Review: Sylvester

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Inspired by a Facebook group I belong to, I downloaded all my GH books onto my Kindle and decided to start by rereading Sylvester. I chose this edition as this was the paperback I read and reread as a teenager.

Sylvester is the Duke of Salford. His twin brother Harry died a few years ago, leaving a bride Ianthe and a young son, Edmund. Harry made Sylvester his son's guardian which has been a source of contention between him and Ianthe. Now Ianthe is engaged to be married to Sir Nugent Fotherby, a rather ridiculous. albeit fabulously wealthy, follower of fashion. As Sylvester is unmarried, his thoughts have turned to the problem of an heir and he has drawn up a short-list of eligible females who he *might* consider marrying. When he consults his mother, she confesses that she once dreamed of him marrying her best friend Serena's daughter, but that was just a foolish fancy between friends. Nevertheless, with no other guide, Sylvester determines to at least meet the young lady and determine if she is suitable.

Phoebe Marlow, eldest daughter of Lord Marlow and the Dowager Duchess of Salford's best friend Serena, is not a raging beauty. Indeed, because her father is hunting-mad she has spent a good proportion of her life in the stables, particularly hiding from her stepmother, the current Lady Marlow whose vicious tongue reduces Phoebe to a gibbering wreck. Her only solace is writing fantastical gothic tales, and her hope is to publish one such novel and then buy a cottage where she will live with her governess. Phoebe's novel concerns a pair of impossibly beautiful and virtuous orphans, a wicked uncle, kidnapping, and other hair-raising adventures. What sets it apart is that some of the characters are thinly veiled caricatures of aristocrats she met in her uneventful London season ... and the wicked uncle is based on Sylvester, mainly because of his sloping eyebrows that give him a malevolent aspect but also because he appeared arrogant when they met. What Phoebe doesn't know are the circumstances of Sylvester's family life and how similar they are to certain aspects of her novel.

Initially, Sylvester is dismayed when he meets Phoebe, she is badly dressed, monosyllabic, and her parents are clearly of the view that the engagement is a done-deal. However, when Phoebe runs away with a neighbour into a snowstorm to avoid Sylvester's proposal, Sylvester is embroiled in the escape. When he discovers the reason that Phoebe ran away his pride is piqued, and he determines to make her realise what she is missing. But when Phoebe's novel becomes a storming success it has effects she could never have envisaged.

I was surprised how much of the book is taken up by events prior to their arrival in London - for some reason I thought that was just a few chapters but it was practically 60% of the book! I still love, love, love the scene at the ball and Phoebe's comment as she runs away. And anything to do with Sir Nugent TBH - such a kind and generous man but such a prize idiot!

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