The Unknown Ajax (original 1959; edition 2011)

One of Heyer's best --the hero is a Napoleonic veteran, son of a "misalliance" between a nobleman's younger son and a North-country weaver's daughter --but the weaver is now an immensely rich mill owner, and the hero has (very contrary to the noble family's expectations) become the heir. The dinner at which he pretends to be a yokel, and worse a jailbird (he actually went to Harrow and was a prisoner of war) is hilarious. So is the scene in which the dashing buck who has taken the heroine's hopeless love for granted finds out she prefers the hero. ( )

A reasonably solid Heyer. Heavy on the cant and dialect, and neither of the central lovers are irritating enough for me to actively wish them ill (there are Heyers for which that is not the case), and I probably found this easy going because I already knew more than is strictly healthy about coastal smuggling in the early C.19; someone without that background would probably choke and die. The final set scene is pretty funny, although it sets my modern teeth on edge when someone sacrifices their political beliefs for a family that has treated them kind of like shit and this is lauded. ( )

Unknown Ajax was not what I expected. It was rueful and had many great parts but the military and bootlegging aspect of it wasn't for me. I enjoyed the cousins and all their banter, the insipid Grandpapa, the bold speaking Anthea and the ever so clever Hugo (the Ajax). I wanted more romance from The Major and Anthea but was terribly disappointed. Would I read this again? No. However, I am in anticipation of the next Heyer read. ( )

As so often happens in Regency novels, this tale begins with a matter of inheritance. The cantankerous Lord Darracott is dismayed that, because of a foolish boating accident, his heir is now the grandson whose father he disowned for marrying "a weaver's brat" from Yorkshire. The heir, having served in the Napoleonic Wars, comes to Kent for a visit. He shocks the family with his broad Yorkshire speech, and at first his cousin Anthea is determined to resist her grandfather's wish that she marry the heir. Of course we know how this will turn out. But there is more to the story -- plenty of humor, for one thing, and a bit of a mystery involving the heroine's cosseted younger brother. I'd rank this close to the top of the Heyer novels I've read. Recommended. ( )

I bought the HQ edition and it was missing six pages. I hope I didn't miss anything really stupendous on any of those pages. Maybe there was a subplot about stampeding elephants or a roving gang of Regency ninjas? I'll never know.
This cemented my preference for the Sourcebooks reprints - they use a brighter, heavier paper, and do not feature an insipidly chirpy introduction from some author I've never heard of. ( )