A long purple cloak, rose-lined, hung from his shoulders and was allowed to fall carelessly back from his dress, revealing a full-skirted coat of purple satin, heavily laced with gold a waistcoat of flowered silk faultless small clothes and a lavish sprinkling of jewels on his cravat and breast.

He walked mincingly, for the red heels of his shoes were very high.

Indeed, who can resist the oh-so-fabulous but very, very bad Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon? (I’m convinced that Avon is the progenitor for all the anachronistic dukes of 21st-century “Regency” romance.) He is the rakeiest of rakes, marvelously dressed–the book opens with a description of his outfit, including high-heeled shoes–yet intensely masculine.Ī gentleman was strolling down a side street in Paris, on his way back from the house of one Madame de Verchoureux. Who can resist the heroine, Léonie of the violet-blue eyes and Titian hair?

Early in my own Heyer experience, it was possibly my favorite of her books, and it’s still way up there. But I am getting ahead of myself.ĭoes TOS deserve the praise and love that it gets? In terms of skilled storytelling and delightful characterization, yes. Yet in this book she not only recycled characters from her first published work, The Black Moth, she went back to the adventures of the Alistairs two more times in Devil’s Cub and An Infamous Army. However, can one imagine Jane Austen, having lived another ten, twenty, thirty years, ever growing tired of praise of Elizabeth and Darcy, and weary of readers begging for more books like Pride and Prejudice? More, in those days before the JAFF genre existed, of the Darcys themselves? If her letters are to be believed, Georgette Heyer certainly grew weary of fans asking for more books like These Old Shades. In fact, I would say that These Old Shades is probably the best-known of Georgette Heyer’s novels–her Pride and Prejudice, if you will, at least in terms of popularity. Well, Gentle Readers, we’re at the Good Stuff now. I have received some complaints from my Gentle Readers about some of the earlier posts in this series: some dissatisfaction that I’m wasting time reading these stupid, boring books that the author herself didn’t even like very much instead of moving right to the Good Stuff. “Titian hair has ever been one of–my–ruling–passions.” Chapter I, His Grace of Avon Buys a Soul “He has Titian hair,” said Justin blandly. Austin Dobson, “Epilogue” to Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Second Series (yep, that’s where Heyer got the title)

These old shades heyer