Beauvallet: Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

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This certainly wasn't my favourite Heyer novel so far, given the hero's grabby hands and ego, but at least the heroine was a match for him in many ways, and it is a fun set up. Georgette Heyer may be a master at Regency romances, but this one set in Elizabethan times may be one of my all time favorites.

The first Georgette Heyer novel I have read which was not set either in the Regency or Georgian periods, Beauvallet is a swashbuckling Elizabethan adventure, and provided me a few hours of lighthearted reading.It is fascinating, reading her other books, not only her Regency romances or detective books (I haven't read the latter yet, but I am going to). The dashing reckless privateer Nicholas Beauvallet has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth the First for his daring adventures for England! Front panel has a 1 5/8" closed diagonal tear from the upper right corner and with adjacent creases. That bit at the beginning of Nick's fight with Don Diego, when he bends his rapier--straight out of any number of movies of the era. Her first novel, The Black Moth , published in 1921, was written at the age of seventeen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John .

She must have enjoyed writing Beauvallet for her pleasure is evident in the detailed and humorous family tree which she devised for the first edition of Beauvallet and which she headed: ‘Pedigree of the House of Beauvallet for those readers who are Interested in the Fortunes of the Descendants of Simon the Coldheart’. A perfectly serviceable historical adventure, but without the humor and panache of her Regency novels. Tense with looming danger, Beauvallet is a rollicking ride of romance, sword fights, mad dashes across country, midnight escapes, scheming aunts, dastardly cousins and one very engaging, lovable hero. So then Beauvallet invades Spain with an army of 2 to steal away his love and thumb his nose at some arrogant Spanish papists.It's set in Elizabethan times rather than around the Regency or Georgian eras, and involves England's conflict with Spain. At the same time, her fears about actually placing her life and future into Nick's hands and taking that irreversible plunge into a strange new world are realistic and understandable. Having won a sea battle with a Spanish galleon, Sir Nicholas Beauvallet finds that Don Manuel de Rada y Sylva, the late governor of Santiago, is aboard with his daughter Dona Dominica.

Far worse is her discovery that their captor isn't just any pirate -- he is the notorious Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, an Englishman with a scandalous reputation for plundering Spanish ships. I had a bit of trouble persuading the Georgette Heyer Fans Group to read this title - I must be losing my touch! He's a master at using deception and charm to lull his opponents into complacency and then seizing on whatever opportunities present themselves.When the ship bearing her to Spain is attacked by Sir Nicholas Beauvallet - the daring English pirate christened "Mad Nick" - Dona Dominica de Rada y Sylva is at first outraged by the free and easy manners of this "villain. Spine has several smudges/stains, is heavily sunned, and with significant losses at head and tail of spine and also open scrapes in the center of spine - see photos. I can also imagine a film making the most of the wonderful tudor costumes, English country mansions, Spanish mountains and castles, and ball scenes.

Dominica's character isn't perhaps as well developed as she might be, but Beauvallet is just wonderful. How is Sir Nicholas supposed to come back to Spain to claim fair lady as his bride if all of Spain wants his head? Upon landing in England, he rides on a visit to his elder brother Gerard who, lacking heirs himself, reminds Nicholas that it is his duty to continue the family line.With the blessing of the Queen, this friend and former associate of Sir Walter Raleigh sails the seas in his ship The Venture with the intention of plundering any Spanish ships that come his way. The opening naval battle and ship-boarding bears a great resemblance to the opening scenes of Flynn's 1940 film 'The Sea Hawk'.