Customer Reviews

Bath Tangle

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In spite of the negative reviews posted prior to this one, I must give this book a thumbs up. I've read this story several times, and each time I gathered new details and discovered a funny line I didn't remember from the previous reading.

Heyer's style of writing, as usual, is sophisticated and informative. The details in any of her books make you inquire more deeply into the period of which she writes.

Personally, I LOVED Rotherham and Serena -- perhaps it's because I'm a bit tempermental myself. The clash between them and eventual realization of their respect and love is amusing. The twist in plot by the end makes for an endearing read. The reader does feel a sort of short-circuited denoument to the story by the time Rotherham and Serena realize their love - one awaits more - though it's not necessarily a drawback (Austen's own writings reflect similar tendencies).

It is not a fast-paced story, but watching the love develop in this story makes me think of a dawn. The sun rising over the horizon has never been a quick event, though it is always a beautiful setting with incredible shades of color to add the most intriguing character to our day.

Lady Serena Carlow is beside herself with anger when she discovers that her late father (the Earl of Spenborough) has placed her squarely under the Marquess of Rotherham's thumb. For the late earl has made Rotherham the sole trustee of his only daughter's wealth, and Lady Serena will have to gain Rotherham's approval for everything from frivolous purchases to permission to marry. For most young women of sense, such a will would be trying, but for the passionate and fiery tempered Lady Serena, the state of affairs is truly intolerable, esp since she and Rotherham were once engaged to be married before she broke off the engagement in a fit of anger. Soon, however, even the indignity of having to cope with Rotherham as a guardian is nothing compared to having to watch her cousin assume her dead father's place. Hoping to seek some relief from the fit of doldrums that she's sunk into, Lady Serena proposes that she and her young stepmother, Fanny, go to Bath. Hopefully a change of scene and new friends and divertments will restore both their flagging spirits. What neither lady counted on was how the reappearance of one lady's old beau would so entangle things...

Truth to tell, "Bath Tangle" may not be everyone's cup of tea. Lady Serena's quick and fiery temper and her high-handed ways could really set one's back up -- and Rotherham is no different! Certainly, Lady Serena is the type of heroine I usually have very little empathy for -- all that emotion and high drama! And yet, who else but Georgette Heyer could pen a romance novel about a high-handed and stubborn heroine and her equally autocratic swain, and still make us care and root for them to achieve their happily ever-after ending? And as usual, one can count on Heyer's wonderful prose style, together with her brilliant character portrayals, witty dialogue, vivid imagery and smooth pacing to be sure of a memorable and worthwhile read. All in all, a novel not to be missed!

On the whole I enjoy this story, although I can see why some readers have a hard time with Serena and Rotherham. I can take them because they are both decent people at heart, in spite of their faults. And their clashes of temper can be fun to watch! The one thing I find really unacceptable is the scene where Serena berates Emily. If you've read the book, you know the scene I mean. (Rotherham also berates Gerard, but he has a purpose. Serena means it.)

I also like the romance that blossoms between Fanny and the man she least expects.

Heyer makes one of her favorite points with both couples, one that is probably snobbish but has some truth to it, about the importance of similar "background" (class).

Serena and Rotherham were both born to the ruling class. Through the story the reader sees that Serena will never be happy outside that world. It's too much a part of who she is.

Hector, Serena's old flame, was born to the more modest rank of "landed gentry" and doesn't want her life. Neither does Fanny, Serena's friend. The life Hector can give her is exactly the kind that makes her happy.

In Heyer's eyes, it is this clash of background and values that makes Hector and Serena wrong for each other. It is the similarity of background/ values that makes both couples right for each other.

The study of Regency manners here is rewarding if you pay attention.

Serena and her Aunt Teresa are a portrait of aristocratic ladies: how they spoke, thought, and gossiped, and what they gossiped about. Fanny, Hector and his mother show the manners and values of the landed middle class, Jane Austen's level of society. Mrs. Floore and Ned Goring represent the up-and-coming merchant class (though Mrs. Floore is really more caricature.)

One problem is that GH makes many elliptical references to political events of the time. Her original readers probably knew what she meant. For the modern reader it's frustrating--she tells just enough to make you curious. It needs footnotes.

The story is well written and plotted. Though it is complicated, everything is kept tangled until the end. Not as easy to do as it seems. It's worth reading for the portrait of Regency life, and several vivid characters, even if you don't like Serena and Rotherham.

I love Bath Tangle! Heyer writes a hero and heroine who are both strong-willed and impatient, and who have been indulged for most of their lives. As such, it's only natural that they should behave like an irresistable force meeting an immovable object.

Serena and Rotherham had once been engaged to be married, but she called off the engagement within a month of the wedding. Since then, they'd barely been able to meet without arguing. But then her father died and left Rotherham trustee of all her income, and with the power to veto any potential husband. Thus the scene is set for yet more sparks....

Rotherham and Serena are a wonderful couple: even from the time we first meet them it's obvious they were meant for each other. It's there in the way they can't keep their eyes off each other, the way she's bored when he's not around, the way they can't stop interfering in each other's affairs. Yes, they are both rude - to each other, and occasionally to others - but that's true to the period, at least in Rotherham's case. I can't see how the other reviewer could have missed the attraction between them.

The dialogue is fast-paced and sparkling, with great fights and some wonderful making-up scenes. In all, it's another immensely readable Heyer, although I would have liked to know more about the circumstances surrounding the original engagement. Still - can't have it all!

I've noticed that my favorite Heyer books have all depicted men who need to grow in some way-- the selfish man, the immature man, the disgraced man, etc. This book is different, in that it centers around a heroine who needs to change. Serena is self-centered, sharp-tempered/ quick to anger, domineering, and managing--her beauty has not been good for her character. Yet she is also kind and a good friend-- in short, she is a complex person.

The secondary plot couple are very engaging, and the setting in Bath is interesting, too.

A very entertaining book! While not one of my very favorite Heyers, a very enjoyable one.

I am rather surprised that this book has such varying reviews. In Bath Tangle Heyer has created such a unique yet perfect couple: the rather blunt and rude character of Ivo and the wild and eccentric one of Serena. These two compliment each other so well that I found it completely providential that they come together. Theirs is not calf love; each time they meet they quarrel. But this is more because they have so much in common that they may do so on a wide range of topics. I have always loved Heyer's older and stronger characters and Ivo and Serena both fit the description well.

P.S.
Often while reading this book, and I am not quite sure why, I was made to remember Austen's "Emma." Except that I hated Emma's character (she was altogether too self centered) and actually liked Serena.

This book may be best thought of as Heyer's take on "Much Ado About Nothing," where the "merry war" of a man and a woman--once engaged and now volatile friends--leads inevitably to the altar. Unfortunately, off-putting characters and forced plotting make this one of Heyer's least successful books.

Of the brawling hero and heroine, Serena is easier to like because we often see events through her eyes and because we are told why she is the way she is. (Told too often, in fact, rather than being shown. There's a LOT of character exposition in this book. I have the feeling Heyer felt the need to make excuses for her heroine.) Ivo, on the other hand, is a bad-tempered jerk, without explanation or leavening. He also sexually menaces a timid virgin--with an ulterior motive, but still. . .

For all that, there were a number of characters and situations I did enjoy. Hector, like the Man with the Mumps in "The Grand Sophy," is one of those Heyer second-lead gentlemen who has enough grace, intelligence, and humor to be appealing in his own right. (And in this book, he's more appealing than the nominal hero, but clearly less a temperamental match for the heroine.) And, really, the whole book is worth the appearance of Mrs. Floore, one of the rare "vulgar" characters in Heyer who is sympathetically portrayed and one of the most delightful cases of the deus ex machina I've come across. There are in fact a number of very funny moments, and they come along often enough to keep the reader's interest.

There is more than usual in this book about the social world of which Serena and Ivo are a part. We don't see that world first hand, but glimpse it via letters and conversations. As another reviewer suggested, it can be distracting if you don't know the personalities being referred to. It didn't bother me, particularly, and I was tickled by the discussion about Caroline Lamb. I also felt that the gossip about the ton--which even Ivo engages in--underlined how much the lead pair enjoy being a part of that world, and how suited to one another they really are.

If Serena and Ivo are meant to be Heyer's Beatrice and Benedick, Heyer fails to provide her characters with the right notes of charm and wit. Heyer does succeed, however, in persuading me that Serena is the goddess (in both good and bad ways) that she says she is. And it is amusing to imagine Serena and Ivo as an important political couple, given how volatile they are. I see some future wit remarking that one man's Caroline Lamb is another man's Serena Rotherham.

My mother owned hardcover copies of dozens of Georgette Heyer books, and I read every one of them over and over (I honestly believe that I became 'ill' and stayed home from school just so I could read Heyer and drink hot tea)! This one is particularly beloved! The story is fast paced and full of humorous suspense, and the characters are well developed. I must admit, I remember being entranced by the title from an early age (kindergarten even), and I loved the idea of being tangled up in a bathtub--which surely added to the mystique when I was old enough to actually read the book! Every Georgette Heyer novel, whether romance or mystery, has always been a joy to me, and this is no exception! I am forty-five years old, by the way...

Years and years ago I devoured Georgette Heyer books, bringing them home from the library in stacks of as many as I could find and carry. My favorites then were SYLVESTER, VENETIA, and REGENCY BUCK and one of my least favorite was BATH TANGLE. In recent years, of course, we are fortunate enough to find her novels in reprint. So I've been taking that trip down memory lane, only to find out that I was giving BATH TANGLE a bad rap. The interaction between H and H that I found so unromantic in my youth, turns out to be very romantic in my golden years. And the secondary characters are such fun, especially Mrs. Floore, who's a hoot. This is not a slow or boring story to me. But then I'm the kind of person who has read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE more times than I care to remember and has the A&E miniseries of said Austen novel, 6 hours long, to re-watch at will. So I don't require a whole lot of action to go on in the novels I read. I'm happy enough with good conversation, and Georgette Heyer has always given us that.

Bath Tangle may be one of Georgette Heyer's less-popular books, and I agree with other reviewers in that she has more sparkling novels, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book and would still recommend it to anyone. Perhaps not as an introduction to Heyer, but it would be a shame to overlook this one.

What I liked about the novel may be the reason others don't respond as well to it, and that's in the characters of Rotherham and Serena. He's harsh and can be forbidding, and doesn't flatter the heroine -- but it's just as well, since she hates being flattered. Rotherham is set up to be less likable than some of Heyer's other dashing heroes, but that's also the point -- he is a hero with whom nobody would fall in love aside from our heroine. In contrast, Serena is someone with whom everyone would fancy to be in love, but as most are blinded by their adoration of her beauty and dazzle, they don't know the real woman underneath. Except for Rotherham, of course, who loves her for all the traits that others would deem flaws -- her outspokenness, her temper, her energetic spirit.

Bath Tangle also takes a bit of a departure from usual romance setups by starting the story with Rotherham and Serena previously engaged (she jilted him a month prior to their wedding). Both believe themselves to be over the romance, but it's a joy to watch them fall in love again. The signs of their softening regard are perhaps subtler in Bath Tangle than in other Heyers because the dynamics are different, with this couple already on very familiar terms with one another. I found the little hints of growing affection utterly delightful. For instance, the book opens with Serena outlining all of the reasons she dislikes Rotherham, and they clash numerous times. But while everyone else maintains their disfavorable opinion of him over the course of the novel, thinking him cruel and cold, Serena finds herself in the position of being his lone defender. Heyer is marvelous at showing how Serena goes from believing she really does dislike Rotherham to having to convince herself she does (and then not disliking him at all).

Perhaps unusual for a Heyer is the fact that Serena is not a perfect heroine. She has some classic Heyer heroine traits -- lively, beautiful, intelligent -- but unlike Venetia, or Frederica, or Arabella (all novels and heroines I love), Serena is considerably less perfect. It's kind of a refreshing to have the heroine needing to undergo some self-realization and change, instead of the onus always being on the rakehell hero.

If you're new to Heyer, I'd recommend starting with some of her more humorous, sparkling romances like Faro's Daughter, Devil's Cub, The Corinthian, Venetia. But don't forget Bath Tangle when you want Heyer's trademark wit but would welcome a departure from her usual lovely (but somewhat overly perfect) heroes and heroines.