I did something yesterday that I always think about doing, but never, ever do. I spent nearly all day curled up under a blanket reading a book. There is a catch, however. A virus walloped me well and good over the weekend, and I was in the recuperation stage. Perhaps not the best circumstances for enjoying a book, but reading kept my mind off being generally miserable. There was something really comforting about picking up the Georgette Heyer book that I started last year and finally finishing it. I had not gotten very far into the book last year as it was sort of a slow start, so it had been set aside. Timing was perfect yesterday, though, to read Heyer.
Georgette Heyer's The Cotillion has a decidedly different feel to it than An Infamous Army. It was much more playful and amusing. As I was reading I felt like I had been plucked from the 21st century and dropped smack dab into 1800s Regency England. The clothes, the food, the houses, and especially the language put me in mind of a Regency drama. Actually I think I had in mind Masterpiece Theatre's Persuasion which I had watched the night before and enjoyed (with a few tiny quibbles). I just wanted that feeling to continue, so the Heyer seemed the perfect book to pick up. I didn't actually mean to read it all, but once I started I couldn't stop until I got the end (some three hundred pages later).
The story revolves around Kitty Charing a penniless orphan at the mercy of her eccentric guardian Mr. Penicuik. He's wealthy, but miserly and has it in his mind to offer Kitty a handsome dowry, but only if she agrees to marry one of his great-nephews. None seem particularly attractive--Reverend Hugh is rather closed minded, Lord Dolphinton is a bit slow and terrified of his mother, Freddy Standon is more interested in the cut of his clothes than in romance. And then there is Jack Westruthers. Rakishly handsome, he's ignored his great-uncle's summons. Although Kitty gets an offer or two, none will tempt her as the man she's attracted to isn't there.
She's ready to run off to London and try her luck finding a job when she hatches a plan to go to Town in a far more elegant manner. She manages to talk Freddy into agreeing to a betrothal--but not a real one. In the words of Kitty, they would only be hoaxing. Kitty is prepared to be on her own, but first she wants to see London, and the only way her guardian will let her go is with a suitable chaperon. What's more proper than staying in the home of her betrothed's family. Once in London she gets mixed up in all sorts of trouble. The novel is a light-hearted and very charming story with just the right amount of romance thrown in. Immediately upon finishing it I wanted to go to Amazon and order more Heyer novels, but there are only the two I've mentioned in this post in print in the US. I'm contemplating ordering a few from the UK (I know I could look for used copies, but the new ones are so nicely designed with such pretty covers...). It seems like Heyer is a much beloved author and with two of her novels read (and many more to go) I can see why!