The Masqueraders
Heinemann, 1928
Setting: London, and surrounds
Time: 1746, in the reign of George II
WOW, TWO CROSS-DRESSING stories in a row! I certainly wasn’t expecting that. It makes me wonder how many more heroes (and especially heroines) I’ll see in disguise across the next several dozen books.
Our disguised folks this time out are siblings Prudence and Robin (last names initially unknown) , habitual “adventurers” – for which I read Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, basically – who are, er, masquerading as aristocratic members of each opposite sex, to evade the hangman after participating in the unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which was an attempt by that Bonnie Prince Charlie we learned of a few books ago to take back the throne for the Stuart family – and, more particularly, for his exiled grandfather James II – and oust the Hanoverian “elected” king, George II.
So, cleverly, and seemingly all but flawlessly, reinvented as the beautiful and fascinating Mistress Kate Merriot (Robin) and her brother Peter (Prue), the pair enter fashionable London society, working under the “hide in plain sight” principle, and are soon established as reputable youngsters about town. Kate knows how to flirt her fan to perfection and Prue is at home at a card party, so they get along very well – especially Robin-as-Kate, who furthers his romance with vivacious heiress Letitia by gaining her confidence, and then dazzling her as a mysterious hero.
It’s pretty deceptive and pretty wrong, but young Letty seems to be okay with it in the end, so hey, whatever works for her, right?
Prudence and her Sir Anthony’s romance is more complicated, I think, since not only does Anthony have to puzzle out the truth of the “stripling” Peter’s true gender, he has to contend with some initial concerns about his own sexuality, which you can tell he’s never questioned before meeting the faux Mr. Merriot. Tall and quiet, his “sleepy” eyes hiding a formidable intelligence, Sir Anthony not only catches on to Prue’s ruse (hehe, Prue’s ruse) pretty early on, he also keeps it from her that he knows, so that she is never sure exactly where she stands with him. Heyer is magnificent in drawing Sir Anthony’s character slowly but consistently, so that we always guess at his motives and knowledge, until he tells us – and Prue – himself.
But the star of the book is undoubtedly the “Old Gentleman,” Robin and Prue’s father and a born conman. He arrives in London masquerading as the long lost Viscount Barham, and seeing him grandly work his way into Society, until at last the truth is revealed, is comical and aw-inspiring and simply genius.
I know I have stated over and over that I have never liked, nor even truly respected, historical fiction, but the more Heyer I read, the more I realize that this prejudice has as much to do with the specimens I had read rather than the genre as a whole. The Masqueraders is not only my favorite Heyer book so far (including the contemporaries that I love so well), but might well be the best book I have read this year.
Next up is Beauvallet, which I can only assume is a sequel to Simon the Coldheart, given that was his chosen surname. I wonder if there will be a romance for Alan of Montlice, who was left unwed at the end of that exciting battle-based novel?
I hope so!
FAVORITE NEW WORD: “Domino.” Of course, I knew about the tiles for the game – my Chinese great-grandmother would have been outraged were I to not know every classic game invented in China, which she truly believed was all of them, and also how to play them – but I had never heard the word applied to items of clothing, in this case a cloak and mask worn to a masquerade ball. Research unearthed the information that these items, and their names, originated in Venice, and that domino may well be derived from the word dominus, Latin for lord, or even from the resemblance to the robes worn by Dominican monks. It was also, by the way, the Venetians who called the game tiles dominoes, too, because they looked like the domino masks. I am very glad Mei Mei never found that out. She would have been devastated.
HISTORY LEARNED: All about the unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion of 1745. I’m quite sad about it.
BUY HEYER FOR BEGINNERS HERE!
Maura Tan was born in Zanzibar, grew up in Morocco and lives in Singapore, where she is currently studying for her third degree in Contemporary Literature.
