Book Log 21/2015 - Georgette Heyer: An Infamous Army

[jacey]

This is almost more non-fiction than fiction. Ms Heyer delves into the social history immediately preceding the Battle of Waterloo, thunders through the battle itself and it's only in the aftermath that romance and history truly meet. It's a fictionalised and extremely well-researched account of Waterloo built around what seems to be a doomed romance between notorious widow, Lady Barbara Childe a heartbreaker at the centre of the social whirl in Brussels where the English have set up their own fashionable society while waiting for Wellington's army to arrive, and the very decent (and hugely forgiving) Colonel Charles Audley, one of Wellington's aides-de-camp.

I tend to read Heyer for a bit of light relief, not a history lesson, though I usually take her research for granted. This book had a huge cast of genuine historical characters - possibly rather more than I wanted to deal with, so all-in-all not my favourite Heyer, though I can understand why it's the book that she was most proud of writing.

On a secondary note - with no bearing on the quality of the story whatsoever - this particular cover bears absolutely no resemblance to any of the major characters in the story.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I have issues with historical novels generally.

Blame it on being a historian! :o)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what her source was, but apparently she used chunks of contemporary reports which (I'm sure) made it historically accurate, but a bit dry at times. Doing the research is very praiseworthy, but you don't need to trot it all out on to the page unless it drives your story forward.