The Earl of St. Erth returns home from war only to find his familial estate may prove more deadly than the Battlefield at Waterloo. He finds an ally in the plain and pragmatic Drucilla, but can the two of them stop the attempts on his life before one of them succeeds?

What I didn’t like (Bear with me, there’s a reason I’m starting with the negative)

First, the depiction of our hero, Gervase Frant, Seventh Earl of St Erth. By modern romance standards, (Georgette wrote between 1921 and 1974, this book was published in 1951). This guy is not your hero. He is a dandy through and through. He is above and beyond concerned with tying the perfect cravat, having beautifully polished boots and the best tailored suit, in addition to having good horses. This guy is the total polar opposite of what modern readers think of as masculine. That, of course, because I am a modern reader, was a little bit dull for me.

Then we have then our heroine, Drusilla Morville. As her name suggests, she’s not the prettiest gal at the party, but this is not unusual for these Regency romances, either today or back in the day. I think readers throughout have always enjoyed having an underdog heroine, the girl who is not the typical pretty one that all the guys go after. The very first thing we know about the Earl’s reaction to her is that he finds her very plain. Total Jane Eyre moment. He thinks yeah, she’s nothing to look at. This wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but almost immediately the author confuses things by introducing another girl, another (or actually the stated) love interest, who is the belle of the ball, the pretty little kind of cotton-brained gal that we think of as the one all the guys want. And in this book, all the guys want her, Every. Single. One of them. *grumble*

I didn’t like any of that. The new girl irritated the daylights out of me, and the focus on everyone’s infatuation with her dragged the entire story down for me. Fast-forward literally 75% of the book, I checked, and we finally get to a plot twist that caught my attention. Our hero gets shot. And that leads into things becoming interesting.

What I loved

Toward the end of the book I realized I had read things completely wrong (more on that shortly).

What is really played down in the book and what you are not going to notice until you start thinking about it and reading between the lines, is our hero is a hero. He is a war hero. He has just come back from the Napoleonic wars, he’s been gone for years, he was an officer fighting at Waterloo, and he laughingly mentions having horses shot out from under him. There’s also a very brief mention that he doesn’t like closing the curtains around his bed, he doesn’t like feeling closed in, and that is a direct result of the time spent on military campaigns.

He is also a massively observant person. He knows that the people in his home don’t really like him that much. But he also knows it is his right to be in this home, he owns it, and he is in charge. So, he goes about taking charge in a very quiet way. Quiet persistence, quiet insistence. That is his strength.

In the interaction with the ninny-headed girl, the minute he realized his brother also liked her and his brother had serious intent toward this girl, he called off his pursuit of her, showing him to have the stronger personality and character when compared to… pretty much all the other characters in the book.

So, there is this undercurrent that even though he’s not being forceful in what he wants or in his dictates, Everyone kind of gets the hint that we have to listen to him. He’s not going to be put off, and every now and again that militant air comes out.

Finally, not to be left out, we have poor little Drusilla who the Earl showed no interest in at the beginning of the book, in the middle of the book, or for the most part of the book.

Showed no interest if you’re reading as a modern-day reader and just kind of skimming through, taking things at face value. If you do what Heyer intended you to do and read between the lines a little bit, we can see that even though the Earl was not showing a definite romantic interest in Drusilla from the start, his appreciation and respect for her grow significantly throughout the book. Drucilla is pragmatic and calm, she has a very rational mind when it comes to everything going on around her and draws clear conclusions about what’s going on around her and how she should behave. This interests the Earl. He wants her opinion on things and enjoys conversing with her. By the end of the book, she is basically the one person he feels is extremely trustworthy and that he can depend on.

Do I recommend it?

By the end of the book, I really liked it and greatly enjoyed these characters. Would I read it again? I don’t know about that. The first three quarters were so hard for me to get through, but now that I have a little bit better understanding of how I am meant to read the book, it’s possible. At the very least, I would read the last quarter over and over again because I was so happy with the happy ever after.

The main thing to keep in mind when reading Heyer is that she expected her readers to infer far more detail than what we are used to today. Once I realized this, the story became much more interesting. I had previously read Sylvester (see Karen Sommer’s guest post here) and did not notice this as much, so it may be more or less emphasized depending on the book, but I’m glad I now have a better understanding of how to approach Ms. Heyer’s books for optimal enjoyment.

This book is definitely true to all the points Heyer is famed for, namely historical accuracy and attention to detail, so if you are a true romance connoisseur, this one needs to be added to your reading list.

The Official Info:

Returning to his family seat from Waterloo, Gervase Frant, seventh Earl of St Erth, could have expected more enthusiasm for his homecoming. His quiet cousin, stepmother, and young half-brother seem openly disappointed that he survived the wars. And when he begins to fall for his half-brother’s sweetheart, his chilly reception goes from unfriendly to positively murderous.

One of Heyer’s most suspenseful Regency romances, The Quiet Gentleman combines an ingenious mystery plot with her signature witty style and effervescently engaging characters.