Most Recent Retro Read
Helene
by Leonora Blythe
ISBN: 0449500047
Published 1979 by Fawcett
Lady Helene Ambel is bored with the London season. Her father understands her interest in serious social issues such as white slavery and forced prostitution, but her mother is bent on marrying her off to a suitable candidate as soon as possible; Lady Ambel had married her husband despite fancying herself in love with another man and holds that love is not necessary in marriage. Captain Robert Longford in particular would be unacceptable because of his rake's reputation.
Helene's good friend Miss Juliet Sweeny shares her interests; Juliet has been in love with Nicholas Dexter for ages, but Nicholas lost an arm in a riding accident and, feeling that he was no longer good enough for Juliet, took himself off to Paris, where he took up painting. Juliet is now being pressured by her family to accept the Earl of Radford, so that her father's gambling debts can be paid.
When Helene acts to help Juliet and Nicholas, she comes into contact more and more with Captain Longford, who is engaged in secret business of his own, but her actions also draw her to the attention of Radford, a vile and dangerous opponent.
This is an odd little book, one of the sort that probably leads people not familiar with regencies to think they're all Barbara Cartland level books. Reading through it I was hard put even to identify the year it was set in (Lord Wellington is mentioned, as is Lord Byron, yet the heroine powders her hair before attending a ball), and it's littered with what are either typos ("laying seige") or outright mistakes ("Waiter's" for "Watier's"). Throughout it's pretty cliched stuff, but it's a fast read and those who read mostly for action and plot might not find it as lame as I did. (Posted by Janice 9/2/10)
