Cotillion by Georgette Heyer

Cotillion is one of my favorite books, and I just had to read it again. All of Georgette Heyer's books can be categorized as "romance", but that sometimes surprises me, for their focus is not really falling in love. In fact, many of them don't even have a proposal until the last chapter. But what Miss Heyer is a genius at, is character writing and comedy. Her characters, major and minor, rival most famous Victorian character-writers in their originality and charm. And her plots twirl and twist in the most logical and yet comedic way, so they are simply a joy to read over and over again. While my favorite of hers is The Grand Sophy (which has the most delightful heroine in literature), Cotillion easily comes second.

The plot is this: old Matthew Penecuik is a hypochondriac who expects to die any day. He is a bachelor, and while he has adopted an orphan girl named Kitty Charing, he does not intend to leave his vast fortune to her alone. He wants to enrich one of his great-nephews (particularly his favorite, Jack, but he intends to be fair and give them all a chance), so he makes his will so that she must marry one of them to inherit. Otherwise, he will donate it all to charity, and she will be left without a penny.

Poor Kitty has a childhood tendre for Jack, a rakish flirt, but he does not come to offer for her, and her other choices are bleak. George is married, Hugh is a pompous clergyman who will only take her for pity, Dolph is an idiot who is controlled by his tyrannical mother, Claud is cruel (he once sent her dolls to the guillotine), and Freddy is almost as stupid as Dolph.

Driven to despair, Kitty tries to run away to become a governess, but she is stopped by the pragmatic Freddy, who convinces her that it would be most unwise. While Freddy is not clever, he is kind and helpful, and he gives her an idea. She still wants to marry Jack, but since he won't come to her, she wants to make him jealous. She convinces Freddy that they should pretend to be engaged, and that he must take her to London. Freddy suspects her reason, but is too good-natured to object, as long as it is only a fake engagement.

The resulting story is a delightful comedy, but a very sweet one.

Freddy Standen is one of my favorite literary heroes, and totally unconventional. He's only of average height, is not handsome or charming, has not an ounce of sensibility in him, is not particularly quick-witted or smart (in fact he appears stupid), but his has lots of common sense and a sweet, kind, helpful nature. As Kitty says, he's not the sort of romantic hero who would sweep you off your feet, but he would know how to help you escape from a social function gone wrong. I think we need more of those sort of heroes in literature.