Venetia: Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

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But to share a sense of the ridiculous prohibits dislike—yes, that’s true. And rare! My God, how rare! Do they stare at you, our worthy neighbours, when you laugh?” Yes, I know, I know, I use N&S gifs WAY TOO MUCH. But I don't CARE. It's PERFECT here. #sorrynotsorry)

She, Venetia (ugly name and how is it pronounced?), has seen his kindness in action when her younger brother, Aubrey, who has a lame leg, is injured horse riding near the gentleman's estate and Damerel takes him home to recover. While there, Aubrey is handled beautifully by Damerel who instinctively realizes that the boy hates pity and truly despises being treated like an invalid. The character of Aubrey is wonderful and I soon grew to love him just as much as his sister does. Aubrey is a brilliant scholar and also has a rapier wit like Venetia and although quite acerbic and self-involved, truly loves his sister and wants her to be happy. Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do,” she said diffidently. “I haven’t, and it’s important, I think—more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked.” Heyer cleverly puts all these people together, some we never even meet, some we only briefly meet and some we never expect to meet, yet they are all important to putting the final picture together. Single women—Fiction. 2. Country life—Fiction. 3. Family secrets—Fiction. 4. England—Fiction. I. Title. From the absolutely appalling cover art that has defaced her books since she was first published, you would think Georgette Heyer the most gooey, ghastly, cutesy, sentimental and trashy author who ever dared put pen to paper. The surprise in store for you, if you have not encountered her before, is that once you tear off, burn or ignore those disgusting covers you will discover her to be one of the wittiest, most insightful and rewarding prose writers imaginable. Her stories satisfy all the requirements of romantic fiction, but the language she uses, the dialogue, the ironic awareness, the satire and insight – these rise far above the genre.The book looks at the role of women in society and in relationships. Venetia is frowned upon because she proposes to keep house by herself, or at least with her brother Aubrey. It was unheard of and looked upon with disdain that such expressions of independence were uttered. She is expected to either marry or to remain in her family home once her elder brother marries. Venetia wishes to marry for love, or at least not marry the only two men who pay her attention; the staid Edward and the impetuous Oswald. Divorce is tantamount to a deadly sin. Damerel gained his reputation by running away with a married woman but it was she that was forever tainted. Refused a divorce by her husband she had to wait until his death to marry again. Infidelity in women was never forgiven, whereas it was expected in men. Lady Denny, Venetia’s friend, is more than aware that her husband has had affairs and sees it as her lot as a wife to accept that. Were it the other way around that she would have been shunned from society. He was a thin boy, rather undersized, by no means ill-looking, but with a countenance sharpened and lined beyond his years. A stranger would have found these hard to compute, his body’s immaturity being oddly belied by his face and his manners. In point of fact he had not long entered on his seventeenth year, but physical suffering had dug the lines in his face, and association with none but his seniors, coupled with an intellect at once scholarly and powerful, had made him precocious. A disease of the hip-joint had kept him away from Eton, where his brother Conway, his senior by six years, had been educated, and this (or, as his sister sometimes thought, the various treatments to which he had been subjected) had resulted in a shortening of one leg. When he walked it was with a pronounced and ugly limp; and although the disease was said to have been arrested the joint still pained him in inclement weather, or when he had over-exerted himself. Such sports as his brother delighted in were denied him, but he was a gallant rider, and a fair shot, and only he knew, and Venetia guessed, how bitterly he loathed his infirmity. People living in the period (unless they were churchmen, philosophers or the like) did not consider much the abstract, intellectual meaning of their age, nor the profound ethical, social and cultural import of its history, any more than we reflect on our own age. They concerned themselves, as people always do, with birth, education, love, marriage, money, property and death. Those who read and wrote books of any kind (such was the tenor of the times) were almost exclusively those who owned land, or came from land and believed without thinking in birthright, noble blood, titles, dignities and hierarchies. Education was available to few else, and the bloody examples of the French and American revolutions scarcely inclined the ruling class towards wide reform. These people were largely shaped by their birth – the circumstances, in other words, of their parents’ marriage. The ever rising middle class of professionals, tradesmen and mill-owners, the new dissenting religious sects, the impertinent political, social and artistic ideas sweeping over the world … All these brewed an anxiety in the ton, the beau monde or “Society” as it called itself, an anxiety that made them double down on the strict preservation of the old aristocratic bloodlines.

No Venetia and Heyer, there are plenty of women out there who are prettier and smarter and funnier and more interesting. That’s not the point of faithfulness in the relationship. And no, men are able to control themselves. Heyer obviously thinks men ain’t shit, just juvenile slaves to passion. My dear!’ gasped her ladyship, who had come to the Manor prepared to clasp the orphans to her sentimental bosom. ‘You are overwrought!’ Indeed I’m not!’ Venetia replied, laughing. ‘Why, ma’am, how many times have you declared him to have been the most unnatural parent?’ Venetia: Oh hell yes I am staying HERE! I have been anxiously traveling all day long just to get here, and now you think I’d go away? Uh-uh!!

Oh sweet mercy, the heavenly narration <3 Richard Armitage is one of my favorite actors and narrators! He has such a beautiful voice, it's just a delight to listen to. No matter how long the book, he always finds a unique voice for each character that helps you identify who is speaking at every moment without a clue from the text. Even his female characters sounds believable! It's just tremendous fun to listen to him bring a book to live! If you don't believe me, see Becca's review below: he managed to get a complete audiobook hater to admit that this is perfection! At this point I have actually listened to this book more often than I have read it, and trust me, if you hear the man's voice, you'll understand why... Venetia had been born with a zest for life ... and a high courage that enabled her to look hazards in the face and not shrink from encountering them.