Devil's Cub: Georgette Heyer Book Club Part 3

Oh I felt sorry for Comyn too jubi - couldn't quite see why he liked Juliana, who was a right pain.

leonie I agree Vidal is really nothing like as bad as Avon - Avon's more out-and-out wicked whereas Vidal is just not very good at obeying the rules. But then, doesn't Avon say to Mary that Vidal's morals are rather better than his? So clearly GH intended the contrast.

I've been trying to remember how I felt about Dominic when I first read this, and indeed how old I was - I think later teens. I don't think I had a crush on him, I do remember thinking how nice it was that the heroine was a girl I could imagine liking rather than the usual empty headed bimbo - I was reading loads of different romances by different authors at that time. I remember feeling rather sorry for Frederick Comyn who would definitely be a nicer husband than Dominic, and who was going to continue to have the devils own job managing the wilful baggage Juliana for the rest of his life. In fact, I ended up feeling rather exasperated with the entire Avon family, especially their cavalier attitude towards tradesmen's debts.
I don't think Dominic would have raped anyone really.
Although there are a few stereotypical inn keepers etc, the minor characters are definitely getting more interesting and the humour more like the later books.

I wonder whether Vidal would have actually carried out the rape though.

Mary ALWAYS held the trump card - she was the grand-daughter of Sir Hugh Challoner. Avon was sufficiently concerned about Sophia's perceived "bourgeoise" background to warn his son off the relationship - a subtle reference to his youthful attempted abduction of Jennifer Merivale (Diana Beauleigh in The Black Moth) - and the family "code of honour" (twisted as it was) would have made it unthinkable to dishonour a young woman with aristocratic connections. Mary may have been unaware of the relationship between Avon and her grandfather, but in the absense of a gun up her sleeve, I reckon she'd have defended herself with any weapon available, including information about her own family background.

It is only Mary's newly-revealed elevated social status which allows Vidal to take her seriously and treat her with respect, thus paving the way for him to fall in love with her.

And yes, I DID swoon as a teen. I swooned oodles.

presumably she was still a teenager when she wrote this one, so would still have been caught up in the "my love for him will be enough to stop him being a wanker/evil sod" teen thinking. Think of the Twilight stuff for example(or rather don't ). DD2 (14) likes Vidal, which says it all really. She does think Mary is great though, which redeems me as a mother a bit .

Do we think she was aware of how far she was pushing it, or just still young?

She's far better at the supporting characters generally than the heros/heroines, unless she's doing the unconventional ones (Gilly in the Foundling, Jenny in a Convenient Marriage).

Wonder which character(s) she identified most closely with? Were any of them her, or her as she would have wanted to be?