Gentle Rogue Book

4.5 stars. If you ever wanted to see a Regency-era heroine really take charge of her life, you'll probably love The Grand Sophy. Sophia Stanton-Lacy, better known as Sophy, is dropped on her aunt's family by her globetrotting father, who asks his sister, Lady Ombersley, to watch over his poor little Sophy.

Enter Sophy, 5' 9", independent-minded and brimming with confidence.


Sophy quickly figures out all of the dysfunctions in the Ombersley family, including a father with a gambling addiction, a passive mother, a daughter who throws over the perfectly nice, eligible lord she's supposed to marry in favor of a swoony, absent-minded poet, and a younger son who's managed to get himself into some deep trouble. And the older son, Charles, who has taken over control of the family and its finances to try to pull everything together, and in the process has lost his sense of humor, turned into a domestic tyrant of sorts, and managed to get himself engaged to a vindictive, overly proper woman, Eugenia Wraxton.

It's a good thing Sophy is a take-charge-and-fix-it kind of person.



Also luckily, Sophy is intelligent and has a great sense of humor. It's a sheer pleasure to watch her take on Charles.He said stiffly: 'Since you have brought up Miss Wraxton's name, I shall be much obliged to you, cousin, if you will refrain from telling my sisters that she has a face like a horse!'

'But, Charles, no blame attaches to Miss Wraxton! She cannot help it, and that, I assure you, I have always pointed out to your sisters!'

'I consider Miss Wraxton's countenance particularly well-bred!'

'Yes, indeed, but you have quite misunderstood the matter! I meant a particularly well-bred horse!'

'You meant, as I am perfectly aware, to belittle Miss Wraxton!'

'No, no! I am very fond of horses!' Sophy said earnestly.Jane Austen's Emma should take a clue from Sophy. Emma tries to manage everyone's lives, especially their romances, and is usually wrong. Sophy - who, in fairness, is much more cosmopolitan than Emma - pretty much always succeeds at managing everyone's lives. Luckily for everyone involved, she's also pretty much always right, with one notable exception that ends up turning out right anyway, because the universe clearly loves Sophy.

I really didn't mean to swallow this book whole in one day, but once I got going I couldn't stop. And when Heyer pulls all the main characters together at the end for one of those absurd farcical scenes she does so well, it was comedy heaven.

This would be a 5-star book, easy, but unfortunately there's a really problematic minor subplot, right in the middle of the book, that involves a stereotypical greasy, evil Jewish moneylender (the name Goldhanger and his "Semitic nose" are your textual clues). It lasts for about 5 pages, max. I've looked at different ways of rationalizing this (those were different times? it's just one character and not necessarily the author's commentary on all Jews?) but I can't get comfortable with it. Nor do I think I should - this was published in 1950, post WWII, by which time people generally and Georgette Heyer specifically should have known better. This one scene will ruin the entire book for some people. If you can rationalize it or ignore it - or skip over it, knowing that Sophy prevails in their brief encounter - this is otherwise a completely delightful book. If you can't, that's totally understandable. I understand the racial descriptions have been removed from some editions of the book, like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which seems to me a happy answer to this problem.

Because really, Sophy's a great character and, that one scene excluded, this is one of Heyer's best novels. I would love to hang out with Sophy - we could braid each other's hair and she could fix all my problems.