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An Infamous Army
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Critterbee❇
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rated it 4 stars
Jan 31, 2018 11:08AM
Final thoughts? Overall opinions?
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I haven't started yet, but I do remember being so disappointed that GH made Dominic a bit ridiculous in this book.The old AIA threads have been locked(to keep the discussion in the current threads) but there may be some good research in them that could be worth checking out.
Just finished & I was so deeply moved - both by Bab & Charles' love story & the tragic death of Harry.I found the history in particular the battle scenes enthralling.
I'm just reading through the old AIA threads. I'm just going to link in case anyone finds the stuff useful. I really like the painting in this thread.https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
& I would also recommend the Bernard Cornwall book on Waterloo Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles It is lavishly illustrated which I found helpful envisioning the battle.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
In particular Post#89 by Hana (who I really miss! :() When you see the battlefield & the small area they were fighting in - quite amazing.
I was more disappointed in the thinness of the current Marquis of Vidal - did not like him at all. He seemed to be meek and dry.I think the way Dominic is portrayed is believable, as an old man who was headstrong and a bit spoiled in his youth. And Mary has allowed him to be so, and has (hopefully) balanced that out with her calm demeanor.
Also, the one image on Barbara that keeps popping up in my mind is the open toed sandals, with toenails painted golden. IT defines perfectly for me how opulent, daring and gorgeous she was.
❇Critterbee wrote: "Also, the one image on Barbara that keeps popping up in my mind is the open toed sandals, with toenails painted golden. IT defines perfectly for me how opulent, daring and gorgeous she was."
No doubt she learned that from Josephine's crowd in Paris!
Whenever I re-read this for my own pleasure I usually skip right to the big breakup scene and then proceed to read the second half of the book. This time I tried to pay attention to the first half, leading to several thoughts--1)GH was so clever to give Barbara the surname Childe, because she sure was acting like a spoiled brat for the first half of the book. Then she comes to rue the results of her actions (perhaps a nod to Byron's Childe Harold? who knows??).
2)Perry's infatuation speaks to the perils of marrying too young. I think Perry and Harriet's marriage will survive, but it will time and hard work to get it back on an even keel.
3) I liked Judith and Worth a tad better than I did in 'Regency Buck' and came to like Judith a lot more by the end of the book.
Barb in Maryland wrote: "...3) I liked Judith and Worth a tad better than I did in 'Regency Buck' and came to like Judith a lot more by the end of the book. "I liked Judith and Worth better in this book, too! Judith was much improved with age, ha ha!
It was heartbreaking when she and Barbara were nursing the wounded. But their strength was proven and the friendship they formed then is one that would last through anything and everything.
I love this book; I always feel sad when I read that some folk don’t enjoy it - but I recognise that it is very much a Marmite book. It is different from her usual, rather light hearted books and I appreciate that people often either love it or loathe it. Personaly, I adore this book and have done so since I first read it 50 years ago. I have re-read it many times and always get something extra from it. I think it is one of GH’s best books. I love the historical analysis and detail about Waterloo. There is no glamour here - just the unflinching detail of the horrors of war. I think the way in which characters who have become very real during the course of the book are used to illustrate the sad effects of battle is incredibly moving. I think GH’s characterisation in AIA is as skilful as A Civil Contract. These are real people with flaws and weaknesses and also incredible strengths and qualities which surprise us. If would be strange if we all loved, all of the same books by GH. It is interesting to see the different perspectives even if I don’t share them!
Re: the Duchess of Richmond's Ball and Wellington's staff officers. Historical records give us the names of those men who served Wellington so closely. However, many an author who set a book during this time has felt free to insert at least one fictional gentleman into those around Wellington. And likewise add a couple (or more) to the crowd at the Duchess's Ball. GH was no exception.I sometimes amuse myself picturing a scenario where all the fictional attendees of the Ball are crammed in with all the real attendees--they would have needed a venue twice the size! And poor Wellington would have been trampled by his combined staff of real men and the fictional add-ons.
I was just re-reading GH's description of the Duchess of Richmond's Ball(Chapter 17) Silly musings aside (see #11 above), I was struck by the vivid writing--she captured the mood so well. The picture she paints is so sharp--the ladies pastel dresses fading into the background against the exuberant colors of the men's dress uniforms, the heat, the almost manic level of emotions as the evening progresses. Great writing.
Reading Regency Buck now-Charles was injured in his right arm just before he appears on the scene in RB. Which arm does he lose at Waterloo? How awful to recover from injury only to have your arm blasted off!
QNPoohBear wrote: "Reading Regency Buck now-Charles was injured in his right arm just before he appears on the scene in RB. Which arm does he lose at Waterloo? How awful to recover from injury only to have your arm b..."Left arm this time.
Does anyone know whether in writing the final section of AIA, Heyer was influenced by her knowledge of events during and after WW1 - not the war itself, but its effects on relationships? Many men returned from WW1 missing a limb, or suffering the effects of other serious wounds.
Nope, sorry, but this one just didn't work for me. With regard to the history, I suspect Heyer was pre-supposing too much knowledge about the Napoleonic Wars and Waterloo in particular. (At least for this American - perhaps if I were English, I'd have learned about this in school and would have been less lost).
With regard to the romance, Barbara Childe is an overgrown spoiled brat, and Charles Audley's imitation of a doormat as she toys with him put me all out of patience.
It's still Heyer, so it wasn't terrible, but neither do I expect that I'll ever be tempted to re-read it.
Schools in the US really vary in the curriculum that they offer, so it is difficult to say whether the Napoleonic Wars were taught thoroughly, or even at all, in different locations. Yet Napoleon is a giant of history, and has been studied all over the world - many are still fascinated by his genius.I was intrigued by Barbara - what drives her to act as she does, why does she need to test everyone, is she self-sabotaging intentionally or is she drawn to chaos?
Charles is not chaotic, nor (do I feel) a doormat. He is the strongest, truest man in Barbara's life, and I think he realizes that she is testing him, and for a time he was willing to endure.
All of this against a backdrop of imminent threat, that surely increases everyone's jumpiness. WHY the heck were people going there to party on the brink of war? Was it the stay calm, stiff upper lip attitude? Show off how unconcerned you are? IT was a dangerous place, and people are just hanging out there going to balls?
I do not mean the people who had lived there ages, but Worth and Judith were clearly set up to live in London in Regency Buck, and then they go with a baby to the edge of a war zone? This really bothers me. Am I misunderstanding the situation? I hope so.
I suspect you might be seeing it through modern eyes. Diaries of the period make clear a different outlook at the time. I have one written by a tutor who taught in one of the families who ended up at the ball. War in their eyes was a geographically limited thing, relatively speaking; there were no drone strikes, for example. Though the countryside did get torn up. See Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont's letters and diaries, when they as teens accompanied Shelley into Europe, all of them totally ignorant of the fact that Europe was worn torn and exhausted. They complain bitterly about how ugly and filthy and ruined everything is--they appeared to be expecting hamlets of pretty cottages and contented, "natural" peasants in the Rousseauian mode, that Shelley could write poetry about, extolling natural commoner life in contrast to England's stuffy rules and regs.
As for the July ball, though Napoleon was on the march, people seemed to be confident that "Old Nosy" (Wellington) would keep them safe.
❇Critterbee wrote: "I do not mean the people who had lived there ages, but Worth and Judith were clearly set up to live in London in Regency Buck, and then they go with a baby to the edge of a war zone? This really bo..."Judith does blame herself for not sending little Julian home with Perry - as she should (& so should Worth if he wasn't so self satisfied) Very odd in a Heyer book, where inheritance is so important.
❇Critterbee wrote: "I do not mean the people who had lived there ages, but Worth and Judith were clearly set up to live in London in Regency Buck, and then they go with a baby to the edge of a war zone? This really bo..."Well, at the time that they relocated to Brussels, Napoleon was safely (or so they thought) exiled to Elba. And even when he escaped, it was not initially clear that there would be any danger.
In A Civil Contract, this is alluded to: Julia and her Marquis are in Paris for their honeymoon during Napoleon's exile. But the Marquis brings them home when Napoleon escapes, not wanting to chance an undignified scramble to escape. But that was Paris, not Brussels.
I have been thinking more about this, and I think I recall that many European wars (excepting the French and Russian revolutions) often did not target or hurt the civilian aristocrats.
Still, get that baby out of there!!
❇Critterbee wrote: "I have been thinking more about this, and I think I recall that many European wars (excepting the French and Russian revolutions) often did not target or hurt the civilian aristocrats.
Still, ge..."
& not just the aristocrats! On page 339 of my edition, the Duke gets very annoyed at an artillery officer who has discovered the location of Bonaparte & his staff & suggests picking up. Wellington is decidedly frosty at the idea of that. It strikes me that quite a few lives could have been saved if they had done that!
& just while I think of it. ..As mentioned by Alathea in another thread The Spanish Bride was written by GH, not that long after AIA & before our next read, The Corinthian
If anyone would like to read it, there is a thread in the Book Folder that has, among other things, some good photos of the Smiths.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Or a moderator can close that thread & you can start a new one. Just let us know. :)
I hope Charles Audley's right arm was fully healed before he lost his left. That would be a greater tragedy to have no fully functional arms. On the plus side, he got the girl in the end at last.
QNPoohBear wrote: "I hope Charles Audley's right arm was fully healed before he lost his left. That would be a greater tragedy to have no fully functional arms. On the plus side, he got the girl in the end at last."I would think, given the amount of hard riding he did that his right arm must have been fully healed.
Sheila in the first thread brings up the point of insta-love.IMO opinion we need to look at a few things.
Lower life expectancy This site only goes back to 1841 & the aristocrats probably lived a bit longer... https://visual.ons.gov.uk/how-has-lif...
So "forever" was a much shorter time, both in the settings & when GH wrote the book.
It was wartime. I mention in my review of this book that my parents met during WW2 & effectively only knew each other for 2 weeks. & their marriage was much like I would expect Charles & Bab's marriage to be - not always happy. I think this novel does very effectively capture the feeling that you maybe only have now.
Date of Publication 1937 GH had been in one World War & there would have been concerns they were heading for another. I have to say if any of you have read Helen her idea of war sacrifice as a very young writer will make you cringe! D
Carol ☀ Walking in Sunshine wrote: "Sheila in the first thread brings up the point of insta-love.IMO opinion we need to look at a few things.
Lower life expectancy This site only goes back to 1841 & the aristocrats probably lived ..."
I think these are excellent points and absolutely pertinent. The knowledge that there is no permanence, no guarantees and that one should seize the moment seems readily understandable in that context. I would also add that my husband and I fell in love almost immediately and we are still together 40 plus years after we met!!. I have no problem with insta-love or lust!!
Georgette Heyer Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
Helen (other topics)The Spanish Bride (other topics)
The Corinthian (other topics)
A Civil Contract (other topics)
Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles (other topics)
