Reluctant Widow, The [Import] [Paperback]

GEORGETTE HEYER (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Arrow; New Ed edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099468077
• ISBN-13: 978-0099468073
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,561,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, making the Regency period her own. Her first novel, "The Black Moth," published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites by Georgette Heyer, March 14, 2007

By 

Carol Mello "marzeedoats" (San Jose,CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reluctant Widow, The (Paperback)

I have been reading and collecting Georgette Heyer novels since I was 18. I actually discovered them by accident in a used bookstore where my older brother had a job. (One must patronize establishments where family members are employed.)

I have loved her novels right from the start. I have read all of them more than once. Some I have read many times. The Reluctant Widow is one of the special ones that I have read so often I have lost count of how many times I have read it.

I have noticed with the passing years that the novels that I first liked the most, the really romantic ones, have palled some over the years and that it is the funnier ones that I read over more and more. Maybe it is because I was lacking romance in my life when I started reading Georgette Heyer but now I have had more than enough romance and I appreciate humor more.

It's true that there is not much romance in this novel, or not much outward signs of romance. It really is more of a comic mystery than a romance. Yet having read it so many times, I can now detect the subtle signs of developing love between Elinor and Ned, especially Ned. It seems that time after time Ned comes up with reasons why Elinor cannot leave and get on with her life. After reading it so many times, I think that Ned may very well have fallen in love with Elinor at first sight but is reticient to do anything about it for quite a while.

To be truthful, the romance in all of Georgette Heyers novels is always secondary to the plot. In many of her novels, the hero does not make clear his intentions until the last chapter, sometimes even as late as the last 2 pages of the novel. If you are a romance addict, this can be very tiresome, having to wait so long for the romantic part.

This Georgette Heyer novel is definitely one of her 5 star novels when considered as a novel and not necessarily as a romance. The comic elements in it never fail to amuse, no matter how many times it is read. It is a funny historical novel set in the regency period of England with just a tad of romance in the end.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sampler of all Heyer's best skills, April 30, 1998

By 

truefeather77 "truefeather77" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Reluctant Widow (Hardcover)

The Reluctant Widow is exactly what a book of this type should be: delightful and purely entertaining. The secondary characters in Heyer's best books leap off the page, vivid and hilarious. The plot involves comedy, intrigue, espionage, cloaks & daggers, and things going bump in the night - - served with a sauce of witty repartee that is the Heyer Hallmark. Unforgettable.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Married to a fast-dying rake, a widow overnight...", August 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Reluctant Widow. (Hardcover)

This was the quote on the back of the book. The story itself begins in a decidedly Gothic fashion, with a seemingly dark, irascible hero, a heroine swept along by fate and a malevolent drunkard who plays her short-lived husband. The stage is set; some papers are missing that must not be allowed to fall into Bonaparte's hands and of course, they're probably secreted in the heroine's new home.

Some familiar personalities make their appearance in this novel; the hero's younger brother is modelled along most younger brothers/cousins, such as Ludovic of The Talisman Ring and Richmond of The Unknown Ajax. Basil, the sneaking and probably up-to-no-good fop is practically the twin of the evil Beau from The Talisman Ring. In fact, this story is a lot like the Talisman Ring, only without the guffaw-inducing nature of that worthy book and with a tamer ending. All in all, a good mystery infused with a lot of humour.