Book No. 91 of 2020
I severely overestimated the number of lighthearted escapist books I would need to get through the election, and am now working my way through all the books I put on hold weeks ago even though I really want to return to my usual bleak-ish fare. Oh well.
I did enjoy Cotillion, my first Georgette Heyer book, which was full of all the trappings of period romance: a naïve ingenue, romantic intrigue, social climbers, endless handwringing over “reputation,” and generous descriptions of finery.
One of my favorite elements was the setting of London—there were many mentions of establishments and institutions that are still there today, so I really enjoyed the many jaunts through the city. I had to laugh when one character completely failed to be impressed by the British Museum’s offerings.
I did gravely misunderstand a fairly major element of the story, which really affected my reading experience—based on a modern interpretation of how a certain person is characterized (as well as how other characters describe this person and react to their actions) I totally thought Heyer was winkingly acknowledging this character’s sexuality, and it wasn’t until I was rocketing confusingly through the end that I realized I had made a huge mistake. Whoops.
Similar Reads
Huge Pride and Prejudice vibes here—there are a lot of similar elements, including matriarchs like Mrs. Bennett and a competing-suitors dynamic that was very reminiscent of Darcy and Wickham.