Minerva [Hardcover]

Marion Chesney (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (August 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312533608
• ISBN-13: 978-0312533601
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Reverend Armtiage needs to marry off his eldest daughter, Minerva, March 3, 2006

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Minerva (Mass Market Paperback)

When the Reverend Charles Armitage, a country vicar in Regency England, announces that Minerva, the eldest of his six daughters, is to have her coming-out in London, the news is not well received by the rest of the family. Mrs. Armitage has one of her Spasms ("her ultimate weapon") and has to be brought round by burning a quantity of feathers under her nose. Annabelle, the nearest in age to Minerva, is clearly jealous, the boys are all surly, and the other girls just start off crying. But the other five daughters will all get their chance, because "Minerva" is but the first volume in The Six Sisters series by Marion Chesney.

Minerva, the eldest, is beautiful but a prude. While her mother reclines on a chaise longue coming up with new malaises and her father is off hunting instead of worrying about the dowries the girls need to be married off. But then Papa decides the boys should be sent to Eton, which requires money, and his solution is to marry Minerva off to some man with a fortune. So she is dispatched to town, where a man is walking around wearing nothing but green (Minerva is shocked), for her first season and her first target, Lady Wentwater's nephew. It goes without saying that this match is not going to work out and that reducing marriage to an economic transaction is never going to pan out in a romance novel.

The comic irony here is that the man who is perfect for Minerva is one who has a ringside seat to her failed machinations. A common theme of Chesney's book is that poor Minerva is scandalized by life in the big city. She is being tutored on how to act in society by an elderly relative, Lady Godolphin, but nothing will stop Minerva from making her moral superiority known to one and all. Consequently, she becomes the subject of a rather inappropriate wager among the supposed gentlemen of Regency London. Time after time, Minerva finds herself in extremely compromising situations with a certain gentleman, who has wagered 50,000 pounds of the matter, but who insists he is not the marrying kind.

Poor Minerva. A prude being seduced is going to be a tale ripe for humor and Chesney indulges in some ribaldry (I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that the word virgin escapes Minerva's lips). The emphasis is clearly on the comedy more than the romance, and my favorite point is when Lady Godolphin demands to know a gentleman's intentions towards Miss Armitage only to be told "You ask me my intentions, ma'am. Well, they're the worst, damme! The very worse!" Then the guy strides away. Now, I realize that could read like something serious, but it really is pretty funny. In comparison to the obvious reference point of Jane Austen, Chesney's offering displays a broader sense of humor, which should be enough to tell you whether or not you would find this book and this series appealing. After all, the vicar still has Annabelle, Deirdre, and three more daughters to marry off as successfully as he manages with this first one (ahem).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Regency Author, November 28, 2001

By 

Ariesgirl (michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Minerva (Mass Market Paperback)

In my opinion, Marion Chesney is the best of all regency authors.
Her books aren't more sugary than treacle syrup, nor are they
ever so proper like some regencies are. And best of all she
doesn't pull out every darn regency slang word that ever existed
and put it all in one novel like some do. She educates about the
Regency Era and at the same time amuses with her quirky humor
and good romance between the hero and heroine.
The Six Sisters is my favorite of her six book series and Minerva
is my favorite of all her 80 to 90 novels. (99% of which I have
read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of Chesney's Regency series, February 5, 2006

By 

voracious reader "hailnero" (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Minerva (Hardcover)

Minerva is the first in the Six Sisters series, a set of Regency-era romances by Marion Chesney (who also publishes other romances and mysteries under several pseudonyms). Chesney produced a number of Regency series (Rake's Progress, House for the Season, Mannerling Series, et.al.) but the Six Sisters is her finest romance work by far. Each of the six Armitage sisters has her own complete story;Minerva sets the tone for the whole set-- each girl is beautiful but distinct and flawed, not a perfect doll-like character with no depth. As the eldest of the girls, Minerva must make her way through the perils of London, while falling in love! The supporting cast of hunt-obsessed father, hypochondriac mother and grand dame chaperone who refuses to age gracefully add a backdrop of hilarity and consistency to the stories. Chesney's writing is a standout in this genre because the situations and characters and funny and quirky but not awkward or tedious.

Chesney also adds lots of intersting cultural and historical information, blended so well into the narrative that it serves to make the characters more fascinating. Once you read Chesney's work, you won't be able to read the standard dull, pretentious Regency romance-type again. One of my favorite relaxing-reading sets of stories. I only wish the stories were longer--each only runs about 150 pages.