The upper classes (today) DO think the lower classes are, well, equal, if it comes to that — but not quite AS equal, if you know what I mean.

LOL Linda. I’m reminded of George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

The cover of my M&B edition is much better, although the easel makes me think that the man depicted should have been the cad Terry.

This was a great and fair review (especially Jayne’s comment about rereading the last few pages, which I do myself from time to time. I did it today after I read the review and it made me weep, as usual), and approaching it as a kind of period piece is useful. I will say though that Gwyneth is not the typical Burchell heroine, who often expects to work to support herself (or even if she wasn’t raised to expect to finds herself in a position where she needs to) before marriage at least.

Classism existed, and it still exists.

And I wonder: If you did a survey of who was offended by classism in older books and who didn’t mind it at all, I would be willing to bet that the ones most offended by it are the ones who might be described as “the higher orders.”

I am definitely a lower-orders gal. The classism — along with the wish fulfillment and fantasies of riches (freedom from worry) — in romance, current and published in the past, are a balm to the constant existential anxiety of living in America these days with not enough.

Not enough money. Not enough job security. Not enough retirement security. Not enough love.

When an author pretends class does not exist, or prettifies the class power imbalance, it’s like pretending that the existential anxiety caused by “not enough” doesn’t exist. I don’t read romance to ignore my problems. I read it to soothe them.

Well, actually, I read it for the fun of a good yarn, ha.

But the class stuff is definitely a sub-element of my enjoyment.

The upper classes (today) DO think the lower classes are, well, equal, if it comes to that — but not quite AS equal, if you know what I mean. I enjoy stories that don’t deny that reality.

Bah! It’s as bad as the way Georgette Heyer wrote about the boy who had been substituted for Leonie in These Old Shades. His upbringing and education had no impact at all — he had been born a peasant, so he was a clod.

I so agree with this statement. I didn’t read “These Old Shades” until a few years ago and was appalled by this. While I also hate the “let’s be buddies and best friends” that I see between the upper classes and their servants in a lot of recent historicals, this denegration is one aspect of historical life that I’m happy to skip.

Jayne, I’d second what Sunita said about Virginia’s comments. Her most recent comment on the topic seems to summarise a lot of what she’s said on that thread. It’s here.

Did Essie Summers write contemporaries or historicals?

When Sunita first sent me the books, I flipped them over to check out the blurbs. And was gobsmacked to read the bigamy, child-out-of-wedlock plot of this one. I sat there thinking, “Harlequin published this in 1939?!” Whoa and good on them.

There’s no way Harlequin could have published this in 1939, as it wasn’t founded until 1949, so it must have been published by Mills & Boon in 1939. As far as I can remember, according to jay Dixon’s book about Mills & Boon, they had quite a lot of storylines about adultery, too (though I can’t remember which of the early decades she was referring to when she wrote that). When Mary Bonnycastle started acquiring Mills & Boon romances for Harlequin she seemed to have a preference for doctor/nurse ones which had nothing in them that she deemed to be immoral.

It also makes me hope that one day Harlequin will re-release Burchell’s novels as ebooks.

I wish they’d do this too, and do the same for Essie Summers’s novels. They’re also rather difficult to get hold of and so I’ve only been able to find a few. I’m sure there must be other authors from earlier periods in M&Bs/Harlequin’s history whose novels would also be worth republishing.

I’ve been kind of nervous, hoping that the Burchells (whichever ones the reviewers settled on) would satisfy. So this comes as a relief and a bit of a surprise.

I’ve got two more that Sunita loaned me. We’ll see if my luck holds!

Maybe I will now summon up the courage to rec some to my friends.

Janine got one of the ones that you recommended earlier and I’m looking forward to her thoughts on it.

It’s very very hard to find a Harlequin that refers to ‘current events,’ whatever that might mean at the time it was written.

Hmmm, I’m not so sure I want to read about current events in a contemporary. To me, it seems like that would just date the book in a few years. Yet, on the other hand, if the book is still being read decades later, that is what will add “period” feel to the story. Of course, I would think that an author would want a book to age well and still be thought of as contemporary even years later. It’s a puzzle to me as to which would be best.

She has an interconnected series about the world of music that I remember very fondly.

Sunita sent me the first in the Warrender series, “A Song Begins” which I hope to read soon. Since it was first published in 1965, I’m looking forward to seeing if her writing style kept pace with the social changes of the day.

but while the virgin-tycoon, adultery, and divorce plot points are very dated, I don’t remember too much of the sort of careless anti-Semitism and class condescension that makes some other authors more difficult.

Actually, while there’s no anti-Semitism, there is some mention of class. Van’s niece’s subplot opened a whole can of worms about who someone’s People are and being properly introduced so that the Wrong Sort don’t climb their way up the social ladder. Remember when the orphanage director is telling Van and Gwyn about the child’s background and says that “the mother, at least, came from Good People”?

BTW, I finally read Safe Passage and had tears in my eyes repeatedly (which doesn’t happen very often. Your review was spot on.

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. The thing that made it work so well for me is the matter of fact way that Cook tells her story. There’s no overdramatization or playing things up for the story.

What a lovely review. It’s nice to read about historical romances that were written as contemporaries for their time.

When Sunita first sent me the books, I flipped them over to check out the blurbs. And was gobsmacked to read the bigamy, child-out-of-wedlock plot of this one. I sat there thinking, “Harlequin published this in 1939?!” Whoa and good on them.