Where Heyer Makes It Work

The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very entertaining book. I was a little confused at first--there is not one but two characters who are cross-dressing, making the names and pronouns terribly confusing until you know what's up. (I reread some of the first pages a couple times. How many people are traveling? Who's on the horse? LOL. I got it eventually.) Brother and sister, Jacobites on the run, children of an adventuring conman father, Prudence and Robin are in disguise while entering London. Prudence is tall for a woman and Robin slight for a man, and both of them are excellent actors, so they make it work. When they meet a young woman on the road who is in trouble, it's Prudence, in the role of Mr. Merriot, who takes on the villainous Markham (and makes an enemy in the process). However, it's Robin who falls in love with her.

When their father shows up ("my lord" through most of it), a capable but narcissistic conman, the story advances in another direction. He has the documents to prove that he is the recently deceased Lord Barham's true heir and should take possession of the title and properties, but it's not clear whether this is true or not, and it's not guaranteed that he will succeed in his attempt. At the same time, he's at risk of being exposed as a Jacobite, which would be death to all three of them. But his confidence is boundless, and he insists on managing his children every step of the way. All of them remain in the public eye, popular and well regarded, flirting and dueling and risking exposure at every moment. Prudence falls in love with the very discerning Sir Anthony, which is the key romantic entanglement of the story, followed by the romance between Robin and the silly young Letty Grayson.

A bunch of stuff happens. Ya gotta read it.

I'm always amazed when I read a Heyer novel that it's not already a movie or mini-series. I feel like it's a natural. Jane Austen kinda set the standard for Regency storytelling, and okay, Heyer's books are less proper than those, with a lot of scandalous behavior being winked at (a conman on the side of the good guys?), but they're still pretty much PG, and they're filled with so much more action and lively conflict. Robin in a dress and Prudence in--what, trousers?--would be odd in an Austen novel, for sure, but it'd be tame in a Shakespeare play. There's more than a little As You Like It in this one, and I do like it.

Anyway, Heyer writes a fast, fun, entertaining book--good action (Robin playing the highwayman to save Letty the second time! Sir Anthony rescuing Prudence from the law!); satisfying romance--two of them; clever plotting; and well-developed, interesting characters. Sir Thomas Bertram would certainly disapprove, but I think it's pretty awesome.


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