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False Colours Georgette Heyer 9780099476337 Books

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False Colours Georgette Heyer 9780099476337 Books

I was in junior high school, reading Deceptions by Judith Michael along with everyone else – that was the last time I had this much fun reading about changeling twins. Of course, Deceptions was drowning in bathos, while False Colours is a lighthearted comedy of errors.

Kit and Evelyn Francot are twins, the sons of London’s famed beauty, Lady Denville. Evelyn has come into the title Earl of Denville, being the elder. (One wonders how they can tell?) But, as so often happens in Heyer, he doesn’t have free access to the money, nor can he bail his flakey mother out of some serious debt. Kit has been serving in the diplomatic corps, and arrives home unexpectedly just in time to be drafted into service as a stand-in for his brother, to keep Evelyn's engagement to the heiress Cressy Stavely from going south. Evelyn has gone missing, and with the tie between them, Kit senses he’s all right, but in some sort of trouble. To no one’s surprise, Kit, the more level-headed brother, finds the smart and sensible Cressy attractive. And just when she was going to cry off the engagement, she finds a different sort of Evelyn attractive, as well.

No, it’s not the best Heyer I’ve ever read. Surely that would be Venetia or Cotillion. Or An Infamous Army. Or These Old Shades. But it’s a fun, relaxing read, with the usual great characters. Kit and Evelyn adore their dippy mother, in a relationship that’s touching. Their father was an inflexible man, and the wrong husband for the helpless Amabel, unable to love her for what she is. I read one review grousing about her character as a spendthrift, self-indulgent idiot, but if you know history, you recognize Lady Denville. A Regency standard. Heyer even gives you a bit of shorthand, openly comparing her to the incomparable Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She’s past forty and still has groupies, “cicisbeo” in Regency-speak. It’s a hoot. Some of the funniest scenes are between Kit and various dazzled followers. The most loyal and (long-lasting) is Sir Bonamy Ripple, larger than life in more ways than one. His adoration leads to some funny plot turns you don’t see coming.

I only had one odd complaint, that being some choppiness. At one particular point, Kit’s inner narrative, regarding his love for Cressy, lurches forward in a way that just shouts “missing scene.” Leaves you scratching your head. I’ve seen this a couple times in her books, I think because she was turning them out so fast, trying for two a year, and her editor got sloppy. I was expecting a lot of trademark period slang in Friday’s Child, with so many fashionable London blades, but really got more in this book. False Colours is heavy on dialog, and much of it is with the servants, especially the valet, Fimber. So if you find yourself bum squabbled in the devil of a hank, you might want to reach for Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, but it’s not necessary. The fun of Heyer’s language is that it flows, and you’ll always pick up the meaning from the context. Enjoy!


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False Colours Georgette Heyer 9780099476337 Books Reviews

What fun! Heyer, the grandmother of historical romance, set many of the genre's conventions, and she works quite a number of them into this novel.

An identical twin must substitute for his brother at a critical dinner party being given to sway a cranky but powerful grandmother into giving her blessing to her granddaughter's marriage of convenience to the brother. What was supposed to be one evening of deception turns into a long visit at a country estate. Will the granddaughter unknowingly fall in love with the wrong twin? Of course! But the path to that point twists in many directions.

As always with Heyer, the secondary characters are delightful. The wrong twin, his feather-witted mother, the young lady, her grandmother, a stodgy and moralistic uncle and aunt, a very believable surly teenager, and the rotund suitor who adores the twins' mother are thrown together at a country estate for disastrous dinner parties and lots of behind-the-scenes scurrying to avoid anyone discovering the identity deception, even as the hero and his mother are kept in suspense concerning the whereabouts of the missing twin.

No one does a comedy of manners like Heyer, and this is a one of her better efforts. In addition, the hero and heroine are shown to have similar senses of humor, talents, and tastes. They don't merely fall randomly in love, but genuinely "suit".
What a ride! This book was positively hysterical. There are almost no words for it. Kit is fabulous as the much put-upon hero. Cressy is a darling heroine. But Lady Denville and Sir Bonamy completely steal the show. The Dowager comes in close behind them. What a convoluted mess these characters managed to create. So much so, that I despaired of them ever coming about. This was an inverse of The Parent Trap wherein the twin boys were separated although by simple life circumstances rather than strife and had to be brought together again to correct a very touchy situation. It was a surprisingly romantic book. The attitudes of the characters, especially Lady Denville were so spot on I wonder some times if Heyer had some sort of window back in time through which she observed people in interesting situations and wrote her stories based on them. But in any case, an amazing book that you should not miss. Very very highly recommended for all Regency Romance lovers.
I read the Grand Sophy and thoroughly enjoyed it. In reading reviews, False Colours seemed to also be at the top of readers' favorite Heyer books. It did not disappoint. The characters were very well drawn and likeable - each in their own ways; the story was complicated enough to keep you guessing as to how the brothers would get out of the fix they were in. Heyer has become one of my favorite authors - am so glad there are many more of her works to read!
I'm reading every Georgette Heyer book I can get my hands on. She is simply brilliant in creating her characters, in spinning out sparkling dialogue, and in her astounding knowledge of the period. I can't get enough of her vocabulary and all those witty turns of phrase. This book is essentially a comedy about mistaken identity, or rather, one handsome twin (Kit) posing as the missing handsome twin (Evelyn -- and that is a man's name in England, pronounced Eve - uh - lyn). Evelyn has disappeared. The twins' mother -- a gorgeous feather-brained spendthrift (widowed) named Amabel -- hatches a plan for Kit to masquerade as the missing Evelyn, largely because Evelyn's engagement to Cressida Stavely has the potential to set all things right with the family's finances. When Evelyn finally shows up, things are in a serious tangle. This is a fun Heyer novel -- very lighthearted. The character of the fluff-brained but beautiful mother is masterfully done. Highly recommended.
I was in junior high school, reading Deceptions by Judith Michael along with everyone else – that was the last time I had this much fun reading about changeling twins. Of course, Deceptions was drowning in bathos, while False Colours is a lighthearted comedy of errors.

Kit and Evelyn Francot are twins, the sons of London’s famed beauty, Lady Denville. Evelyn has come into the title Earl of Denville, being the elder. (One wonders how they can tell?) But, as so often happens in Heyer, he doesn’t have free access to the money, nor can he bail his flakey mother out of some serious debt. Kit has been serving in the diplomatic corps, and arrives home unexpectedly just in time to be drafted into service as a stand-in for his brother, to keep Evelyn's engagement to the heiress Cressy Stavely from going south. Evelyn has gone missing, and with the tie between them, Kit senses he’s all right, but in some sort of trouble. To no one’s surprise, Kit, the more level-headed brother, finds the smart and sensible Cressy attractive. And just when she was going to cry off the engagement, she finds a different sort of Evelyn attractive, as well.

No, it’s not the best Heyer I’ve ever read. Surely that would be Venetia or Cotillion. Or An Infamous Army. Or These Old Shades. But it’s a fun, relaxing read, with the usual great characters. Kit and Evelyn adore their dippy mother, in a relationship that’s touching. Their father was an inflexible man, and the wrong husband for the helpless Amabel, unable to love her for what she is. I read one review grousing about her character as a spendthrift, self-indulgent idiot, but if you know history, you recognize Lady Denville. A Regency standard. Heyer even gives you a bit of shorthand, openly comparing her to the incomparable Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She’s past forty and still has groupies, “cicisbeo” in Regency-speak. It’s a hoot. Some of the funniest scenes are between Kit and various dazzled followers. The most loyal and (long-lasting) is Sir Bonamy Ripple, larger than life in more ways than one. His adoration leads to some funny plot turns you don’t see coming.

I only had one odd complaint, that being some choppiness. At one particular point, Kit’s inner narrative, regarding his love for Cressy, lurches forward in a way that just shouts “missing scene.” Leaves you scratching your head. I’ve seen this a couple times in her books, I think because she was turning them out so fast, trying for two a year, and her editor got sloppy. I was expecting a lot of trademark period slang in Friday’s Child, with so many fashionable London blades, but really got more in this book. False Colours is heavy on dialog, and much of it is with the servants, especially the valet, Fimber. So if you find yourself bum squabbled in the devil of a hank, you might want to reach for Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, but it’s not necessary. The fun of Heyer’s language is that it flows, and you’ll always pick up the meaning from the context. Enjoy!