A review by andipants
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
4.0
I still feel like a relative newcomer to the romance genre, but I know enough to know that Georgette Heyer is one of the OGs of regency, even if I'd never read her before, so when a stack of ARCs appeared at the library where I work, including new editions of three of her novels, I figured I should give them a shot. (Plus, I'm pretty sure nobody else at my library reads romances, and I hate to see a book go unloved.)
This is the first of the three, and it was a very entertaining read. The plot, of course, is paper-thin - pure fluff of the fluffiest sort. It's not entirely clear why the leads are attracted to one another, but it says they are, so we'll go with it. The characters are mostly stock, but they're unobjectionable. Arabella is the ingenue extraordinaire, naive but sharp enough to work her situation to her advantage, and good-hearted to a fault. Her wide-eyed innocence gets a little irritating and occasionally stretches believability, but not too badly. Mr. Beaumaris is clearly the star of the show: aloof and a little cynical, but with a sharp wit and ultimately a kind disposition.
Where this book really shines is the writing itself. The prose and dialogue are deliciously old-fashioned, with tons of period slang and a ridiculously wonderful degree of historical detail. The dialogue is genuinely witty - not the sort of "wit" you sometimes find when the author doesn't trust the reader to understand what's happening and so over-explains every joke, but genuinely sharp and fast-paced conversation, to the point where I occasionally had to re-read exchanges to make sure I was catching the gist. It's not a book you should expect to enjoy while only half-paying attention. The style won't be for everyone, and even for myself, it's not something I want to read every day, but in the right mood, this is delightful.
This is the first of the three, and it was a very entertaining read. The plot, of course, is paper-thin - pure fluff of the fluffiest sort. It's not entirely clear why the leads are attracted to one another, but it says they are, so we'll go with it. The characters are mostly stock, but they're unobjectionable. Arabella is the ingenue extraordinaire, naive but sharp enough to work her situation to her advantage, and good-hearted to a fault. Her wide-eyed innocence gets a little irritating and occasionally stretches believability, but not too badly. Mr. Beaumaris is clearly the star of the show: aloof and a little cynical, but with a sharp wit and ultimately a kind disposition.
Where this book really shines is the writing itself. The prose and dialogue are deliciously old-fashioned, with tons of period slang and a ridiculously wonderful degree of historical detail. The dialogue is genuinely witty - not the sort of "wit" you sometimes find when the author doesn't trust the reader to understand what's happening and so over-explains every joke, but genuinely sharp and fast-paced conversation, to the point where I occasionally had to re-read exchanges to make sure I was catching the gist. It's not a book you should expect to enjoy while only half-paying attention. The style won't be for everyone, and even for myself, it's not something I want to read every day, but in the right mood, this is delightful.