The Great Roxhythe [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (1929)
• ASIN: B000J2DXSK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,885,362 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

216 of 226 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The very BEST of Heyer- and I repeat, the best., August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Roxhythe (Hardcover)

Georgette Heyer is known more for her regency romances than for her historical novels. I was therefore surprised that the book that I consider the best Heyer story I read- along with her contemporary novel "Pastel" and her Regency novel "Cotillion"- was a non-Regency historical novel. "The Great Roxhythe" is the best of the Heyer books I read. It veers away from the usual light-hearted, unrealistic romances and plunges into the politics and intrigue of the age of Charles the II, and it deals with the relationships between men and women in a less sentimental (and more realistic) manner. Slow, complex and mature, it's a definite read for people who like a "mature" Heyer story.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare find, December 8, 2006

By 

E. Klingman (South Dakota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Roxhythe (Hardcover)

Suppressed by the author for decades, who did not like the results, this unusual tale will not be a favorite for the "typical" Regency fan.

Set in the time of Charles II, the "Great" Roxhythe is a fictional character drawn, according to Jane Aiken Hodge, (author of the definitive biography of Heyer, "The Private World of Georgette Heyer"), from actual characters that surrounded the "Merry Monarch," Charles II in the Restoration Era of England.

I first found this tale in a library and have never forgotten it. It is not easy to get into, and one must enjoy the lone, devoted and maybe not-quite-moral hero as he is. There is no romance as such, except the romance of the era and of Roxhythe himself. Serious Heyer fans may detect some ghostly foreshadowing (as in "The Black Moth") of the later (and the most definitive Heyer "rake") character Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon from "These Old Shades".

If you love a serious story set in an amazing era written by a top historical novelist, try this one. I never understood why this one was suppressed (along with two very early and not very good novels that are now in print). But Heyer was her own worst critic. I loved it and love it still.

121 of 141 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars THE GREAT ROXHYTHE by Georgette Heyer, June 21, 2000

By 

Mystery Maven (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Great Roxhythe (Hardcover)

If you're expecting one of Heyer's usual light-hearted regencies, you'll be extremely disappointed in THE GREAT ROXHYTHE. In fact, I would recommend you skip this one entirely. I found it as dull as ditch water and the characters one-dimensional; definitely not up to the author's usual standards. However, if you've read and enjoyed any of Heyer's other historical novels (ROYAL ESCAPE, THE CONQUEROR, MY LORD JOHN, and SIMON THE COLDHEART), you'll probably enjoy this one too.