Charity Girl (by Georgette Heyer)

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I reread all my Georgette Heyer historical romances regularly, and find I like them afresh each time. It had been ten years since I last read ‘Charity Girl’, so it was more than time for a reread. I knew that this was one of my favourites, but only remembered the general outline of the plot rather than any of the characters or details.

Viscount Ashley Desford is the hero of this book. He’s one of Heyer’s nicest young men, in my view. His family want him to get married, now he’s approaching thirty, but to date he hasn’t found anyone he wants to spend his life with. His mother had hoped he would marry his childhood friend Henrietta (Hetta) but they had agreed that they would not ‘suit’, and so he had never proposed.

Desford is staying with some friends and is taken to a ball hosted by some rather arrogant neighbours. He is presented to a beautiful young woman and dances with her, but she raises no emotion in his heart at all. On his way through the hall, after escaping the heat for a while, he encounters the beauty’s cousin Cherry, who is peeping through the banisters. He spends a few minutes chatting with her, despite her fear that her other cousins might overhear.

The following day, Desford spots Cherry running away from her aunt’s home. He learns that she’s been treated like a servant, and offered no affection at all. She was overheard chatting to him and has been criticised so unjustly that she’s decided to take refuge with her estranged grandfather in London. After trying to persuade her to return to her aunt's, Desford agrees to take her to London with him.

That’s just the start of an amusing and thoroughly enjoyable adventure, at least from Desford’s point of view. Naturally, the grandfather cannot be found so he decides to leave Cherry with his friend Hetta and her hypochondriac mother, while he attempts to find either the grandfather, or the teacher whose school Cherry attended until she turned eighteen, who was kind to her….

The pace is good, the action alternating between Desford, determined to solve the problem he has taken on, and Cherry, who is a likeable if rather foolish girl and has made herself invaluable to Hetta’s mother. Into the mix comes Simon, Desford’s younger brother, who is unexpectedly caught up in the plot and makes an excellent addition.

There are some inevitable caricatures amongst the minor characters: mostly quite unpleasant people, but amusing nonetheless. Cherry’s grandfather, when eventually tracked down, is in a situation which reminded me of one of Heyer’s other books, but amusingly portrayed in a way that made me feel he deserved his fate. Another of her relatives is a classic narcissist, charming - at first glance - but manipulative, with an ability to twist everything to his own purposes.

Indeed, with her unsympathetic aunt and nasty cousins, poor Cherry ‘s relatives are all highly dislikeable. The eventual resolution of her problems is perhaps a bit forced; there’s no indication that it might happen, but it solves everyone’s problems rather well, so I didn’t mind. And despite giving her name to the novel, she’s not the most important person.

The characterisation is excellent; I liked Desford so much, and could almost feel his frustration. It’s perhaps unusual for the hero of a romance book to be the main protagonist, but it works extremely well, in my view. I had, of course, remembered who Desford was going to end up marrying, but had quite forgotten how it all happened. Heyer often ends her stories rather abruptly, with a brief kiss on the final page. In ‘Charity Girl’ the final declaration scene takes almost three pages, and there’s a distinct romantic tension for a couple of pages before.

Very highly recommended to anyone who likes this kind of light regency romance. I’m already looking forward to reading it again, hopefully before another ten years have passed.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews