Devil's Cub: Georgette Heyer Book Club Part 3

Oh I've read Regency Buck, so no fears there.

Infamous Army ties in two story lines, so don't read it before you've read Regency Buck or you'll get confused. Regency Buck is the more direct link to Infamous Army, but yes, Mary and Vidal make a brief cameo appearance as Bab's grandparents in it.

First one I ever read!

I wish I could remember precisely what I thought - I was about 12 probably, & my boyfriend's mother gave it to me to read, telling me she hadn't been allowed GH when she was a teen! I remember finding it terribly romantic & loving the ending with Vidal & Mary finally united. Now like the other posters I am uncomfortable with the whole minimising of attempted rape & the Vidal being a 'sulky boy' that Mary could manage. Mary is great though & I still find it a really witty read.

Is The Infamous Army next then? Have never read it, will need to get a copy.

Oo how exciting, a GH thread!

I love Mary, she's one of my favourite heroines, although the one thing that let her down was her "oh I could manage him" attitude to his "bad boyness".
But then in the world of romantic fiction, they did tame down for the love of a good woman - unlike in RL.

Vidal though - no, I never swooned over him. Not a fan of bad boys. Wasn't ever that keen on Avon either.

My favourite hero (apols for going off piste) is Freddie Standen in Cotillion - despite being apparently gay as anything, he's just lovely.

Of course

No, Bab is Dominic and Mary's granddaughter and Leonie's great-granddaughter. Barbara's father (Dominic and Mary's son) is vaguely referred to as being a bad lot who is now dead.

As previous threads have pointed out, the dates don't work (Devil's Cub is set in c.1780), but clearly GH wanted to present Barbara and her brother George as damaged by their poor upbringing, and couldn't depict Dominic and Mary as bad parents so invented another generation between them.

"Wild" Bab Childe is Leonie's granddaughter, isn't she?

...haven't noticed. But I'm not reading this one right this minute as I read it only about three months ago, now I'm going to have to check it, and I've got visitors in less than an hour - arrgh!

I've been trying to put myself into the mindset of my own parent's generation, and thinking about the way dear Mama talks (she is a Daily Mail reader) I think the 'she was asking for it' mindset is still alive and well in at least some of the over seventies. Rather depressing.

Had forgotten it was Devil's Cub time!

I find the plot a bit preposterous, I must say - first Mary pretending to be Sophia and then all the capering around at the end as Mary runs off with Frederick then runs off alone. I prefer the later books when she calms down a bit and lets the narrative be more character-driven.

But she is really developing her style - it is the first really witty one I think, and she's left the silliness and arch writing of The Black Moth, The Masqueraders etc well behind her. Fascinating transitional point in her career.

Changing the subject somewhat, back on the previous thread someone asked if the contemporary detective stories were any good. I haven't read all of them, but they are like her romances - the earlier ones are a bit over the top, the middle ones are actually quite good, and there's at least one, which I think was written later, which is pretty dark and depressing.
Some of her favourite characters make clear reappearances, obviously with new names - there is a re-run of Beau Lavenham for instance, and another version of Horry Winwood.
She tried to have her lunatical bucks as heroes a couple of times, but what is funny in an 18th century setting grates in 1930's London.

The attempted rape scene went too far for me to accept Vidal as a romantic lead. Bit too much of a bastard for my liking.

And I bet that in the mid-1700's, it'd have all been painted as Mary's fault for running off with him in the first place. Lucky for her that she had a loaded gun.

I only discovered GH last year, as a 30-something year old and I've been contemplating what my teenage self would have thought of Vidal. I was never into BAD bad boys so I don't think I would have been that taken with him, there's far too much high drama about him.

I couldn't decide whether the attempted rape scene was more of a ploy to show Mary's true colours - her courage, her ability to stay calm - rather than an example of how bad Vidal is.

I don't know much about morals in the mid-1700s but would rape have been seen as seriously as it is now? It was an age when women were more possessions than equals and even in the 1930s when GH was writing, the feminist movement wasn't as enlightened, was it?

I missed the These Old Shades thread due to rl interfering so I shall jump in here.

I first read this in my mid teens and thought Domonic was thrillingly sexy and would give my teen self a bit of a slap if I could, but as we've all said it's of it's time. I agree with Justin when he says Mary can do better (he did say that didn't he? I haven't got the book to hand and might be mixing things up), but he is the sort of bloke you have a dreadfull crush on as a yoof who if you're lucky never notices you're alive (I'm remembering mine from my early teens, a serial seducer at 15 with two pregnant girlfriends under his belt he didn't notice me, lucky escape), so I can understand that he might appeal as Mary is still quite young and had a dull life. I could see them working as a couple in the countryside with him shooting and riding and her visiting the sick, I can't see her being happy with him rolling in drunk and gambling in town.

LeoniedeSaintVire "Does anyone else wonder whether she does find Sophia a husband later or if they fall out irrevocably?" I think I wrote some dreadfull teenage fanfic on the subject of her doing that and the decendants I made up for them, not realising that the family reappears in "Infamous Army".

Agree that Julianna, like Fanny before her is a pain in the bum and why any man would saddle himself with either of them is beyone me but that's all part and parcel of the style GH was doing at the time.

I love Rupert in both books, he's still endearing to me, lazily goodnatured as far as his familes interests are concerned and otherwise completely self absorbed, he's a nice foil to Leonie wizzing off in all directions.

Really enjoyed reading it again.

duh, I forgot we were reading out of order . Revised theory is that she was a young 30 then .

I reckon Leonie would have been OK with a daughter, she'd have brought her up to be exactly like herself, although Avon would have wanted to lock her away to keep her safe from men like himself.

I do wonder what would have happened if Leonie had had a daughter. I can't really see her with a daughter.