Bath Tangle (by Georgette Heyer)

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I have liked Georgette Heyer’s light historical novels since my mid teens, and over the years have acquired them all, mostly second hand. I re-read them regularly, and sometimes the characters feel like old friends. I’ve just finished re-reading ‘Bath Tangle’, for at least the fourth or fifth time though I hadn’t read it since 2008.

The book opens with a funeral off-stage. It  is set in the early 1800s, when women didn’t attend either funerals or the meal afterwards. We meet the two women who are most closely attached to the late Lord Spenborough: his widow Fanny, and his daughter Serena. We learn that he was only in his fifties, suddenly taken ill after catching a chill. And we also learn that he was only married to Fanny for a few years; she’s far younger than he was, and is younger than her step-daughter.

Fanny and Serena are very different in character, but are extremely fond of each other. Fanny is shy, warm-hearted, and not at all decisive. Serena is courageous, assertive and quick-tempered. She was close to her father, and finds it hard to imagine life without him. She’s furious when she learns that her inheritance is in trust for her, managed by Lord Rotherham; he’s one of her father’s oldest friends, but a few years earlier he was engaged to be married to Serena - and she jilted him.

The first part of the novel takes place in London, but the action soon moves to Bath, where Fanny and Serena decide to take a house for six months. I had remembered that Serena’s first love, the handsome Hector Kirkby, reappears in her life, back from his military career. However I had almost forgotten the fluffy Emily who has long been an admirer of Serena’s. I had also forgotten her bullying mother, and her delightfully vulgar grandmother Mrs Floore.

Having said that, I recalled something of the story as I read, but had forgotten how enjoyable the scenes with Mrs Floore are, and what a cleverly-drawn character she is, contrasting so nicely with her well-married and respectable (but most unpleasant) daughter. Emily herself is rather feeble, her best feature being her deep love for her grandmother.

Heyer had a gift for creating three-dimensional characters. Emily’s feebleness is intended, as is the incoherence and hot-headedness of Rotherham’s ward Gerard. Serena and Fanny are both believable, and if Rotherham is exaggerated, Hector is extremely likeable, and Mrs Floore’s godson Ned Goring is wonderfully pragmatic, yet with a sense of humour.

The story involves a lot of mixed emotions, misunderstandings, and drama. I had recalled the eventual outcome, but not the details of how the story got there, and enjoyed re-reading it very much. There were a couple of places where I almost chuckled, and several where I smiled in appreciation at the author’s understatements, or the way she expressed something.

‘Bath Tangle’ would make a good introduction to Georgette Heyer’s novels, in my opinion. It would be ideal for anyone who likes character-based love stories. There’s very little of the ‘cant’ talk which makes some of her other novels rather difficult to understand in places. There’s no unpleasant fighting or bad language, and there aren’t even main characters with shady or immoral pasts. There’s some discussion of famous people (real ones, on the whole) and their somewhat shocking lifestyles, but only in passing. As a teenager, most of that kind of thing went entirely over my head.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews