Georgette Heyer outdid herself with this one. This is going in my top five for sure! The whole girl disguising herself as a boy thing always had me intrigued, Heyer added humor and BAM! A hilarious romp.

The Duke of Avon is strolling home one night and happens upon a ragamuffin fleeing from their nasty guardian. The Duke buys Leon and makes him his page and soon figures out that Leon is actually Leonie and that a mystery surrounds her.

As usual, I enjoyed the side characters more so than the main. Rupert had me cracking up every time he spoke and I just loved Fanny's silliness. Of course, I just loved Leonie, as well. She was a very outspoken heroine, not at all the norm.

When a Heyer novel makes me grin like a silly person without realizing it, than it is definitely a keeper! These Old Shades is a true Heyer classic! On to Devil's Cub! ( )

Excellent book ( )

First published 1926. and still a delightfiul read. A great break between two of my favorite "Bloody Brits" ( John Harvey and Lee Child) Heyer was the best of her genre. ( )

My first Heyer, and I think I'm a fan. This was crazy melodramatic plot, with entertaining, likeable (and dislikeable) characters, all of the twists of Wilkie Collins with much more tongue in cheek. ( )

Enid Blyton meets PG Wodehouse; all very frothy and silly, but a smattering of historical slang does not a satisfying story make. Leon/Leonie is a typical Heyer-oine, delighting the hero and all secondary characters with the force of her desire to act like a boy (this theory that a heroine must mask or deny her gender to be regarded as 'equal' to the men is popular with Heyer); a tedious caricature who speaks in stunted sentences peppered with French, to show that she is foreign ("Ah, bah! Monsieur, he is a pig-person - voila!") The Duke of Avon - given the preposterous and anachronistic first name of Justin, which I chose to mentally replace with his family name, Alastair - was a promising hero, a dark and brooding Sir Percy Blakeney with a Reputation, until Heyer chose to iron out his personality and make him a safe and aging suitor - tamed by this supposedly 'original' young woman in his care. And Avon's relationship with Leon/Leonie was disturbing throughout - an aging roue buying a young lad as his 'page', the cringing dependency of a whiny and obsequious 'ward' who sits at her master's feet, and then the suggestion that this is the basis for a successful marriage? Not to mention the irony that 'high-born' Leonie is considered a very forward young woman who will bow to no man's will - put her in a frock and the 'hoydenish' behaviour is replaced by a submissive, simpering, tearful milksop! The contradiction in terms of a Heyer hoyden is not unique to this story, however.

The plot volleys between the France of King Louis XV and Georgian England, but the only real difference is the increase of bad accents and a change of titles. Nobility of birth is all, personality is nil; men are men, despite addressing each other as 'beloved' and carrying fans, but being a woman merely gets in the way of a good Adventure. The dialogue, usually the best feature of Heyer's writing, is drawn-out and repetitive in this novel - if the 'banter' and exposition were trimmed, this book could be a hundred pages shorter - and certain words and phrases are over-used ('twinkling' eyes, 'desolated' men, that unattractive 'gurgle' of the more mature women, and a smattering of schoolgirl French).

A weak novel, unfortunately bought in tandem with its sequel, 'Devil's Cub' - but a recovery might be in order before crawling on hands and knees to meet Leonie again! ( )