. Judith is the quintessential strong, fiery, and headstrong type heroine. Worth is the all-knowing all powerful hero, a Corinthian, no mere Dandy, who excels at everything he does. Heyer mixed and matched all kinds of other personalities in her books of course, but this has sure been a popular combination of hers and her followers through the years.

The story unfolds around the country-raised and very rich Miss Judith Taverner and her eager but dumb brother Perry coming to London for the season after the death of their father. Due to a massive error on his part (like father like son in the brain department), they are under the guardianship of the 5th Earl of Worth, not his deceased father, the 4th Earl. Judith must have taken after her mother. To make a long story short, Worth gets on the independent-minded Judith’s bad side from the start with his arrogant dismissive ways, and they are at loggerheads throughout the novel. It is, in fact, an enemies to lovers trope, and a good one. Julian Audley, 5th Earl of Worth is not one of the more popular Heyer heroes. Some find him too overbearing, cold, and dictatorial. His behavior at their second meeting manhandling the prickly Judith into his phaeton (for her own good) and purposely provoking her by giving her a little kiss hasn’t won him any points among enlightened readers on the lookout for sexual harassment either. But I’ve always been a fan. His deft parryings of poor Judith’s every effort to get the better of him are very humorous. I did sympathize with and even admired her persistent efforts to exert her independence but for an intelligent girl she was not very wise when it came to her guardian. “Mad as a wet hen” is a phrase that comes to mind. She was forever letting her emotions and temper get the better of her brain while always trying to maintain her dignity. Worth’s overbearing maneuvers were often only to save her from cutting off her nose to spite her face while purposely provoking her for his own amusement. He just couldn’t help it.

As the Taverners are immersed in all manner of sport, culture, fashion, entertainments, and ways of the elite of society (AKA “The Ton”) in her introduction to London, so is the reader. The plot provides Georgette Heyer the perfect framework to display all of her meticulous research into the Regency period. The book could be used as a primer for aspiring writers of regency romances. Various real historical figures of the time are woven into the narrative including the Duke of Clarence (who proposes marriage), Gentleman Jackson the boxer, The Prince Regent (who makes a pass at her), and particularly Beau Brummel, who is a great friend of Worth and who becomes a wise advisor to Judith. We are treated to many actual quotes from the great Brummel woven into his conversations with Judith. Some readers count all of the factoids, long descriptions, historical details against the book. And I probably skimmed through a lot of it myself in previous readings. But listening to it all seemed different. I couldn’t just skip ahead and I liked it all. It is so obvious that GH took such delight in sharing all she had learned, and worked hard to include all of her little nuggets as seamlessly as possible. After writing historical romances set in other periods for 14 years prior to this first Regency, she finally found her niche, and it seemed to me like she was having a ball with the writing of it.

On top of the slow burn romance and Judith’s adventures amongst The Ton, we have a mystery! Someone is trying to kill Perry. It’s really not much of a mystery. Readers reading the book at the time might have been a little misled, but those who have read other Heyers or almost any other regency or gothic romance written in the years following this one will not be fooled. We 100% know who Judith will end up with from their first meeting so we know he is not the murderer. There is only one other person with a motive, and though he fools Judith, as savvy readers, we see right through him.

After our two combatants/lovers declare their true feelings, we are treated to a long happy conversation in which they have a lot of fun dissecting their relationship. We get a lot along the lines of “What did you think when I…? And when you did this, I just…! How could you have…? I thought I had lost you when…! Oh that day at…! This is very unusual for Georgette, and I absolutely loved it. Usually it’s declarations, clinch, and “The End.”

Georgette would continue to refine her style as the years went by, but this one, although it doesn’t have some of the subtle or hilarious characterizations of some of her later works, should not be missed. It is the foundation of a genre.