[XMV]∎ [PDF] Free Arabella Georgette Heyer 9780099465621 Books

Arabella Georgette Heyer 9780099465621 Books

Download As PDF : Arabella Georgette Heyer 9780099465621 Books

Arabella Georgette Heyer 9780099465621 Books

Don't miss this one! Just wonderful. Several reviews called it a Cinderella story, and it is, but it's so much more - scenes came back into my mind for days after. The romance is heartfelt, the characters sharp, the dialog very funny. Fans and reviewers often compare Heyer to Jane Austen, and though I don't always agree, this is probably her most Austen-esque book. And yes, the book would be Pride and Prejudice. But only in the outline of the story. She takes things in her own direction.

It opens in Yorkshire with the four daughters of the Reverend Henry Tallant - he's got as many sons, as well. Arabella is the eldest, quite pretty, as are all the children. Her mother has decided to spend her savings to stake her daughter on a Season in London. The parents are interesting. Henry Tallant could have had more from life than being a vicar, and his wife could have had more than a minister for a husband. They're happy because they both got what they wanted. The warmth and charm of the Tallant family could be saccharine in the hands of a lesser writer, but Heyer obviously loves these characters, and in her hands they're genuine and three-dimensional. When the Vicar reluctantly agrees to the great adventure, he advises his daughter not to be taken in by vanity or false pride. Unfortunately, false pride rears its head before she even arrives in London.

Arabella is going in borrowed finery, her uncle's grand old traveling coach. Which drops an axle and nearly overturns. It's raining and cold, and she does what she would do in Yorkshire, which is seek shelter in the nearest house. The nearest being the hunting box of Robert Beaumaris, holed up with his friend Lord Fleetwood. Beaumaris is really more of a Beau Brummell with cash than a Mr. Darcy, but he's very arrogant, and he's bored. Fleetwood is delighted when the lovely Arabella appears, while Beaumaris is more than a little sour. Arabella can't understand why, until she retires to get ready for dinner, and on returning overhears him make the unbelievably smug remark that she probably wrecked her carriage in front of his house deliberately. It seems money-hungry marriageable ladies have stalked him, accidentally swooning when he's standing near, or accidentally twisting their ankle just outside his townhouse door. Arabella tries to deliver a set-down, saying she's one of THE Yorkshire Tallants, and wishes to be incognito in London since she's tired of young men in Yorkshire who pursue her for her fortune. It's only a joke, but it blimps up, and morphs into some very funny directions that caught me napping.

Robert Beaumaris decides, for his own amusement, to make Miss Tallant the rage, and at first Arabella is as dazzled by London as her father feared. But when she sees another London beneath the surface, unlike the hard-shelled ton, she refuses to look the other way. Nothing passes under her radar, from a horse being cruelly whipped by a cart driver to stray dogs and abused chimney boys. Heyer cleverly uses what would soon become the social causes of the era. And the first time Robert Beaumaris sees one of her epic eruptions, which is very clearly not played for him, he's hooked. He knows his elegant life has just taken a drastic turn, and he's going to spend the rest of it saddled with the strays Arabella collects. To his credit, despite being so fastidious, he's looking forward to it.

Beaumaris' Brummell-like status is mined for serious laughs. When Arabella saddles him with a scroungy mutt, the reactions are great, including a wonderful scene in which Robert's junk-yard dog takes on the prissy carriage-dog of the infamous dandy Poodle Byng. She also mines history for great secondary characters, including Arabella's equally likable brother. Remarkable, considering that this book is pretty lean. When I started researching the Regency five years ago, the first book I read was The Profligate Son by Nicola Phillips. It tells the true story, in about 300 well-researched pages, of the downfall of a young Regency wannabe caught in the dangerous coils of London. It's a testament to Heyer that, decades before it was written, she tells the same story in about two chapters, with the character of the brother. Who, of course, comes out happily. But one scene in particular, in a fashionable gambling hell, is just fantastic, reminiscent of a similar scene in Devil's Cub. Even more tense because she so thoroughly understands the complex games of chance that obsessed Londoners in this period.

All in all, a great love story with charm, warmth, surprises, and even ethics! How can you miss?


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Arabella Georgette Heyer 9780099465621 Books Reviews

I just finished this and am still laughing even though I've easily read this 5 times now. This is one of my favorites of Georgette Heyer's books. I've just emerged from writing up a research report and needed something amusing to read after all the oh-so-serious reading and data analysis I've been doing for the past month. This was just the ticket. I love the characters - well-crafted and distinctive - not to mention the humor she laces through her descriptions and situations in the story. That's one of the things I like best about Georgette Heyer - her adeptness with humor. It isn't broad but it is laced into what would seem to be normal conversation or events in ways that will catch you and having you laughing out loud. I've been caught many times by my husband or by people in airports or elsewhere when reading these when I find myself laughing out loud - sometimes to the point of tears. The conversations between Mr. Beaumaris and the little dog that Arabella foists on him, or the entire situation around Jimmy, get me laughing every time. While I will grant that some character types repeat, Georgette Heyer crafted an incredibly deep repertoire of characters, personalities, and plot lines to draw for her Regency romances and early 20th century mysteries. If I have a least favorite, it is the older romances - Simon the Coldheart and My Lord John, for example - that I am less fond of. But I heartily recommend the Regency romances if you're looking for a well-written plot with excellent eye to detail and to characterization. This is an excellent book to introduce yourself to Georgette Heyer. After this, try The Grand Sophy or The Unknown Ajax. Then you'll be hooked!
The enjoyable characters and the humor make this Heyer a favorite. It's the story of Arabella Tallant, the beautiful eldest daughter of a Yorkshire vicar with a comfortable living but a large family, who enjoys a London season under the aegis of her godmother, Lady Bridlington.

En route to London Arabella and her companion have to take temporary shelter at the hunting box of Robert Beaumaris, a wealthy and well-connected young man known to the ton as The Nonpareil. She overhears him make a cynical remark about her to his friend, and reacts by telling a lie - that she is an heiress who wants to be unknown when she gets to London so she won't be beleaguered by fortune hunters. Naturally, the lie spreads (though the friend was the culprit, Beaumaris didn't discourage him), helping to guarantee her success in London but also posing an obstacle when she realizes Beaumaris is the only man who could make her happy.

Without conceit, Beaumaris knows that others in the ton will follow where he leads (witness the hilarious dandelion episode), and he thinks it would be amusing to see whether he can make "the little Tallant" the toast of the season, but he has no serious intentions toward her. Believing that beauty and charm alone would eventually pall on him, he is looking for something more in the woman he marries, though he has never yet found it and doesn't even know what it would be.

That changes when he arrives to invite Arabella out for a drive and walks in on her showdown with Lady Bridlington and her prosy son over the fate of a small climbing boy who had come crashing down onto her hearth that morning "Confronted by the vision of Arabella fighting for the future of her unattractive protege, [he] had undergone an enlightenment so blinding as almost to deprive him of his senses...She showed no discomfiture when two gentleman of fashion had arrived to find her embroiled in the concerns of an urchin far beneath the notice of any aspirant to social heights. No, by God! thought Mr. Beaumaris exultantly, she showed us what she thought of such frippery fellows as we are!"

In earnest pursuit now, he next helps Arabella rescue a mongrel being tormented by some hooligans, which he adopts and names Ulysses; and he unobtrusively keeps an eye on her brother, Bertram, who had been to Oxford to take Responsions and is now enjoying an unsanctioned town spree under the assumed name of "Mr. Anstey."

There are many other entertaining characters and scenarios to round out this tale. My favorites were Arabella's somewhat austere but beloved father, whose principled kindness she never fully appreciates till she must learn to navigate her new world; and her lively, pragmatic mother, who has never regretted marrying the vicar and turning her back on the worldly prospects that beckoned. I especially enjoyed the early scenes of Arabella's home life and the teasing chatter, squabbles and commiserations shared by Arabella and her siblings.

But without a doubt, it's the incorrigibly "under-bred" Ulysses who steals every scene he's in, from the hilarious encounter he provokes with "Poodle" Byng and the purebred poodle that accompanies that gentleman everywhere, to the equally funny conversations Beaumaris has with him about his manners and conduct, to the way Ulysses worms his way into the affections of Beaumaris and his entire household staff.
Don't miss this one! Just wonderful. Several reviews called it a Cinderella story, and it is, but it's so much more - scenes came back into my mind for days after. The romance is heartfelt, the characters sharp, the dialog very funny. Fans and reviewers often compare Heyer to Jane Austen, and though I don't always agree, this is probably her most Austen-esque book. And yes, the book would be Pride and Prejudice. But only in the outline of the story. She takes things in her own direction.

It opens in Yorkshire with the four daughters of the Reverend Henry Tallant - he's got as many sons, as well. Arabella is the eldest, quite pretty, as are all the children. Her mother has decided to spend her savings to stake her daughter on a Season in London. The parents are interesting. Henry Tallant could have had more from life than being a vicar, and his wife could have had more than a minister for a husband. They're happy because they both got what they wanted. The warmth and charm of the Tallant family could be saccharine in the hands of a lesser writer, but Heyer obviously loves these characters, and in her hands they're genuine and three-dimensional. When the Vicar reluctantly agrees to the great adventure, he advises his daughter not to be taken in by vanity or false pride. Unfortunately, false pride rears its head before she even arrives in London.

Arabella is going in borrowed finery, her uncle's grand old traveling coach. Which drops an axle and nearly overturns. It's raining and cold, and she does what she would do in Yorkshire, which is seek shelter in the nearest house. The nearest being the hunting box of Robert Beaumaris, holed up with his friend Lord Fleetwood. Beaumaris is really more of a Beau Brummell with cash than a Mr. Darcy, but he's very arrogant, and he's bored. Fleetwood is delighted when the lovely Arabella appears, while Beaumaris is more than a little sour. Arabella can't understand why, until she retires to get ready for dinner, and on returning overhears him make the unbelievably smug remark that she probably wrecked her carriage in front of his house deliberately. It seems money-hungry marriageable ladies have stalked him, accidentally swooning when he's standing near, or accidentally twisting their ankle just outside his townhouse door. Arabella tries to deliver a set-down, saying she's one of THE Yorkshire Tallants, and wishes to be incognito in London since she's tired of young men in Yorkshire who pursue her for her fortune. It's only a joke, but it blimps up, and morphs into some very funny directions that caught me napping.

Robert Beaumaris decides, for his own amusement, to make Miss Tallant the rage, and at first Arabella is as dazzled by London as her father feared. But when she sees another London beneath the surface, unlike the hard-shelled ton, she refuses to look the other way. Nothing passes under her radar, from a horse being cruelly whipped by a cart driver to stray dogs and abused chimney boys. Heyer cleverly uses what would soon become the social causes of the era. And the first time Robert Beaumaris sees one of her epic eruptions, which is very clearly not played for him, he's hooked. He knows his elegant life has just taken a drastic turn, and he's going to spend the rest of it saddled with the strays Arabella collects. To his credit, despite being so fastidious, he's looking forward to it.

Beaumaris' Brummell-like status is mined for serious laughs. When Arabella saddles him with a scroungy mutt, the reactions are great, including a wonderful scene in which Robert's junk-yard dog takes on the prissy carriage-dog of the infamous dandy Poodle Byng. She also mines history for great secondary characters, including Arabella's equally likable brother. Remarkable, considering that this book is pretty lean. When I started researching the Regency five years ago, the first book I read was The Profligate Son by Nicola Phillips. It tells the true story, in about 300 well-researched pages, of the downfall of a young Regency wannabe caught in the dangerous coils of London. It's a testament to Heyer that, decades before it was written, she tells the same story in about two chapters, with the character of the brother. Who, of course, comes out happily. But one scene in particular, in a fashionable gambling hell, is just fantastic, reminiscent of a similar scene in Devil's Cub. Even more tense because she so thoroughly understands the complex games of chance that obsessed Londoners in this period.

All in all, a great love story with charm, warmth, surprises, and even ethics! How can you miss?