Wealhtheow's Reviews > Regency Buck

Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
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Read 2 times. Last read June 4, 2009.

With any other hero, I might consider this the best of Heyer. As it was, I was torn between hating Lord Worth and being swept up in the story.
Judith Taverner and her younger, sillier brother Peregrine have been recently orphaned, and with spirited curiosity they decide to seek out their new guardian, the high-handed Lord Worth. They are quite surprised to learn he is a young, handsome man who is friends with the Crown Prince and the cream of society. With his help, the Taverners are rapidly enfolded into the bosom of high society. But even as they enjoy great social success, worryingly lethal "accidents" keep happening around Perigrine...and Lord Worth seems to be involved.
Judith and Beau Brummel are great characters, and their friendship was the highlight of this novel. I was enthralled by their attempts to both curry favor with, and rebel against, the society to which they are born. Judith has an especially refreshing take on high society manners: she understands which rules she has to follow to me a social success, but refuses to take them seriously. Unfortunately, this is not the focus of Regency Buck; Judith's contentious relationship with her infuriating guardian is.


Speaking of which...SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Taverners meet Lord Worth when he, speeding along the narrow road at a tremendous pace, almost smashes into their little curricle. He refuses to apologize or get down to see if they're ok. When he runs into Peregrine later, he insults him again. Then Lord Worth sees Judith by the side of the road (she was taking a stone from her shoe) and picks her up, puts her into his carriage, and forcibly kisses her. The whole time she protests loudly and without ambiguity. And of course, he just laughs at her. Not realizing his identity, she warns him that her guardian, Lord Worth, will protect her, and he laughs at her again. From then on, whenever they meet, he needles her about the kiss. When they meet again, he reveals his true identity, installs the Taverners into a house of HIS choosing, and refuses to let them have their own aunt stay as chaperone--his relative will be chaperone, instead. Incidents like this continue throughout the book. Judith is a smart, fashionable woman with good instincts, and Lord Worth spends the entire novel manipulating events and people to make her do what he wants.
Two terrible instances spring to mind. The Crown Prince is quite taken with Judith, and at one point in the novel, forces her to be in an isolated and closed room with him. Her chaperone (who Worth chose for her, against her objections) is off playing cards. When the prince tries to take advantage of her (in a scene novel to Heyer in its disturbing realism), Judith is so overcome that she faints for the first time in her life. She is awakened by Worth, who BERATES HER for embarrassing the prince. Then he lambasts her for being so foolish as to be in a room alone with him. When she tries to explain that she couldn't get away, he brushes off her objections.
The second instance is less of a rape-apologia and more of pure insensitivity. As part of his plan to expose Peregrine's would-be-assassin, Worth drugs Peregrine and stuffs him on a yacht to keep him out of the way. After he's been missing for a few days, Judith begins to fear for his life. She goes to Worth repeatedly, literally begging him to look for Peregrine, and he dismisses her fears as overreactions. (Despite the fact that someone really is trying to kill Peregrine, and Judith herself has prevented at least one of the attempts.) Then, the real villain of the story shows up, and convinces Judith that he knows where Peregrine is being kept. Judith goes along for awhile, but quickly realizes that it's a trap, designed to make it look like she has eloped with the villain. Just as the scene reaches a fever pitch of ugly rape-y connotations, Lord Worth steps out of the shadows and punches the villain. Then he and the villain take turns explaining the villain's dastardly plans. There is no conceivable reason that Worth couldn't have clued Judith in to his suspicions, or told her that Peregrine was safe. Due to his high-handed douchebaggery, the "love of his life" spent days thinking that her beloved younger brother was dead, then thought she was going to be raped. WOW how ROMANTIC. Given how intelligent and level-headed Judith is throughout the book, I assumed Worth would eventually have a change of heart or realization that he has misjudged her and treated her badly. But no, he never suffers even a moment of doubt.

To me, this book works very well as a close look at upper-class Regency life, and very badly as a romance.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading
June 4, 2009 – Finished Reading
Started Reading (Kindle Edition)
July 4, 2009 – Shelved (Kindle Edition)
July 4, 2009 – Shelved as: regency (Kindle Edition)
July 4, 2009 – Finished Reading (Kindle Edition)
July 7, 2009 – Shelved

Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

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Aphie Almost exactly my own thoughts. During the final scene, where Lord Worth tells Judith he wanted to BEAT HER several times and she's lucky he didn't (and the text rolls on as if this is an utterly charming declaration) I wanted to vomit.


Wealhtheow Worth is a disgusting character, but what's so much worse is that the author seems to think he's charming. I was really torn about this book.


Devikajgmail.com Sigh! Kind of agree... It is one of the Heyer novels which always causes an internal struggle... It has all the elements of an awesome MB so end up re-reading it, but Worth's double standards always piss me off royally, esp. culminating in that curricle racing scene... At no point does he ever acknowledge that she is right and he is wrong


Wealhtheow I know! Otherwise I really liked a lot of this book, but having the love interest be such a high-handed asshole is frustrating.


Aphie I hated Worth so much I got rid of my copy, lest I be tempted to read it again!(after being suckered in several times, after a pause of some months, because I forgot just how bad he was)


Lanette Wow, you don't understand the restrictions of the Regency era, do you? Every one of the complaints you mention are all due to the viewpoints of that era and none of them were meant to be taken the way you took them. In fact, you didn't even read them right. Such as the first meeting. Perry impetuously decided to make a U-turn in a curricle in the middle of a two lane road just past a curve. How would you like that today, if you were rounding a curve to find a car length-wise in front of you attempting to make a U-turn???? As for the choice of chaperone, Worth asks her what type of society she wants to move in -- the outskirts or the upper-level high-class. She says she wants it ALL, so that means that her Aunt won't be sufficient. In order to be accepted by the ton, she needed someone of consequence to lend her the respectability needed to be accepted, let alone cause a stir and become the "rage". I could go one to explain each one of your examples, but I don't even know if you're going to read this, so let me know if you're at all interested.


Georgia Worth is the most frustrating of "heros" and I really don't buy Judith falling in love with him.


Vibliophile Much of this is a painful misreading of Heyer's text & misunderstanding of the period

For those who view Worth negatively, I recommend reading Emilia Barnes' review also here on this GR publication entry, titled "in defence of Regency Buck".

Worth is cocky, but it's not unearned. He's actually an impressive guy with incredible self-control. Judith is constantly mistaken about the world because she's not just ignorant & naive but deliberately, childishly opposing Worth at every opportunity just because she doesn't like him being in a position of more knowledge & experience than her. Basically, she's frequently behaving like a spoiled brat, & there's a Taming of the Shrew flavor to the story.


Wealhtheow Worth can be deservedly cocky AND a huge asshole. Any one of the incidents I bothered to write in this review would make me despise him. I just read Emilia's review and it didn't rehabilitate him in the slightest in my eyes; I utterly disagree that any of those are defenses. Like, her defense of "He threatens to beat Judith." is "True, but then he doesn’t..."?? That's no defense at all!

I guess I'm consistent: I don't find Petruchio a fetching romantic lead either. Is he even supposed to be?


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