Kim's Review : Bath Tangle

The number of reprints (the various covers above, are just a sampling of the editions) of the Bath Tangle are a testimony to the popularity of this title by Georgette Heyer.

Bath Tangle opens with the death of the Eccentric Earl of Spenborough, leaving behind a headstrong daughter Serena and a wife Fanny younger than his daughter. While most of the land, the title and holdings go to a distant cousin (according to the law of those times, where property and titles went to closest male relatives), he does set aside some money in trust for his wife and daughter. However, Serena is to receive a small amount as allowance each year under the trusteeship of Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham. She will gain control over her small fortune when she marries, but only if the marriage has the consent of her trustee. To complicate matters, Serena was once engaged to the Marquis and had cried off from it as she felt they wouldn't suit.

The Earl had brought up Serena more as a son than a daughter, so she is quite independent in her thinking and comportment and an excellent rider to boot. She used to manage her fathers affairs and is more comfortable taking care of his holdings than his household. Unable to bear the changes being wrought on her fathers property by the distant cousin who is now the new Earl, she and her step mother head to Bath, for a change of scenery and to wait out their period of mourning.

Here Serena bumps into an old suitor Major Hector who having remained unmarried begins to woo her again. The Marquis in the meantime gets engaged to Emily, a pretty but naive girl whose pushy and domineering mother will do anything to arrange a socially upward match for her.

The last few pages of the book are the funniest, where "who loves who" is a major tangle that needs to be sorted out with everyone seeming to be at cross purposes with the other.

The book is written in the normal Heyer style. A lot of her fans feel that the lead pair are not as endearing as some of her other characters, but not for me. Georgette Heyer's female leads have always been strong women or girls. While they may not all be as outwardly strong as Serena is, they all have an inner strength. The language is not as smooth to read as a modern day novel, but its not half as tough as The Conqueror either.

Rating : 4 / 5

Kim's Review : The Conqueror

I first read Georgette Heyer, way back in the early 90's, because my mum and her sisters had some of them in my Grandparents library. (Yes, our family has a long history of Bibliophilia)

What I loved about her books was the period settings, the historical references, the believable characters and the sheer depth and range of descriptions, that transported me directly into those eras. So meticulous was she, that Georgette Heyer is considered the innovator of the historical romance genre and its subgenre - Regency romance.

Heyer's strongest suit was the meticulousness of her research. Given that she lived in the pre-internet, pre-google search era (1902-1974), it is not surprising that at the time of her death, she had over 1,000 historical reference books and it was widely accepted that no one in England at that time, knew more about Regency language than Heyer.

I'd been wanting to read more Georgette Heyer, ever since Arrow started reprinting her books. But this idea lay on the backburner for awhile. I bought 2 last year, but only just got around to reading the first.

Georgette Heyer wrote "The Conqueror" in 1931, over 900 years after the events described in the book.

This book tells of William the Conqueror, bastard son of Robert the Magnificent - Duke of Normandy. Since Robert died when William was around 7 years old, with no legitimate sons, William succeeds him as the Duke of Normandy.

Most of the story is told through the eyes of the fictional character Raoul de Harcourt. Raoul is captivated by William at a young age and enters into his service. He comes to the notice of William who realises that Raoul has been sleeping unbidden outside his bedroom to keep him safe from would-be traitors and murderers (earning him the sobriquet - "the Watcher") and actually saves his life by doing so.

Raoul becomes William’s favourite, and serves with him in all his military campaigns and is the closest thing to a friend, to the calculating and political William. Raoul also provides the reader with a more humane world view and is a more endearing character than William himself.

The book which starts from Williams birth, tells of how he regains control of his Duchy on attaining adulthood. He then unifies and strengthens Normandy and finally is crowned King of England with the blessings of Rome after defeating Harold Goodwinesson.

The Conqueror offers an interesting contrast between Harold Goodwinesson and William the Conqueror. While Harold is loved and respected by his people, William inspires respect through fear. Harold reacts emotionally, whereas William is extremely cold, calculating and plans everything in great detail, he does not let his emotions interfere in his decisions in any which way, except in the case of his courtship and marriage to Matilda of Flanders.

And what a strange courtship it was. Since she refused in open court to marry him as she was of pure Royal blood (her Father was Earl of Belgium and her mother was the sister of the Queen of France) and he was a bastard, whose grandfather was a tanner. On hearing of this insult, William rode from Rouen to Flanders, rushed into her castle, whipped her with his riding crop and then pretended to forget about her for a couple of years!

The book is generally true to history, except for a few characters that have been created to smooth the story along. Also, while the book says that Judith who married Harold's brother Tostig was Matilda's sister, history says she was most probably Matilda's aunt.

The Conqueror is an interesting read but slightly difficult because of the language and structuring of sentences and period dialogues. (Read an excerpt here to see what I mean) But its worth persisting.

My most interesting takeaway from this book, is that although the Normans ruled England for almost a century, they soon lost not only England, but also their identity in Normandy. Normandy was retaken by France and amalgamated into the French culture.

I wish there were more books like this about Indian History too. The fights and squabbles between the various rulers in Europe are so similar in ways to the skirmishes and wars between local Indian rulers and chieftains. They would definitely make for interesting reading.


Rating : 3.8 / 5