The Black Moth (by Georgette Heyer)

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I regularly re-read novels from my large collection by Georgette Heyer. Sometimes I find that I recall almost all of the plot, even though I have forgotten many details. But there are other times when I recall almost nothing - and that’s the case with ‘The Black Moth’, which I have just finished re-reading. The last time I re-read it was in 2011, and before that in 2004, yet for the first few chapters I had absolutely no recollection of any of the characters or the storyline.

Still, that made for an enjoyable read. A few scenes did come back to me as I read; it’s essentially the story of two brothers, one of whom cheated in a card game seven years before the story starts. Jack Carstairs has been a fugitive, travelling in Europe, and has recently returned to the UK. But since he doesn’t want anyone to recognise him, he has become a highwayman. The novel is set around the year 1750.

Unfortunately Jack is not a very good highwayman. Or, rather, he’s so naturally good that he can’t bring himself to rob women, or people who seem vulnerable. He doesn’t mind robbing wealthy, arrogant folk, but even then tends to give away his spoils rather than keeping them for himself. He plays his role for excitement and for something to do, and is always accompanied by his loyal follower Jim Salter.

Jack’s brother Richard is married to the beautiful but very demanding Lavinia. I found her a bit annoying - she likes to have fun, and to spend lots of money, and appears to care very little for her long-suffering husband. They have a son whom she mostly ignores, leaving him with his nurse. However she is very fond of her brother, the Duke of Andover, who is rather a nasty piece of work in many respects. He is even more selfish than his sister, doesn’t like either of his brothers, and is eager to ravish a young woman who has no interest in him at all.

The first part of the story that I did remember was when Jack tries to hold up a carriage, only to learn that his pistol is unloaded - and that the person he planned to rob is none other than an old friend. He doesn’t want to reveal himself - as a highwayman he is masked, and doesn’t use his own voice - but is arrested and will probably have to be tried, and possibly convicted…

It’s quite a complex plot with a large number of characters, but it’s very well-written, and I had little difficulty remembering who was whom. It was Georgette Heyer’s first novel, published when she was just nineteen, and as such is a remarkable achievement. It feels entirely authentic, even if there’s a tad more description than I like, with believable conversation that never strays into modernisms.

What marks this out as different from some of Heyer’s other novels is that the heroine doesn’t appear until quite a way into the book, and she doesn’t play that large a role in it. She’s quite strong-minded; not a typical girl of the era by any means, but she doesn’t feel entirely three-dimensional. The villain of the piece is a bit caricatured - could anyone really be that unpleasant? - but even he sometimes, has a sense of humour. Still, I thought Jack and his brother were quite believable, and I particularly liked Jack’s old friend Milo and his delightful wife Molly.

Recommended if you like action-driven historical fiction of this genre, or if you’re a fan of Heyer’s writing in general. But I wouldn’t suggest this as an introduction to her work; as a debut novel it’s superb, but as an example of her writing overall, it’s not one of the best.

I wonder if I’ll remember the story - and the people - rather more the next time I read it.

Still in print, nearly a hundred years after 'The Black Moth' was first published. Also widely available second-hand in many different editions.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews