I read Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer last weekend. If there is one author I know I can depend on to entertain and distract me when I’m feeling down or tired or just in need of entertainment and distraction, it is Heyer. She is witty, stylish, romantic, and, above all, an immaculate historian. What is not to love?
I believe I first discovered Heyer in 2004. It was a week or so before I started university and I was visiting my grandmother in rural Ontario. She had just picked up a box of books (a box! The luxury of it!) from a library sale and there were five or six Heyer titles in it, all in lurid Pan Books paperback editions. With little else to do each afternoon when the humid August days inevitably gave way to thunderstorms, I started reading. Despite a lacklustre start (These Old Shades – a book I still hate), I kept reading (there were a lot of thunderstorms that week) and eventually moved on to Bath Tangle. It didn’t make a huge impression at the time but it, along with Arabella, was enough to turn me into a devoted Heyer fan. I nicked my grandmother’s copy of Bath Tangle and as soon as I arrived at university, the first thing I did was check out more of Heyer’s books from the library.
While I’ve read and reread Heyer with pleasure in the years since that first encounter, I think I only reread Bath Tangle once: in 2006, when I had a Heyer marathon the summer following my grandmother’s death. It’s not that I thought it bad, it just didn’t stand out in my memory the way Heyer’s best books (such as A Civil Contract, The Grand Sophy, and Sylvester) do. I remembered a combative hero and heroine and that was about all. Returning to it now, I was delighted to discover what an entertaining, absorbing story it is.
The novel begins shortly after the death of the Earl of Spenborough. He has left behind a young widow, Fanny, and an unmarried daughter, Serena, who has the peculiarly awkward position of being several years older than her step-mother. Despite their unusual relationship, the two young women get along very well. The bold, energetic Serena may not understand how her stepmother could be content with a quiet life spent organizing a household but then neither could sweet, docile Fanny understand how her stepdaughter could find such pleasure in political debates and daily gallops that would quite terrify most women. Still mourning the man who united them, they decide to settle in Bath for a time. But the arrival of two young, beautiful women cannot go without notice and it is not long before they are surrounded by friends and suitors, new and old.
One of the things I certainly didn’t appreciate the first time I read this book was Fanny’s passionate reaction to the news that a young neighbour – a girl of seventeen – is engaged to a man in his late thirties. The girl herself knows exactly what she is getting from the match – a title, riches, an estate, an impressive position – and is smugly pleased about it – to a point – but to Fanny it is too much a reminder of how her own family pressured her into marriage. Spenborough was a kind husband and a good man but not one Fanny would have chosen for herself, had she been in a position to do so. She was pretty and biddable and her mama was looking for a brilliant match. She did not consider what her daughter’s romantic fantasies might have been; when an Earl offered, Fanny was offered up, never mind that he was older than her own father. In doing so, Fanny’s mother made her meek daughter into a champion romantic – someone who believes love should conquer all, no matter the obstacles.
Serena does not share her stepmother’s sensibilities. Having fancied herself in love twice before – once at nineteen with a young soldier, Hector Kirkby, and then again in her early twenties, with a close family friend, Ivo Barrasford, the Marquis of Rotherham – she knows better than to put too much faith in romance. Indeed, imagining herself in love she’d actually gone so far as to become engaged to Rotherham. She’d broken off the engagement, scandalously, but never repented of it. Rotherham had remained a close friend and frequent sparring partner, being one of the few people with a tongue and mind as sharp as Serena’s. But her arrival in Bath and the surprising reintroduction of Hector Kirkby into her life makes Serena wonder if perhaps she should reconsider her views on love and marriage.
I loved the friendships in this book. Serena and Fanny, though so different from one another, care immensely for the other’s happiness. It is difficult to imagine a household that could please both of them completely –indeed, I doubt such a thing could ever be managed – but they compromise as best they can. Serena tries not to scandalise Fanny too much with her fast ways, free opinions, and vulgar friends while Fanny values the confidence and protection she gains from having Serena as a companion. Without Serena standing guard, Fanny knows she would fall victim to her scheming mother’s ways once more and that is something she is determined, in her own quiet way, to avoid.
But most of all I loved the friendship between Serena and Ivo. Heyer excelled at writing combative couples as well as friendly couples. Here, she combines the two and the effect is excellent. Having known each other for ever, Ivo and Serena interact with a familiarly usually only seen within families. They are as happy to chat as to fight and view both activities as good sport. They use one another’s first names, they scandalise poor Fanny with their love of political gossip, and they look out for one another. Intellectually and emotionally, they match. The most painful moments of the book are when they hurt one another or – and this is what makes them such an appealing match – are hurting for the other. Both become engaged to absurdly poor mates during the course of the novel and I think the most emotionally resonant part of the novel, for me, is Serena’s reaction when she learns of Ivo’s engagement. She is not admitting she loves him and is not feeling sorry for herself; she is absolutely distraught for him and the bleak, unequal future she sees for him with the silly, shallow girl he has engaged himself to. This level of love and friendships on both sides is what makes their final happiness so satisfying.
Bath Tangle isn’t quite up there with Heyer’s best but it certainly rests higher up on my favourites list now than it did before.
Your review makes this book sound delightful.
It is!
Loved The Grand Sophy. Has that ever been made into a movie?? It should be.
I believe it has, but back in the 1950s and in German. Heyer’s books seem like such natural material for good adaptations that it’s amazing they’ve never really been taken on.
I can’t remember how I stumbled across Georgette Heyer, but I love her regency romances as a quick cheer-up or after a particularly heavy or all-consuming read. They’re like sorbet. A couple of the audiobooks (read very well by Richard Armitage) got me through a dull spell in hospital. Cotillion, Arabella and Regency Buck are my favourites. (though they are very embarassing American romance editions, so can’t bear to be seen reading them in public!)
I love the Armitage-narrated audiobooks! So, so good.
Oh yes, Bath Tangle. I’d forgotten how enjoyable that was. My top favourites are The Grand Sophy (I recently bought the audio book, which is a wonderful listen), The Talisman Ring and Arabella (my first Heyer, more than 40 years ago). I have lots on my shelves, including many colourful (lurid?) Pans.
Excellent pick of favourites, Susan! I just read The Talisman Ring for the first time a few years ago and loved it.
I’m a relative newcomer to Georgette Heyer, but I’m very glad I’ve joined her legions of fans. I tend to choose them at random and I loved this one!
At random is the perfect way to discover Heyer, Audrey! Some are less good than others but I’ve never been really disappointed by any of her books.
I love these revisits! I’ve never actually heard of Heyer, but your post makes me want to check her out. Should I start with Bath Tangle or is there one in particular you like better to start with? You mentioned A Civil Contract, The Grand Sophy, and Sylvester — any particular favorite among those? Thanks!
You should definitely check her out! She is wonderful and I think Bath Tangle would be an excellent introduction.
Thank you for reminding me that it’s been FOREVER since I read something by Heyer. I’ve just checked my library catalogue and they own Sylvester on audio, narrated by Richard Armitage! I’ve already placed a hold on it and Bath Tangle as well (an original paperback from 1955. I’m dying to see the cover).
She is one of the few authors whose books I could never imagine removing from my shelves (I’m pretty ruthless otherwise). The Armitage-narrated audiobooks are wonderful but they are abridged – thoughtfully and tastefully but I still miss the scenes that are left out. But it’s a trade off I can endure given that it’s Richard Armitage narrating. His Phoebe is delightful.
I totally agree with you about Heyer, she is always reliable and comforting. I think too that the reason her books still appeal so much is because her hero’s generally seem to like and respect women (not always the case in romantic lit).
Yes! That is it. Her male characters (heroes and otherwise) will frequently defer to the women – unheard of in the works of so many other romantic novelists. You can actually have faith that these marriages will work out after the happy ending.
I will give her a try once I run out of DE Stevenson’s to read–I have 30 more to go, so it might be awhile.
Good luck to you!
Wonderful author I discovered her when I was in university. She was my escape. One day in the local bookstore one of my history profs found me perusing her titles – he smile and said good choice of author that with Heyer and Eleanor Hibbert (who used many different pen names) I would get a good story and an excellent social, cultural, political, diplomatic, economic and intellectual history lesson.
How nice – and unexpected – to get such an endorsement for Heyer! Can’t say I’m a fan of Eleanor Hibbert, though I do remember reading Mistress of Mellyn and being in hysterics the entire time. Not sure that was her intention…