Faro's Daughter (by Georgette Heyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I love re-reading my Georgette Heyer historical novels, and do so regularly. It’s ten years since I last read ‘Faro’s Daughter’, so I was looking forward to reading it again. I vaguely recalled the story, but had forgotten most of the details.

Deborah Grantham is the heroine of this book, and she’s quite an unusual heroine, even for Heyer. She’s lively, courageous and outspoken, as so many of this author’s ladies were, unusually for the era. But Deb is not one of the more typical upper class ladies either living a life of frivolity or doing Good Works. Deb lives with her aunt, who runs a gaming house, and Deb presides over some of the gambling tables.

It’s not a setting that interests me in the slightest, but it’s a mark of Heyer’s excellent characterisation that it really doesn't matter. Deb is much courted, as she is a stunningly handsome woman. But she’s a person of integrity. She treats the clients of the house as impartially as she can, allowing mild flirtation but nothing more. However she has two persistent suitors. Young Lord Mablethorpe wants to marry her, and the middle aged Lord Ormskirk has more nefarious designs on her virtue.

The gaming house is owned and run by Deb’s Aunt, Lady Bellingham, who has fallen on hard times and is not entirely respectable. She’s a wonderful creation too, not at all understanding the vagaries of her niece, nor the necessity of paying bills. She can’t economise, and the ‘bank’ does not seem to be winning. So she longs for Deb to marry someone wealthy - and Mablethorpe will be wealthy when he comes of age. But he’s still twenty, so cannot touch his fortune. And Deb really doesn’t want to marry him…

But the main character in the book is Mr Ravenscar, older cousin and trustee to Lord Mablethorpe, a man who is extremely wealthy, loves horses, and is generally lucky with cards. He is horrified to hear that his young ward is considering marrying a ‘wench out of a gaming house’ and determines to see for himself just what Deb is like. He’s quite bigoted and entirely misunderstands her principles, so manages to offend her deeply…

The whole storyline is a delightful comedy of errors, Mr Ravenscar and Deb fencing mentally and emotionally as he tries harder to separate her from his cousin, whom she has no intention of marrying anyway. There are other characters of course, and several sidelines. Mr Ravenscar’s half-sister Arabella, for instance, falls in and out of love regularly. And one of the regulars at Lady Bellingham’s gaming house is James Filey, who challenges Ravenscar to a race… and who also wants to marry a young girl of 17 who is terrified of him.

While this isn’t one of my absolute favourite Heyer novels, it’s still an enjoyable read, fast-paced with great characterisation and some satirical humour that almost made me laugh aloud in places. I finished it in a couple of days and while I remembered the outcome, I had no recollection of how the story progressed, nor what led to the eventual resolution.

Definitely recommended if you like light-weight historical fiction.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews