Crossed Quills (G K Hall Large Print Book Series (Cloth))

Rating:
Summary: A Regency romance with a political background
Review: An interesting book, had some details about Gunters which I wasn't aware, the hero Lord Wynn Selworth is actually a little different, thoughtful, who shares rooms with another very quiet gentleman the Honorable Gilbert Chubb. There is some social commentary but subtly done in a way that doesn't ram it down the reader's throat. Lord Selworth is a Whig after all. Philippa Lisle is the heroine, her father wrote radical articles under the pen name of 'Promethesus', his daughter assisted him and on his death continued to write the articles, Lord Selworth needs the expertise of Promethesus for his maiden speech, Pippa's sister needs a season. Philippa's mother suggests, a deal is struck, a romance is played out.

Rating:
Summary: A delightful romp!
Review: I thought that this book was simply a delightful read. Predictable? Yes, but fun nonetheless. Mistaken identities and the power of the truth must be revealed before love can conquer all. It is another great novel from Carola Dunn.

Rating:
Summary: A pseudonym pair
Review: The plot was orignal though it was true to the tradition. Young woman writing political essays under her departed father's false identity and the young lord in need of help with his maiden speech for his former career as a gothic writer made a romantic muddle of his serious speeches. Of this comes a twisting story which has the usual happy ending. This novel followed the regency tradition in shape of characters except for the hero (Lord Selworth) who was a fresh change to the all Mr. Darcys out there. Warm hearted and sensitive but not cynical. The heroine(Pippa Lisle) was on the other hand much related to the heroines of Jane Austen. The political discussion were a spice to the romance and the behaviour of the young lord in the end was really funny. In overall, this book will go down well with Regency fans.

Rating:
Summary: A very nice political Regency...
Review: This book of Carola Dunn is actually rather untypical of her, or so I believe. I came to Carola Dunn via gentler Regencies which had little overt politics. CROSSED QUILLS (what a marvellous name!) is a book that depends strongly on a reader's understanding of the political and social issues behind the glitter of upper-class life.

Plot summary: The heroine Pippa (Philippa) is the daughter of a deceased Radical MP (radicals being those who advocated greater and faster reform measures than the Whigs, although some radicals belonged to the Whig party). Her father was Prometheus, a brilliant orator and speech-writer, whose honesty and refusal to accept bribes in return for supporting the government was well-known. At his death, his work (in print) is continued by his elder daughter.

Enter the hero, a new peer, who has just succeeded to his great-uncle's barony, and has lived a fairly straightened life with his mother, stepfather (a kindly vicar), and eight siblings - one sister and seven half-brothers and half-sisters. To help support this large brood, he has been writing Gothic romances under a pseudonym, which has affected his writing on any topic. [Think melodrama, abductions, mysterious heirs, mad monks, and so forth. Think lush imagery. Think purple prose].

Lord Selworth needs help in crafting his maiden speech, and thinks of Prometheus. Fortunately his sister Albina (Bina), a young society matron, is old friends with Pippa. She provides him an introduction, and Selworth persuades the Lisle family to come to London and stay with Bina, thus solving two sets of problems.

The rest of the story is taken up by the efforts of Pippa to help Wynn Selworth without revealing her identity, the secondary romance between her sister and Wynn's friend, the disastrous effects of the loose tongue of Wynn's half-sister, and the reaction of society to the revelation of Wynn's identity as a writer of Gothics. If Wynn is "outed", will he be taken seriously as a politician, especially a reforming one? Will his maiden speech be successful?

If you read romances regularly, you know that the answer to both these questions is yes, albeit a qualified yes here. When you read the story, it helps to know the background of political and social unrest, the practice of the government of bribing MPs to vote for the government (usually with the promise of a sinecure or a pension), and above all, the extreme fear that ultra-Tories such as those in the Liverpool government had towards the slightest efforts at reform in the post-Waterloo era. The plight of the unemployed returning soldiers and sailors is touched upon lightly, as is the unhappiness of the Luddites and the future Chartists with the status quo socially, economically, and politically. Some minor but historically figures appear briefly or are referred to - William Cobbett, Henry Grey Bennett, Sir Francis Burdett, Henry Brougham, Castlereagh, and so forth.

I liked this book very much, but found that I had to read it rather more slowly than the norm to appreciate the intricacies of certain situations. The story tone is light but occasionally melancholic, reflecting the frustrations of Philippa with her inability to own her identity to Wynn Selworth (forget publicly!). As I said, if you like the politically oriented stories of Anthea Malcolm (and her successor Tracy Grant), you will probably appreciate this story which is a cross between the Grant/Malcolm books and the typical Regency. Not as politically-heavy, but not for the typical romance reader.

Rating:
Summary: A very nice political Regency...
Review: This book of Carola Dunn is actually rather untypical of her, or so I believe. I came to Carola Dunn via gentler Regencies which had little overt politics. CROSSED QUILLS (what a marvellous name!) is a book that depends strongly on a reader's understanding of the political and social issues behind the glitter of upper-class life.

Plot summary: The heroine Pippa (Philippa) is the daughter of a deceased Radical MP (radicals being those who advocated greater and faster reform measures than the Whigs, although some radicals belonged to the Whig party). Her father was Prometheus, a brilliant orator and speech-writer, whose honesty and refusal to accept bribes in return for supporting the government was well-known. At his death, his work (in print) is continued by his elder daughter.

Enter the hero, a new peer, who has just succeeded to his great-uncle's barony, and has lived a fairly straightened life with his mother, stepfather (a kindly vicar), and eight siblings - one sister and seven half-brothers and half-sisters. To help support this large brood, he has been writing Gothic romances under a pseudonym, which has affected his writing on any topic. [Think melodrama, abductions, mysterious heirs, mad monks, and so forth. Think lush imagery. Think purple prose].

Lord Selworth needs help in crafting his maiden speech, and thinks of Prometheus. Fortunately his sister Albina (Bina), a young society matron, is old friends with Pippa. She provides him an introduction, and Selworth persuades the Lisle family to come to London and stay with Bina, thus solving two sets of problems.

The rest of the story is taken up by the efforts of Pippa to help Wynn Selworth without revealing her identity, the secondary romance between her sister and Wynn's friend, the disastrous effects of the loose tongue of Wynn's half-sister, and the reaction of society to the revelation of Wynn's identity as a writer of Gothics. If Wynn is "outed", will he be taken seriously as a politician, especially a reforming one? Will his maiden speech be successful?

If you read romances regularly, you know that the answer to both these questions is yes, albeit a qualified yes here. When you read the story, it helps to know the background of political and social unrest, the practice of the government of bribing MPs to vote for the government (usually with the promise of a sinecure or a pension), and above all, the extreme fear that ultra-Tories such as those in the Liverpool government had towards the slightest efforts at reform in the post-Waterloo era. The plight of the unemployed returning soldiers and sailors is touched upon lightly, as is the unhappiness of the Luddites and the future Chartists with the status quo socially, economically, and politically. Some minor but historically figures appear briefly or are referred to - William Cobbett, Henry Grey Bennett, Sir Francis Burdett, Henry Brougham, Castlereagh, and so forth.

I liked this book very much, but found that I had to read it rather more slowly than the norm to appreciate the intricacies of certain situations. The story tone is light but occasionally melancholic, reflecting the frustrations of Philippa with her inability to own her identity to Wynn Selworth (forget publicly!). As I said, if you like the politically oriented stories of Anthea Malcolm (and her successor Tracy Grant), you will probably appreciate this story which is a cross between the Grant/Malcolm books and the typical Regency. Not as politically-heavy, but not for the typical romance reader.