The latest Classics Club Dare is to read something romantic for February, so I have chosen The Grand Sophy from my list.
When Sir Horace Stanton-Lacey unexpectedly arrives at Lord Ombersley’s home to ask his sister to take charge of his daughter Sophy for a while, he discovers a depressed household. Lord Ombersley’s gambling debts had almost overrun the establishment until his son and heir, Charles Rivenhall, inherited a fortune from a distant relative. Charles “did something with the mortgages” and paid off the debts, and now he is trying to get the household to economize.
Charles is also engaged to Eugenia Wraxton, whose outward sweetness hides a self-righteous and meddling disposition. Her plans to occupy the family home after the wedding depress everyone except Charles.
By the time Sophy arrives, the announcement of her cousin Cecilia’s engagement to Lord Charlbury has been delayed by his having contracted mumps. Cecilia now thinks herself in love with Augustus Fawnhope, a devastatingly handsome but vague young man who fancies himself a poet.
Sophy arrives like a breath of fresh air. She brings a monkey and a parrot to entertain the children, a shy greyhound, and a fabulous black steed to ride. She immediately realizes that the family needs her help. And she never shirks her obligations.
Sophy is a firecracker of a heroine, and The Grand Sophy is one of Heyer’s most beloved novels. There is lots of fun to be had as Sophy’s stratagems twist and turn the plot. The novel is a re-read for me for the Classics Club, but I loved it this time just as much as I did the first time I read it.
What? Me Read? 
I’m sure I’ve read this but don’t seem to remember the story at all! Just to be on the safe side I think I’ll need to read it again. 😉 Perfect choice for CC ❤
Good idea!
I chose Wide Sargasso Sea but it isn’t very romantic, so I added a book by D. E. Stevenson that I was already reading, that is more romantic! So I did two for the dare. This sounds nice, too!
If you like D. E. Stevenson, may i recommend the Drumberly trilogy [Vittoria Cottage/Music in the Hills/Shoulder the Sky (also titled Winter and Rough Weather)] and the Mrs. Time quartet. AND, if you like Mrs. Tim, I highly recommend “Henrietta’s War” by Joyce Dennys. All charming, calming books.
I have read all of the first trilogy and two of the Mrs. Tims. No Joyce Dennys, though, so thanks for the recommendation.
Oh, thanks! I’ll make a note of these.
I found a bit of swoon in Poirot but this is perfect!
Oh? Which Christie did you read?
The first one, The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Hastings is always swooning over a beautiful women!
Yeah, that’s right!
But you just did a post on Mansfield Park. Surely that is perfect, too.
I was going to include a swoon from that but then the swooning pair turn out to be so deceitful that I just couldn’t allow myself!
Ha ha ha!
This is a great choice for the dare. I still haven’t read this one, despite it being one of Heyer’s most popular novels!
It’s a good one!
I wanted to read a book by Georgette Heyer, but kept postponing until I saw your review. So I reserved this one from the library. I love regency/romantic novels, so I have high hopes for this one too.
I think you’ll like it.
Le Grande Sophy is, I think, my favorite of her most popular romances, over Venetia and definitely over Frederica. Sophy is just so. . .Sophy: grand, generous, good natured and such a perfect foil for the crabbed Eugenia. I have read reviews where readers claim that Sophy would have been ostracized for her behavior; however, after much research, I find that women such as Sophy DID
exist. She has been raised in an unconventional manner, and yes, the wives and daughters of diplomats and army/navy personnel had a somewhat different set of guidelines.
The dialogue is so much better than the continuous repetition of thanks from Frederica, which has come to be one of my lesser regarded Heyers. I loved her handling of Eugenia as well as the scene with the rapacious moneylender. And, I think, she will keep Charles very nicely from becoming an autocratic tyrant.
P.S. Why was reading this novel a dare?
There was a dare to read something romantic during February. It just stems from the original dare, which was to read something scary in October.
Ahhh! Thanks! One of the most romantic novels I’ve ever read is “A Civil Campaign” by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is a many-award winning science fiction author, and she wrote the novel in tribute to the four “greats”: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer. The novel focuses on romance, comedy, and courtship. And, speaking of Sayers, “Busman’s Honeymoon” is also very romantic.
I always thought Peter was a little sillier than usual with Harriet. I didn’t mind either by themselves, but together they were hard to take.
Wimsey, I think, is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, detective types who combine brains with a respect for the intellect of women. It’s pretty obvious (IMO) that Sayers “created” what she and some of her cohorts saw as the perfect man; a very direct repudiation of the masterful, know-it-all alpha male, or the “king of the castle” type so prevalent in Britain in the Edwardian/Victiorian eras ( or is it the Victorian/Edwardian eras?).I liked Wimsey better than Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and what’s her name. . . (grin)
In any case, there are enough varieties of romance to satisfy many, many tastes. One of the later ones that I like is Jennifer Crusie: she wrote in the 1990s and early 2000s, updating the 1930s-40s screwball comedies. . .
I read a few by her, and they were fairly good. I liked Wimsey better before Harriet, is all I’m saying. I don’t remember a woman in the Sam Spade novels (but I didn’t read many), but they don’t really compare anyway, do they? Wimsey isn’t exactly hard-boiled detective fiction.