REVIEW: The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer
A fateful mistake…
When Elinor Rochdale boards the wrong coach, she ends up not at her prospective employer’s home but at the estate of Eustace Cheviot, a dissipated and ruined young man on the verge of death.
A momentous decision…
His cousin, Mr Ned Carlyon, persuades Elinor to marry Eustace as a simple business arrangement. By morning, Elinor is a rich widow, but finds herself embroiled with an international spy ring, housebreakers, uninvited guests, and murder. And Mr Carlyon won’t let her leave …
Dear Readers,
I started reading this book with no prior information about the plot or for that matter anything more about it than it was a Heyer, set during the Regency and had – I assumed – a widow in it. I thought maybe it was a faux widow, a masquerade widow or some such but figured I’d find out as I went along.
The story starts with our heroine Elinor Rochdale arriving at her latest governess post. Elinor isn’t looking forward to this but a woman’s gotta eat and now this is her lot in life. She’s initially surprised that her employer, for whom she pretty much dreads working, would send a nice carriage to pick her up but doesn’t question this as much as she should. After a longer trip than she was expecting, she arrives at what appears to be a run down house. It only gets worse when she gets inside. Not hoarders worse but massive neglect worse. She’s shown into a room where a man she assumes to be the husband is waiting. Fairly soon, they’re confusing each other until they realize they’re confusing each other and then the truth emerges.
He is Lord Carlyon who thinks she’s answered the type of ad that is only found in romanceland, namely to marry his dissolute cousin who due to his excesses probably won’t live for long. Carlyon’s side of the family, and indeed most everyone who knows Eustace, despises him. In return, Eustace loathes just about everyone but especially Carlyon whom he, Eustace, believes is trying to inherit Eustace’s run down estate. Due to a will which is also probably only found in romanceland, if Eustace dies without marrying, the estate goes to Carlyon who doesn’t want it. Hence Carlyon wants someone to marry the wretch to prevent this.
Elinor and I are both struck dumb by this situation but Elinor rallies and refuses. Just as Carlyon is urging her to reconsider, his youngest and ramshackle brother Nicky arrives with the news that he’s been in a fight with Eustace who has been mortally injured. With no time to lose, Carlyon basically badgers Elinor into acceptance, waves a special license he just happens to have, picks up the parson on the way to the inn and off they go. One quick marriage and new will later, and Eustace only goes along because this will keep hated Carlyon from inheriting, and Elinor is married. Shortly later she’s also the widow of the book title.
At this point I stopped for a moment to consider why I was going along with this plot. The only things which immediately came to mind were it’s by Heyer and both hero and heroine regard it as outlandish. For some reason as long as they also thought it strange too, I could accept it. As Carlyon outlines his reasons to Elinor, they make a kind of bizarre sense and well, it’s Heyer and I still thought it would eventually be fun. Elinor’s excuse seemed to be that while Carlyon is hard eyed and brutally frank, he is also one of the few people to seemingly understand her hard lot in life and how far socially down she’s come after her father squandered his money and committed suicide. She might be poor now but she is good ton.
Another Carlyon brother, the one in politics in London, arrives and is astonished as well at what’s happened. He also brings news that a key military document has gone missing and must be found. The next day Elinor travels back to her new hovel, I mean home, and starts tidying up. That night a strange man appears in her home and after an even stranger conversation, he leaves and she can’t discover how he got in. When Nicky arrives, together they search the house and find a hidden entryway. At this point, things take an even weirder turn. The man appears again the next night and accidentally shoots Nicky but gets away. Now these two are convinced he’s after something but are not sure what.
A conversation with Carlyon and brother John reveal that it might be this document but all are confused about how wastrel Eustace could be involved because, you know while he is a useless sot, he’s also family. Mustn’t suspect family of anything havey cavey. Carlyon also insists that Elinor, despite her protests, will be safe staying there and doubts anything could happen to her.
By this stage a pattern was emerging. Elinor was coming off like a shrill shrew for daring to complain about unknown people wandering through her house at night and any possible danger while a highhanded Carlyon condescended to her, waves off her concerns and all but patted her on the head. Her old governess, whom Carlyon had fetched from London to stay with Elinor, also backed him up because he’s a Lord who was kind to her and, well, he’s a man so he must know best. Grrrr.
Meanwhile ebullient and high spirited Nicky and his overgrown dog bounce through the story leaving trails of chaos in their wake. Far too much time is spent on this dog and Nicky’s full bore and slang filled delight in danger. Elinor’s reasonable, IMO, objections are consistently overruled by just about everyone. The Carlyon men debate and discuss the missing document, Eustace’s involvement and the rest of the issues far too long without anything actually getting moved forward or in any way resolved.
It also dawned on me that Carlyon and Elinor were spending little time together and when they did, there was mainly friction and annoyance, at least on downtrodden Elinor’s side. Where, I wondered, was the romance? I hadn’t seen a bit of it and at this point, I was 2/3 of the way through the book.
More people showed up and took up time and energy, more time was spent looking for whatever was hidden and despite Carlyon’s assurances to her, Elinor kept getting in danger and eventually got hurt. And to my annoyance as well as Elinor’s he basically blew this off and calmly stated she probably didn’t have anything to worry about. Never mind the lump on her head from where the villain conked her. I wanted to conk Carlyon.
I was also skimming like mad because just about everyone was making me fume plus I had ceased caring about the document, the spy or much else. Frankly skimming was probably what saved me from imploding as Carlyon highhanded his way through not telling Elinor something she should have known, took over the denouement of the document and then in the last 2 pages proclaimed his love and proposed marriage. Unlike Elinor, who after a bit of spirited outrage eventually meekly gave in and said yes, I’d have pushed him out of the carriage.
Perhaps this is a book one must be in the mood to appreciate. Maybe I was supposed to read it as spirited fun and good laughs but since it failed me both as a romance and as a suspense/mystery, it gets a F and I never thought I’d give a Heyer that grade. Someone, please tell me what I’m missing about it.
~Jayne
AmazonBNKoboAREBook DepositoryGoogle
Reluctant Widow struck me as being more like a madcap Hollywood movie than a typical romance. I could picture William Powell and Myrna Loy running around having antics. Once I made the mental switch, I enjoyed it, but the book is a departure from classic Heyer.
I read this a long time ago and remember thinking the same thing: where was the romance? I also remember disliking Carlyon as much as you did. I would still give this a higher grade than F though, since I liked Elinor better than some of the other Heyer women.
I’ve read it and listened to it on audio. I agree with Mzcue, it’s a light hearted story, perhaps halfway between a mystery and romance. No, there is not a thoroughly developed romance, but then again, if you read much Heyer you’ll find in many of her books the romance is subtle and behind the scenes for much of the book. I don’t know where this book falls in the timeline of publication, but it seems more like one of her mysteries than romances. I enjoy The Reluctant Widow, but then again I simply enjoy Heyer. There are few of her books I haven’t read, some of her historical fiction, and even fewer that I wouldn’t reread. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve reread almost everything Heyer has written at least once. They are wonderful on unabridged audio.
I’m sorry that I didn’t catch autocorrect changing Heyer’s name.
I couldn’t disagree more. I Really loved this story. Lord Carlyon making the most outrageous things appear perfectly ordinary when the heroine and reader know they’re not. I thought there were moments of laugh out loud funny. The plotting and pace were spot on. This is of course old school without numerous and repetitive sex scenes. No angst! No tortured souls. It’s a happy relief that I re-read with a smile.
When I found myself rooting for the apparent villain rather than the hero and heroine, I knew this book wasn’t for me. I’m glad I read it for Francis Cheviot, but Charlyon and Elinor both grated on me.
I haven’t read the book, but your review is highly entertaining.
“At this point I stopped for a moment to consider why I was going along with this plot.”
That line made me laugh aloud. Thanks for brightening my Monday.
I loved this book when I first read it as a teenager, which was a very long time ago. More recent rereads have not fared as well, and the older I get, the more obnoxious I find Carlyon. He is clearly a man who will never, ever admit that he could be wrong, and I really found myself wondering about the longterm viability of Elinor and Carlyon’s marriage.
Overall, I’d give it a higher grade than Jayne did, but that’s largely for my appreciation of the farcical elements rather than liking the romantic pairing.
I love The Reluctant Widow! I can’t believe it gets an F, I’d give it a B+. It’s not very romantic but I loved going back to read it a second time to catch all the small hints (which I find true of all Heyers). Also, I read Carlyon as arch and Elinor as adorably exasperated, rather than taking every word straight. Like, she thinks he’s crazy but weirdly compelling, and he loves seeing her react and encourages it. It’s like a farcical comedy, like The Importance of Being Earnest or something If that ilk. If you skimmed the book I can see how much of the tone and humor got lost. It’s one of my favorite Heyers though (others being Devil’s Cub, Venetia, Faros Daughter…)
@Carrie: I’m glad you didn’t, though, because that has to be one of the best autocorrects ever.
@Sarah: Right! I keep thinking about Cary Grant in the movie “Charade” with Audrey Hepburn. The affection Grant’s character has for Hepburn is understated and hidden behind the web of misdirection and disguise. Sometimes Grant even seems sinister, but that’s part of the romantic tension. Reluctant Widow is a bit of fluff, but if you enjoy Heyer and occasional fluff, I think it can be fun. I had the initial WTF reaction as I was reading it, but my disbelief suspended itself as it often does in rom-coms.
@Jo: @Aoife: Initially when I wrote the review, I graded it a D but then stopped and thought about how nothing worked for me. I did like Elinor more than just about anyone else in the novel but I’ve like other Heyer heroines just as well and since I didn’t buy the romance, I felt more mad that she’s stuck with Carlyon then happy.
@Mzcue: Well, perhaps if it had been Carlyon and Elinor running around, I might have felt differently and been able to change my viewpoint to romp-mode. As it was, Carlyon was actually in the book very little and when he was in a scene, he annoyed me.
@Mara: You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it. ;)
The book might not have been funny, but your review of it gave me belly laughs. Thank you!
@Carrie: I corrected the spelling in your original comment.
@Liz Mc2: Oops!
Haha! This was a great review, though I personally quite enjoy the book and re read or skim it occasionally. But in the spirit of a farce (I enjoy Nicky and his dog). I did warn @Janine on twitter a few months that it is not one of Heyer’s best. And though I rank it low on my list, it isn’t as bad as say Cousin Kate, or Regency Buck.
Some trivia: this is the only book to which Heyer sold film rights. And the film, made in the 50s, was apparently so terrible that she never allowed another film to be made again. Here is a description by Mari Ness (SPOILERS) (http://www.tor.com/2013/04/09/the-reluctant-widow-georgette-heyer/):
“it makes absolutely no sense: first the sulky Elinor is pushing Francis Cheviot away (I know!) and then, as Carlyon enters the room, she suddenly kisses Francis (I know!) even though by this point she’s married to Carlyon (don’t ask; I thought it was a dream sequence) and then Carlyon starts to seduce her and says first he married her to his cousin, and then to himself (so it wasn’t a dream sequence) but he hasn’t told her that he loves loves loves her and they kiss and then he says he has to go tie up Francis in his bedroom (!) so they won’t be disturbed (!) at which point Elinor who until now was making out with him panics and hides in the secret passage so Carlyon sleeps on her bed (clothed). He finds her in the morning (I’m lost too), takes tea from the maid and then starts seducing Elinor again who this time seems happier (tea is very seductive) and goes for it even though hours earlier she was HIDING IN A SECRET PASSAGE to escape his MAD CARESSES and fade to black, all while THEY ARE THREATENED BY NAPOLEONIC SPIES. It’s actually worse than this, because I am leaving out all of the stuff in the beginning that makes no sense, if quite raunchy for a 1950s film, but you can hardly blame Heyer for objecting, and making no attempt to have her books filmed again.”
@Janhavi: I remember that discussion on Twitter. The movie sounds horrible.
Not one of my favorite Heyers, though I didn’t hate it and I did like Nicky and the dog – I really enjoy dogs and children in Heyer in general.
This is one of my top ten Heyers. It starts out like a gothic governess story, but with Nicky’s arrival on the scene it turns into something altogether different, and hilarious. I quite like Carlyon, and I think you can see his affection for Elinor in, for example, his fetching her old governess to keep her company. I know some people think he browbeats Elinor, but I disagree — I think she is well up to his weight and it’s really more banter and teasing than anything.
The Reluctant Widow written in 1950 is a very funny book. You’re F grade is a bit off……the writing alone is A+ brilliant even if the story (for you) wasn’t.
I just recently re-read/re-listened to it (as in two weeks ago recently) and I definitely don’t agree with the F grade.
My reasons?
1. I’ve heard that Heyer based Nicky and his dog on her own then-teenaged son and his dog, so I always view his scenes through the lens of a mom being wry about her kid’s enthusiasms, which makes them a lot of fun. (I also really hope his dog wasn’t as badly behaved as Bouncer!)
2. I adore Francis Cheviot — such a chilling man, in his suave/foppish way. I wonder if Bujold based her fribble/spy/doer of clandestine deeds Byerly Vorruyter on him. The audiobook reader gave him a lisp that should have made him sound ridiculous, but it just gave me chills down my back.
3. As for Carlyon and Elinor, yes, I read their scenes together as wacky exasperated comedy — although Elinor is the exasperated one in this reading (I think of her as Cary Grant in Bringing up Baby — stuck in a totally absurd situation through no fault of her own and trying to ride it out with dignity, and failing due to *certain people* being themselves — and falling in love while doing so). And don’t forget that Carlyon’s sister gives us a hint that he’s in love when she visits, even if Elinor doesn’t quite grok the statement at the time. I always figured that he’d try to be the one and only right person who knows it all, and she’d be the deflationary person who shows him the error of his ways. And because he loves her/she loves him, it works.
Thank you! I love Heyer, but this grade is spot in my opinion. What a terrible book! Hero is a jerk, and the heroine is too spineless to be a match for him. She will be forced to do whatever he wants for the rest of their lives. Nicky is a brat, and I stopped caring about all of them.
@Emily: It should spot on.
@Emily: It should say it should say spot on. I’m sorry sort of groggy right now.
I don’t trust this review at all, since the reviewer admits that she skimmed parts of the book. It seems to me that even if you don’t like the novel, if your job is to write a book review you should read the whole book.
I always liked the scene where Bouncer has Elinor trapped in a room, and she reads the book on – is it horse racing? – and gets caught up in following the bloodlines.
It seemed to me a great depiction of a Real Reader – I’ve got caught up in the lists of vitamins on cereal packets when that was the only reading material available.
It’s some time since I read it, but I always thought Elinor was more than a match for Carlyon. I think they will be happy. I’d have this book in my middle tier of Heyers – maybe alongside The Toll Gate – broadly speaking a good read, and worth rereading every couple of years, but a bit much not very gripping plot interrupting the romance. (Might put The Unknown Ajax in that bracket too, though it’s saved by the plot reaching a hero-defining climax at the end of the book.)
Fascinating to see the diversity of ranking Heyer’s novels among fans. I particularly enjoyed Cotillion because of its twist, Unknown Ajax because of the way the hero misrepresents himself, Sprig Muslin in which the older woman prevails…and I guess Venetia because of the heroine’s determination to become more.
@Mzcue: I’ve had different favorites at different times in my life. When I was thirteen-fourteen, it was The Corinthian. In my later teens, it was Venetia, throughout my twenties, The Foundling. When I first read Cotillion, in my late teens, I didn’t like it much, but when I was in my thirties, it was a favorite. I still really like all of those, but also The Quiet Gentleman, The Talisman Ring, The Unknown Ajax, The Reluctant Widow, and Devil’s Cub. (So maybe it’s not in my top five or six, but my top ten or twelve? Math was never my strong suit.) Then there are a whole bunch I think of as middle-tier (e.g., Arabella, The Toll-Gate, Friday’s Child, The Grand Sophy, False Colours) and down at the bottom I have Charity Girl (oddly enough, the first Heyer I ever read), Frederica, Regency Buck, and Cousin Kate. I wouldn’t give any of them, even Regency Buck, a grade lower than a B. Even the ones I don’t generally like (usually because I dislike the heroine) I think are very well written and I’ve re-read all of them many times. I was put off of them for about a decade, though (pretty much my forties), after reading a biography of Heyer.
@Janine: So, for those of us who came in late, what was the auto-correct?
It’s been a while since I’ve read this one, but I’d probably list it among the mid-range Heyer’s. Maybe it’s time for a re-read.
@Janine: Now I want to know what the typo was! :)
@Kaetrin: Heyer had been transformed into Heyerdahl, an author in his own right: Kon Tiki, about his adventures as a South Pacific adventurer and ethnographer.
@Mzcue: Thx :)
This isn’t my favorite Heyer book either. It definitely has a screwball comedy feel to it and that only works for me sometimes. The mystery wasn’t mysterious enough to make the book a mystery, the comedy wasn’t quite humorious enough to completely carry the story and the lack of Elinor and Carlyon being together made the romance weak. I like Nicky and his dog but I’m not a big fan of Heyer’s plucky/goofy male stock character especially when that character spends more time with the heroine then the hero.
I too would never rate this an F. Whilst not my favourite Heyer, I will willingly re-read it and enjoy it every time. I find it is one of those books where you get to the end, and then get a bigger romance “kick” on the reread because the Hero’s earlier actions and comments appear more romantic when you know how it all ends. I also thought that the heroine and hero were balanced, with her resigned to being dragged into the farce and him trying to roll with the unanticipated developments, and him getting a bit of comeuppance for his manipulations due to his fear and concern when she was (nearly) hurt. I’d give it a solid B.
I honestly don’t know what you’re missing with this one but I will make sure to read it last. However, I loved Envious Casca as a locked room mystery (and a not a hard one either) and it has a romance literally thrown in at the end but still enjoyable. The snark was flying in that one as well as the humor. I haven’t found one of her mysteries to beat it yet and I’ve read her most popular one, Blunt Instrument.
This was also one of my least favorite Heyer books, mostly due to the hero. Joan Smith wrote a book with an extremely similar plot, Delsie, and I found that to be lively and entertaining, with vastly more attractive lead characters.
Has it been long enough you’d now consider the audiobook? I only sort of liked this one until I heard Cornelius Garrett narrate it. He made me love it. Now when I reread it, I enjoy the humor in it so much more, and better appreciate the subtlety of the romance in the midst of a very unsubtle situation.