These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer (published 1926) introduces the Duke of Avon as a cold-hearted and ruthless man, so why does he purchase the young urchin that runs into him in the road one day? Although he is known as “Satanas” to those around him, the young urchin quickly become the duke’s devoted page, and the duke’s demeanor begins to change as he learns more about the young child and makes connection to his own acquaintances.
I realize this could be a spoiler, but I cannot discuss the book without mentioning it. Toward the beginning of the book, the boy Leon is revealed to be a girl — Leonie. She is clearly in love with the Duke, but knows that, given her low birth, she must not believe she is an equal to him and so adores him from a distance. Her fiery personality leads to a series of amusing events that include kidnapping and the Duke’s silly younger brother coming to the rescue. Leonie is able to fend for herself.
I did not like a few (major) aspects of the book, starting with the stereotypes. Even when Leonie is dressed as a boy, the author gives distinct hints in the behavior to help the reader recognize that it’s a girl, thus emphasizing the male-female generic assumptions. And, because Leonie (spoiler) was actual of noble birth, she is very brilliant and wants nothing more than to learn and expand her mind. Meanwhile, the peasant-born boy who has been living among the French elite only wishes he could be a simple farmer and avoid all the book learning that so bores him. I really dislike that the whole premise of this book is that we are born into our station of life and that’s that.
These Old Shades is one of Heyer’s earliest novels, and it shows a careful plotting as characters are developed and introduced and mysterious connections are made. It takes place not in Regency England but in the Georgian Era, and mostly in France under King Louis XV. I was glad I listened to it, since many characters had a spattering of French in most of their speech. In the whole, however, it is not my favorite of the romances by Heyer that I’ve read. It simply is plotted too much, and the stereotypes are completely annoying. It kind of grosses me out that the relationship is so unbalanced both in age and station. Avon is older than 40 and Leonie is about 18, and Leonie has believed herself to be a farmer’s child her whole life. Despite her “good blood” giving her a strong personality, this still felt like an icky power-play as Avon reeled her in. He already declared he’d never been faithful to a woman, and this is a young innocent.
Avon’s brother Roger was a delightful side kick, and Leonie is a fun heroine, but something overall didn’t sit right with me about this book.
