Book Log 20/2016 - Georgette Heyer: The Masqueraders

[jacey]

I read this back to back with Anne Gracie's The Perfect Rake, thinking to make a comparison, but picked one of the few Heyers that is not Regency, but rather is Georgian, set just after the 1745 Jacobite rising, a time of hooped skirts and powdered wigs when former Jacobite supporters were being sent to the gallows by the cart-load.

In the wake of the rebellion brother and sister, Robin and Pru, are in England heavily disguised. The slight Robin is in skirts as 'Kate' and his sister, tall and big-boned, has become 'Peter'. They have arranged to meet their father in London. He's mostly referred to as 'the old gentleman' since he changes his name more often than his socks. Aiding and abetting their deception is the stalwart servant, John and complicit is their hostess, Therese.

On the way to London they intercept an elopement gone wrong, rescuing Letty Grayson from her drunken would-be suitor, Mr. Markham, when she realises he's not quite as gallant as she thought he was.

The cross-dressing siblings are a pair of scam artists, though good-hearted ones, who have been dragged around Europe in the wake of their opportunist rogue of a father, taking on new identities, male and female, as the situation required. It was their father who involved them in the Jacobite cause, but now his mercurial character has taken him on a completely new track, but he hasn't bothered explaining it to them, just given them instructions which they are supposed to follow to the letter. Complications arise when Robin begins to fall for the rescued Letty, an heiress, and Pru takes a fancy to Sir Anthony Fanshawe, a friend of the Graysons and a solid mountain of a man, considered to be a little slow and dull witted, but who sees far more than everyone realises.

No more of the story for fear of spoilers. That's just the set-up. I found this one of the most difficult Heyers to get into. The opening chapter is dense to the point of confusing as the siblings are first of all presented as the gender they appear to be, calling each other by both real names and assumed ones and often addressing each other as 'child' (doubly confusing). It takes a few chapters to sort out who's who and why, and the rest is revealed at a leisurely pace. Speech is somewhat cod-Georgian and stilted at times. It takes perhaps the first third of the book to get comfortable with the style. It irritated me at first, but by the time I was halfway through I found I was enjoying it - almost to my surprise. There are some extremely witty moments hidden inside it, notably the siblings' cynicism about their father's carrying on.

When the old gentleman turns up his character explains Pru and Robin perfectly. Walter Mitty hardly begins to cover it. He's got unshaken belief in the magnificence of his own grand plans and rides roughshod over anyone who stands in his way, using everyone else as pawn in his great game. He's the sort of character who needs double-wide doors to get his head through.  I think he's meant to be charming and funny, but if I'd been Robin and Pru I would have abandoned him years before. If Heyer meant us to like him, I'm afraid she missed the mark with me. Whimsical is one thing, but insufferably pompous is another. Good job I liked Robin and Pru. Sir Anthony Fanshaw also get brownie points for being an unflappable hero despite not getting much page-time. The unsung hero is John, the servant, who is also more than he seems.

Of course, it's all right in the end - this is Heyer but all things considered, not my favourite. Apparently this is one of her earlier novels (1928) and it shows.