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A review by alekswhite
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
3.0
I became a fan of Georgette Heyer because of the Grand Sophy so I bought myself this because I believed I'd get more of the same. Let me just say - one book is not like another.
Where the Grand Sophy is fun and raucous and wild, this was boring, dull and meandering.
It wasn't that this was bad, it was just obviously written earlier (a year but I feel like Heyer learnt a lot in that time). Heyer is a powerhouse writer - the original historical romance novelist. She wrote over 70 books - including whodunnits - but is most known for this genre in the 1950s.
It might be that I'm just so sick of the rakish hero and the damsel (but only in a way that said rakish hero finds attractive) in distress but Arabella was just a bit of cardboard. She gets involved with sad puppies and rescues abused street urchins. She's 'fiery' but only in a socially acceptable way. She doesn't really get involved in any hijinks and even the subplot with her brother was just a bit boring. You just knew that her beau would fix her predicament.
In any case, what really took away from the novel was just how flowery the langauge was. I realise that Heyer basically was not just an exceptional novelist but also basically a historian - I wager that she did a lot of research about language and fashion and the like. But reading it now and surely this would have been true in the 1950s - it was just so hard to read. And characters talked in needless circles in order to say something.
If you want something similar but easier to read in the same genre, read the Bridgerton family books or read the Grand Sophy.
Where the Grand Sophy is fun and raucous and wild, this was boring, dull and meandering.
It wasn't that this was bad, it was just obviously written earlier (a year but I feel like Heyer learnt a lot in that time). Heyer is a powerhouse writer - the original historical romance novelist. She wrote over 70 books - including whodunnits - but is most known for this genre in the 1950s.
It might be that I'm just so sick of the rakish hero and the damsel (but only in a way that said rakish hero finds attractive) in distress but Arabella was just a bit of cardboard. She gets involved with sad puppies and rescues abused street urchins. She's 'fiery' but only in a socially acceptable way. She doesn't really get involved in any hijinks and even the subplot with her brother was just a bit boring. You just knew that her beau would fix her predicament.
In any case, what really took away from the novel was just how flowery the langauge was. I realise that Heyer basically was not just an exceptional novelist but also basically a historian - I wager that she did a lot of research about language and fashion and the like. But reading it now and surely this would have been true in the 1950s - it was just so hard to read. And characters talked in needless circles in order to say something.
If you want something similar but easier to read in the same genre, read the Bridgerton family books or read the Grand Sophy.