The Rules of Gentility

What fun! I quailed at the alternating first-person present tense narration, but by the end that quirk only occasionally pulled me out of the story--because this is a silly, sweet, smart story whose characters end up having quite a bit of heart. Georgette Heyer with some slightly naughty bits.

I have to loosen my stays before I write this review, since I'm laughing too hard to bear their constraint for a moment longer.

As I noted in my review of Mullany's "A Most Lamentable Comedy" I'm not generally a reader of Regency romance. I'm much more liable to read the actual novels this subgenre of romance takes as a model. So I came to Mullany with a certain amount of skepticism.

But I was wrong.

Mullany is funny. She's charming. She's possessed of a wonderful sense of how to play with standard tropes of romantic fiction (the beyond virginal heroine, the rake, etc.) without rendering them utterly ridiculous.

The book is froth, completely, but I was charmed beyond all expectation.

And now I must go buy a bonnet.

[...]Miss Philomena Wellesley-Clegg is making her charmed way through a life of eternal husband-hunting and bonnet-coveting. For bonnets, you know, are the Jimmy Choos of the early nineteenth century. And husbands - well, let's just say that our Philomena loves making lists as much as any chick-lit heroine of the computer age:

"My current list of Possible Husbands is as follows: [...] 3. The Mad Poet, although I am not sure he writes poetry, or at least gets much beyond the first line, of which he seems to have many. He is excessively handsome. It is such a shame his real name is Mr. Hengest Carrotte." (2)

Her more virtuous moments she devotes to harebrained schemes to save loose women with the Association for the Rescue and Succor of show more those in Extremis (make an acronym out of that, will you?). And then into her life comes her closest friend's brother-in-law, the only man who could ever equal her name in dashing pomp: Mr. Inigo Linsley. From their first encounter (she has just returned from a very rewarding shopping excursion), an abundance of saucy double entendres is promised:

"He bends to pick something from the stone flags. 'I believe this is yours, Miss Wellesley-Clegg.'

Oh, heavens. It is a stocking, fallen from one of my parcels. I snatch it from him, my face heating up.

'I assure you, madam, my thoughts were far above it.' He bows and ushers us into the house ahead of him, and by the time I realize what he has just said, Julia has taken my arm and led me upstairs to her private sitting room for serious talk about good works and bonnets." (6)

The plot romps off from here, told in passages that alternate between the hero's voice and the heroine's (this is not a convention I find nearly as irritating as some do, and I think it works fairly well here). Inigo and Philomena find themselves entangled in the classic fake betrothal (this one agreed between them in a water closet). They fight against their growing attraction, since a real marriage doesn't seem to be in either's best interest. He introduces her to his mistress (an actress named, of course, Fanny) and their child, leaving her in some perplexity as to the current status of that relationship. They frolic off to a brothel with the Association to offer a lady of the night the salvation of a position as Philomena's maid, only to discover that many harlots make a better and more dignified living than a lady's maid ever could.

In other words, like in every good romp (a near cousin to the farce, and of course the sex farce), the plot becomes increasingly ludicrous and implausible as the tale unfolds. [...]

Excerpted from a longer review at my blog: http://sycoraxpine.blogspot.com/2010/08/rules-of-gentility.html show less

A friend dared me to read this after her, knowing how much I hate Georgette Heyer and other Regency novels of that ilk, so I did. And I actually quite enjoyed the experience - well done, Janet Mullany! While following the traditional formula of fluffy romances - young miss, unsuitable suitor, eccentric family - the narrative is naughtier and the characters livelier and more entertaining than in Heyer's books. Not to be taken seriously, The Rules of Gentility is dirty parody with an indulgent sense of humour, gently poking fun at the sub-genre that will not die.

This was fun with a capital "F". The author categorizes this book as a "Raucous Regency" and that is a good term to describe this one. This book pokes fun at every aspect of social propriety of that deliciously madcap Regency era. Inigo is a dastardly rake from a good family of the ton. He does have some morals - go figure! - and Philomena is a first rate naive ninny of a wealthy family whose fortune is derived from Trade (they own coal mines) - not to be confused with those Wellesleys (you know, Battle of Waterloo and all that). What starts out as an engagement of convenience becomes... well, you will just have to read the book to find out for yourself.

This is a fun, romping laugh at the Regency period as much as it is a tribute to it. show more The characters are hilarious, as are the situations that arise. The story is based on the rather standard insipid romance formula but it is considerably brightened by the banter and thoughts that seem more perfect for our time period than the Regency period of the story, even if Philomena's hormones seem to be a bit on overdrive mode most of the time. With the family she has - her mother, the queen of 'run on' sentences, those ubiquitous and unnerving twins Charlotte and Lydia and that baffling long time family maid Hen - some form of release is to be expected! I really liked how Mullany chose to tell the story through the alternating viewpoint of both of our romantic leads... all the better to present the folly that miscommunication and innocent flirting can bring about in the other party!

It is obvious that the author had fun writing this one and it should be treated as the darling bit of escapism fluff reading it is meant to be. show less

I really did enjoy this book: it's Regency romance (rated PG-13), and it reads more like a fluffy spoof than anything else. All the traditional conventions appear in this book: innocent young heroine, dashingly wicked young hero, family objections to the union, false betrothals, misunderstandings, and a marriage at the end. But I didn't feel the need to roll my eyes at the conventionality; rather, I frequently found myself laughing out loud. There were some delightfully slapstick moments, and I couldn't help but enjoy the frivolity & cluelessness of the heroine and the swaggering immaturity of the hero. Regency fans should definitely pick this up.

I'm not really sure if this was supposed to be just a funny Regency romance or a spoof of the genre—too many things didn't quite gel together, like how the main character was at once so naive she didn't know what was inside a gentleman's underwear, and utterly blasé about the fact that her love interest already had a mistress and an illegitimate child. The inconsistency was jarring. Still, enjoyable and readable in a frothy, unbelievable sort of way. The worst that can be said of it is that Mullany is too given to 'a bit with a dog' scenes—you know, things which are obviously shoehorned in because they are Hilarious Comedic Set Pieces.