The Spanish Bride

[jmc_bks]

The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer



This is a reissue by Sourcebooks, a trade paperback with a gorgeous cover. It is a fictionalized account of Harry Smith, a Brigade-Major in Wellington's Peninsular Army, and his wife, Juana, whom he met after the third siege of Badajoz. The book covers only their courtship and early marriage.

Being Spain obsessed, this seemed like a good book for me. And it was in one sense -- I appreciated the narrative describing the Peninsular campaign. The life of an army on the move was very well drawn. (Or so says a reader who knows little about military history or logistics.) As a Regency romance novel, the book failed. I felt vaguely squicked by the fact that Juana was 14 to Harry's mid to late 20s, and his paternalistic attitude combined with the fact that he called her hija magnified the squickage for me.

On the language front, I was not impressed with Heyer's prose. It wasn't awful, but neither was it particularly artful. And her smattering of Spanish phrases seemed not quite right. Having made it clear that Harry and Juana speak to each other in Spanish (because her English is very poor), why throw in the odd Spanish phrase after several lines of dialogue in English?

I think Heyer is not for me. Her humor and comedies of manners are highly touted as the original traditional regency novels, but I find them to be brittle and not very engaging. Of course, the traditional regency is not a favorite subgenre for me, so maybe this is to be expected.

C+ for me.

For more information about Harry and Juana Smith, check out this page.

Comments

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

Gotta say I wasn't thrilled with the Heyer we read in discussion -- I think it was These Old Shades? Anyway, not only did I never figure out what the title meant, but I was majorly squicked by the mincing fop of a 40- to 50-something hero and an 18-year-old (and annoying) heroine.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I skipped that discussion (I usually read even if I don't participate) because I just can't get into Heyer. All of her books have been either DNF or meh. This one was slightly better, but I get the impression that it is rather different from all of her other stuff, so I shouldn't take it as a sign that I ought to keep trying.

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

A couple of months back, the SourceBooks publicist kept trying to get me to read their rereleases, but she gave up after I said no several times. It's just as well I didn't accept, because I think they would have gotten really awful (but fun to write) reviews.

[(Anonymous)]

Heyer is one of my favourite authors. I'm trying to think why the age difference never bothered me - I think it's simply because it's a true story. I remember being totally thrilled when I was browsing through the stacks at university and found a copy of Harry Smith's autobiography, and could find out what happened to them afterwards.

You're right that this isn't typical Heyer. 'An Infamous Army' is set against the backdrop of Waterloo, but there's less military history, and more romance.

Marianne McA