Review: A Regency Scandal by Alice Chetwynd Ley (1979)
This is a strange book. I’ve read other books by this author, and they were all light, fluffy affairs. This is a much more serious read, longer, wordier and darker generally. It also has an odd structure, where the first third of the book is essentially prologue, a long, rambling exposition of the backstory to the main part of the novel. It would be very easy to read the blurb and start reading and then wonder if you had the wrong book altogether. I know, because that’s exactly what I did.
The first part of the book deals with an earlier generation, with Viscount Shaldon, son and heir of the Earl of Alvington. Shaldon is a weak man, quite unable to stand up to his strong-minded father, and held financially captive by him. But he’s also quite unable to keep himself out of trouble. So when he’s attracted to a pretty, vapid and quite unsuitable girl who’s barely gentry, he thinks it would be a clever wheeze to marry her. That will show his father that he’s his own man! But somehow, he never quite summons the courage to tell his father what he’s done, and when his father pushes him towards a far more suitable match, to the daughter of a neighbour, Shaldon dithers about, putting off the moment when he absolutely has to offer for her, but also rapidly losing interest in his wife, now in the sickly throes of pregnancy.
But fortuitously the wife dies in childbirth, her mother, thoroughly disenchanted with her son-in-law, scarpers with the child, and Shaldon is able to pretend it never happened and offer for the neighbour’s daughter. She’s head over heels in love with him, so she accepts at once, and this should be a happy ending. But a weak man like Shaldon isn’t going to reform his character overnight, or possibly at all, so the marriage isn’t a happy one.
The main part of the book is set firmly in the Regency, and deals with the next generation. Shaldon is now the Earl of Alvington, and his son from his second marriage is now twenty-five. Various other offspring of characters from the first part are all reaching adulthood, the men sprigs of fashion on the town and enjoying their freedom, the women making their come-out in London, but with all the history from the previous generation as baggage. And history is repeating itself, for the current earl is bent on making a good match for his son with a neighbour’s daughter. But this Viscount Shaldon is not his father – he’s just as reluctant to be pushed into matrimony before he’s ready, but he’s not financially dependent on his father, having inherited an estate from a relative.
The earl is not willing to be gainsaid, however, and determines to thwart his supposed heir by finding his son from his first, secret marriage, disinheriting the son from the second marriage, and never mind what scandal may ensue. Such a nice man.
This is in essence the major plot of the second part of the book, but it’s woven through with the romantic entanglements of the younger generation. This part, taking place almost entirely in London during the season, is very much more like other Chetwynd Ley books, so don’t be put off by the protracted opening, keep going and it does conform more to expectations. I’m not going to say anything about the romances (yes, there are several) because none of them lit me on fire. I liked some of the characters, and the younger Viscount Shaldon is a far more honourable man than his father, but they all seemed a bit ordinary to me. The villains brought about their own downfall far too easily for my liking, and the resolution to the matter of the missing heir was all a bit of a damp squib in the end.
I did enjoy this, once it got going, and I applaud the author for stepping off the well-worn path and trying something a bit different. So many Regencies depend for their resonance on great secrets from the past, but this is the first book I can remember which has shown the whole of the backstory, not just a short prologue or little snippets here and there. I don’t think it’s totally successful, but it was still a solid four star read for me.
