The Grand Sophy

This was a terrific book! It took a little to get into, because we first meet Lady Ombersley and her brother, Sir Horace, and both are caricatures of the proper lord and lady of their day. But once Sophia arrives on the scene, the fun begins. Sophia, Sophy to her friends, is an amiable, kindhearted, irreverent female who would have made an excellent man, with how well she can handle the ribbons and being such a capital whip. Or to quote Heyer, “From being a female sunk below reproach Sophy became rapidly an unconventional girl whose unaffected manners were refreshing in an age of simpers and high flights” (and mothers given to nerves, spells and vapors.)Sophy’s time on the Continent with her diplomat father, hobnobbing with its aristocracies and power players, has given her prolific insight into the human condition and the ways people work, and, blessedly, she uses that knowledge for the betterment of others, rather than herself. She sees the good in people and does not take offense when they behave badly. Generous of spirit, she is someone easy to befriend and she is also more than a match for the Ombersley clan’s ruling overlord: its eldest son, Charles Rivenhall. Charles isn’t a bad sort, just strong-willed and of strong character. Lord Ombersley is befuddled often by his brood and spends most of his time at White’s. This, combined with the shocking debts his inattention has wrought, has led Charles to be uptight and dictatorial, and until Sophy arrives, there has been no one able to stand up to him. When Cecilia relates her woeful tale of Charles opposing her alliance with an unemployed, aristocratic poet, Sophy can’t believe they have let Charles grow into such a tyrant. She would never permit Sir Horace (she only refers to her father as Papa when she is vexed) to “become so dictatorial, which is a thing the best of men will do, if the females of their families are so foolish as to encourage them!” Sophy is not at the house but a few hours before she deduces that everyone is miserable and sets to work setting things to rights.One of the things I love about Sophy is how she never puts more weight on things that they’re due. The main trying of her felicitous manner is the odious Miss Wraxton, Charles’s bluestocking puss of a fiancée. Miss Wraxton is a proper miss, skilled at backhanded comments, but Sophy isn’t offended or hurt and constantly outwits the woman who is vastly responsible for everyone’s misery. This isn’t to say that Miss Wraxton is a villain; she’s not. She’s just a woman of oppressive social propriety who is mortified at the undignified behavior of others, who feels it is her Christian duty to save others from themselves. Sophy acts indeed better than I would behave, if I had had to deal with Miss Wraxton‘a maneuverings. Sophy is more than up to handling to nosy fusspot, with delicious results.This clean read is resplendent with clever turns of phrase and a flippant, tongue-in-cheek narrator. It is so much fun to read! I did cringe at the descriptions of the loan shark, but given that this was written in 1950, they fall in line with some of the attitudes prevalent in England, at the time of the story and in the time the story was written. The audiobook seamlessly skips the references. The audiobook was quite good, particularly giving us the perfect hauteur of the ton of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and will reread! 5/5 stars.

This Kindle edition is well formatted and well edited. I have several copies of The Grand Sophy in paperback, because it is one of my all-time favorite novels as a huge fan of romantic comedy. Georgette Heyer is the Grand Dame of the comic, Regency historical romance, and I just bought this Kindle edition to have a portable copy of this wonderful book. I actually read the whole thing on my iPhone using the Kindle app, even though I own a Kindle. I was out somewhere without my Kindle last week and simply downloaded it to my iPhone. Once I began reading it on my iPhone, with the Kindle app allowing me to enlarge the size of the font substantially, I found it very easy to keep reading it on my iPhone and read the whole book that way. I do dearly love Kindle ebooks! It's so handy to have access to my entire collection of Kindle books in multiple media, so I can read them wherever I am, whenever I want.Now, for a little about the book itself:Sophy is the daughter of a widowed diplomat and has had an extremely unconventional upbringing, traveling all over Europe during the Napoleonic wars with her wealthy, well-connected father, Sir Horace. Her father has been widowed since Sophy was five and had all the care of her, and to his way of thinking, it made no sense to raise a daughter with the irritating, "missish airs" of the sheltered women of her aristocratic background. He taught her to load a gun, clean it and shoot it with deadly accuracy, to ride even the most powerful and spirited horse as well as the most skilled horseman, and to drive a carriage "to an inch." Sir Horace has also expected Sophy to act as his hostess for the past three years, throwing parties for generals, royalty and many officers of the British military, who are titled aristocrats. All of these things taken together have amplified Sophy's innate inclination to always be helpful and set to rights any problems in the lives of the people around her--no matter how complicated. Though Sophy is only 20 years old, her attitude to everyone she meets is a that of a wise, helpful, older person, and this is exactly her approach to her relatives when Sir Horace sends her to his sister's home to have a "season" in London and make a marital match. Sophy immediately sees multiple personal problems all around her in the household of her aunt, Lady Ombersley. Her 19-year-old cousin Cecelia has fallen in love with a penniless poet and insists on marrying him, but the heavy-handed approach of her parents and brother in discouraging the match is simply driving Cecelia further into defiance. Sophy's bored younger cousins are in need of attention and entertainment and are thrilled with the exotic pets Sophie brings them, and no one but Sophy notices that Cousin Hubert, who is Sophy's age but seems much younger, is in financial difficulties. But the person who most needs Sophy's help is least aware of it. It is utterly clear to Sophy that no one but she can rein in the despotic tendencies of her 26-year-old cousin Charles, who has become the de facto head of his family after inheriting a fortune and settling his dissolute father's gaming debts. Worse, Charles has entered an unfortunate engagement with an obnoxious busybody who encourages the worst aspects of his nature.Sophy is an extremely sympathetic character who acts in this story both as the heroine and the comic antagonist to every other character in the book. Her well-meant--and invariably successful--conniving for the betterment of the circumstances of everyone around her produces endless laugh-out-loud moments.If you ever need cheering up, this is the book to do it.

The Grand Sophy is one of my very favourite Georgette Heyer novels. I adored the characters and, especially, Sophy's machinations as she tries to put happiness back into a dysfunctional family.However, I write this review for quite another reason. Written in 1950 reviews have expressed amazment at the anti-semitic views shown (the money lender). Unfortunately, such attitudes were very common at that time. My mother told me of notices in boarding house windows that read "no Irish, no tinkers, no dogs, no Jews, no coloureds". It disgusted me (and her) but then my father had a Jewish mother so we had good reason. My snobbish, narrow minded mother in law loathed me because of my Jewish blood and she was of the same Generation and class as the author. This was a GB that had stopped the last 'kindergarten' train coming here in 1939 thus condemning hundreds more Jewish children to the camps and certain death. Do we think the same of Dickens and Shakespeare?Then there is the cousins attitude. The bible does not forbid such marriages nor does parliament. It does forbid marriage between stepchildren and stepmother/son where there are no blood ties. Does keep the money in the family though! I had a pedigree dog once whose papers horrified me. Grandmothers and grandsons mated - you name it, it was there. Crufts approved though - his dam was best in class. Makes it okay then. Dog was loveable and as daft as a brush. He was a rescue dog, I would not buy a pedigree dog. Give me a mongrel anyday.Please try and remember this when reading Ms Heyer. She was a product of her times, unlike my mother who grew up in the East End, she would not have mixed with Jewish society and, no doubt, any Jews she did meet would not have admitted it. My grandmother never did and married 'out'. I was so grateful to my English teacher who gave me a better understanding of Shylock and why he behaved as he did. As with so many things it came down to money. What better way to clear your debts than to get rid of your creditor? And how hurtful to read that your marriage is 'creepy' if you married your cousin. This becomes a bigger problem when one considers sperm donations in the 60's and 70's with the appalling record keeping. I believe Sweden has had problems with this already.It is nearly a hundred years since her first novel was published, about the same timeline as I faced with when reading Dickens and Trollope for O level. I know which author I'd have preferred to read! For wit and humour no author can beat GH in her field.

The patent anti-Semitism was shocking. For Sophy to acknowledge that it would be 'courageous' to 'rid the world of someone' because he was born Jewish was horrific to read. The novel itself would have been lovely as Sophy is represented as an admirable and loving heroine and yet, when she meets a Jew, she is filled with hate. A modern reader would likely have no understanding that Jews were forced to become money-lenders because no other profession was open to them. Christian doctrine did not allow one to charge interest and so Jews were used as middle-men. Hubert, Sophy's debt-ridden cousin, is presented as a victim despite the fact that it was his choice to gamble significant sums of money and to borrow an even larger sum to pay if off. Sophy 'heroically' pays off the debt; but not the interest. Excuse me, but would HSBC lend you money for free? I think not. This pales in comparison to the blatantly racist character description Heyer uses and outright use of words such as 'villain' and 'bloodsucker' - a reference to the blood libels triggering pogroms that resulted in the murder of thousands of innocent Jewish families, as well as rape and destruction of property. Without ever having met a Jew, how is an innocent mind meant to react other than to accept the lies they have read? I implore all readers to dismiss this blatant antisemitism! It's presented as all the more believable because Sophy is such a remarkably kind character throughout the rest of the novel - so surely she must be right in her estimation of Jewish people too? Wrong. None of the Jewish people among my acquaintance even remotely resemble the revolting picture painted by the author. And it was published in 1950 - five years after the horrors of the Holocaust. Please don't dismiss this review as being overly dramatic, rather dismiss the hatred so overtly presented by the author. With appreciation,

I first read this more than 50 years ago, and loved it. On a Georgette Heyer jag I'm loading some of the old favourites on my Kindle, and there's lots to enjoy in this. Unfortunately, there is an episode with a moneylender which leaves a nasty taste of antisemitism, and this isn't the only GH novel in which there are unpleasant references to Jews as unsrupulous moneylenders. If these novels are being advertised as 'for fans of Bridgerton' (who are presumably readers quite openminded about racial difference) the publisher needs to go carefully through them and remove the racist language. In this case, it should be quite simple to change the name of the moneylender - no problem with having him a shifty character, but please don't make him Jewish! And in all the GH novels in which young men get into money troubles, it would be the right thing to reword the references to 'the Jews' as moneylenders.

Who can resist the Grand Sophy? She is lively, ingenious and unconventional also loyal and brave, She can see all is not well in the Rivenhall household and resolves to set things right. The plot is as finely fitting together as an expensive clock, and it feels likely to explode!The minor characters are a complete joy. and are still comical after sixty years I think it unreasonable that a reader would expect a sixty-year old book to be completely in tune with modern morality.The money-lender is treated fairly by Sophy (he gets his principal back.) He is not particularly villainous Jews were frequently bankers because they were able to charge interest and many including the Rothchilds and Disreali, Victoria's favourite Prime Minister were highly respected. This was still so in 1960's Britain after The Holocaust. What really distinguishes this book is its lively joie de vivre. Its quality still shines out.

I realise this was probably written in the early 1950s, but even so there is no excuse for the anti Semitic tropes that are in this book. I admit to finding Georgette Heyer’s style of writing dated and old fashioned, but the casual racism written into this novel is completely distasteful. I for one won’t be reading any more of her books and I urge other readers not to do so either. Frankly, I’m surprised that the publisher hasn’t done an audit of her novels.