Venetia: Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

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Sadly, this is an abridged version which cut some of my favorite moments, but this in no way dims my love for this production!

To satisfy the requirements of romantic fiction and to deliver wholly satisfactory adventure and romance, and to bring a complex and multifaceted era so sparklingly to life, to pay the reader the compliment of refusing to stint on the reality of the world she was escorting us to … this explains the enduring appeal of Georgette Heyer. Enter Damerel: an older man who's a confirmed rake and pretty much doesn't care about anything any longer. Or at least he thinks he doesn't, but underneath there's an intelligent, kind man that his growing friendship with Venetia brings out of hiding. He starts out intending to seduce her--hey, she's a lovely girl and he's bored--but his growing friendship with and respect for her and her brother soon make him realize that he can't do that. Which leads to a moral conundrum for Damerel: his life has been so reprehensible that he's no longer accepted in society, and marrying a sweet younger lady like Venetia would make people despise him even more, and shun them both. "[I'm] something worse than a fool. Would that she could make of me a saint, or I of her a sinner-- For the first part it's too late, old friend, too late! And for the second--it was precisely my intention, and a rare moment this is to discover that if I could I would not!"What to do? The resolution isn't as simple as you might expect. Before she realises it, Venetia is encouraging a man whose way of life has scandalised the North Riding for years. I LOVE this man. He comes such a long way in this book, and not because someone forces him to change, but because meeting an innocent little whirlwind who turns his life of debauchery upside down actually makes him re-evaluate his life-choices and accept that he has screwed up and he is not good enough for her as he is. He's no angel, and I love him even more for that. He hasn't been a good landowner or anything, but he does try his best to become one.I LOVED this book. It's definitely my favorite Heyer and probably my favorite regency romance. The entire book made me laugh, from descriptions of Oswald Denny attempting to become the Corsair to the many delightful exchanges between Damerel and Venetia, who are a couple that are truly fun to read about. Every character is fully realized, from the odious Edward Yardley (someone I wish I could have shaken!) to the self-absorbed Lady Steeple. This world feels real, and firmly grounded in the right era. Venetia is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer set in England in 1818. [2] Plot summary [ edit ]

This after one conversation with him. After their first meeting where he started kissing her against her will. Of course you don’t, love – and I must own I wish Oswald had found himself unable to do so. I wonder what excuse Edward will offer us for this visit? Surely there cannot have been another Royal marriage, or General Election?’

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Then, in one extraordinary encounter, she meets a neighbour she only knew by reputation - the infamous Jasper Damerel. Venetia Lanyon is twenty-five and lives in Yorkshire with her younger brother, Aubrey, who, at seventeen is already a prodigiously talented scholar. Their older brother is away in the army and assumed his father’s baronetcy upon the latter’s death a short time before the book begins. The children lost their mother shortly after Aubrey’s birth, and their reclusive father selfishly isolated his children as well as himself, so that neither Venetia nor Aubrey has much experience of society, and Venetia was never presented at court as was her due as the daughter of a member of the nobility. Poor Venetia goes to London with her heart sunk to the lowest depths of despair, but still she’s no fool, and knows something must have happened to make Damerel suddenly change his mind when she had been so sure of his love. She just doesn’t know what. He even made her laugh, for when she was talking about the delights of shopping in Paris he said: "And for hats of the first style of elegance, Phanie!" which surprised a little trill of mirth out of her. "Yes! How did you know?" she asked, looking innocently up at him.