I’m on my second of three recently discovered (by me, anyway) Georgette Heyer books, and I’m beginning to think there’s a reason they’re not well known. Although the print-on-demand book I purchased has astonishingly few errors, it also contains absolutely no publication information, not even the name of the POD company. But I see that Instead of the Thorn was published in 1924. It is one of Heyer’s few contemporary novels that aren’t mysteries.
Elizabeth Arden is brought up by her Aunt Anne, a Victorian spinster who disapproves of everything modern and has taught Elizabeth to bury her own feelings and always be agreeable. Her father doesn’t pay attention to her, and when his old friend Mr. Hengist warns him that Anne may not be the best person to raise his daughter, he thinks that’s ridiculous.
When Elizabeth reaches her older teens, she is old-fashioned but beautiful (and probably doesn’t dress like the girl on the cover above). Her father begins to take an interest, and soon she is attending parties and dances.
She meets Stephen Ramsey, a famous author who is about 10 years older, and he falls in love with her. She likes him and finally agrees to marry him, hoping for a long engagement. But it is not to be, and three months later, knowing absolutely nothing about what to expect, she marries him.
Elizabeth is young for her age, and she has been raised to be a prig. She is shocked by what marriage entails, and so she begins finding fault with Stephen’s habits and so on. Eventually, they split.
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, their problems are all Elizabeth’s fault (except for how their marriage got its start, which is blamed on Aunt Anne). Aside from being messy, unpunctual, and intellectual, Stephen is perfect. Elizabeth has a long, perhaps unlikely way to go.
There are some hints of a sense of humor here, but not many. One scene between Elizabeth’s father and his sister is quite funny, and Stephen’s mother is a fun but lovable character. I guess I should give this book points for showing the harm that can occur by not telling girls the facts of life—but that problem was probably much more prevalent at that time.
Stephen’s family and friends are so much more interesting than her own that you’d think Elizabeth would go over to them immediately, but she is too much of a prig. She becomes quite unlikable for a while.
It’s clear that Heyer was still finding her feet as a novelist as well as her genre. This is not it. I will give Heyer some credit, because she does seem to be trying to capture the clash between the Victorian and Edwardian generations in both this book and Helen.
What? Me Read? 
Yes, it does seem there’s a reason this one isn’t more popular! Still, it can be interesting to read an author’s early work and see how they improved over time.
Her writing is good even then, but there isn’t much sign of that sparkling wit.
Interesting to see how she started out, I suppose, but I think I’ll stick to her Regency romances and detective novels! The plot point about her not knowing what to expect in marriage is quite daring for the time, though, I’d have thought. (I’m still waiting for someone to tell me the facts of life 😉 – not a parent or a teacher ever did. Shocking, really, isn’t it? And that was in the ’60s and 70s’, not Victorian times!)
No one really told me, either. My mother had a talk with me, but she started talking about sperms and ova, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so I stopped listening. That was in the 60’s for me. Somehow I figured it out, probably from reading, since my family never censored anything I read.
I learned when a friend told me. She was thirteen and I was ten. I was disgusted and put on my haughtiest air and said “Your parents may behave like that, but I assure you, mine don’t!” I never played with her again – by the time I found out she was right a few years later, it seemed too late to apologise… 😂
Ha ha ha! I think I was 11 or 12 when I showed From Russia with Love to a friend. It said they united, and we were trying to figure out if it meant they did “it.” I think we only had a vague idea of what “it” is.
😂