An Infamous Army

Georgette Heyer is the doyenne of Regency romances.  An Infamous Army - A Novel of Love, War, Wellington and Waterloo (#532) is exactly that; a strange amalgam of an unlikely romance carried out in the ballrooms and fashionable riding paths of Brussels as the British and their Allies gather to take a stand against Napoleon and his army at Waterloo.

The reader who picks up this book for the romance will find a difficult and often unlikeable heroine in Lady Barbara Child. Sir Charles Audley, a member of Wellington's staff who falls instantly head-over-heels in love with her, seems much too good for her for most of the book.  But frankly, I felt the romance was an afterthought here. 

Ms. Heyer's real intent was to write a serious novel about the Battle of Waterloo, and in this she succeeded.  The book runs to almost 500 pages, and the majority of her writing covers the build up to the confrontation between Wellington and Bonaparte.  The lists of regiments, brigades, supplies and emplacements around the countryside will daunt all but the most determined romance reader.  I know this is the one Georgette Heyer book that my mother was never able to make it through, although she tried several times.  I picked this up to read this year precisely because of the Waterloo anniversary and I still found it hard going at times.  I often wished that there were maps to accompany the military sections to help me visualize ground I've never seen even in photos.

One thing I did find curious about this book: Napoleon Bonaparte is barely mentioned.  Wellington is the real hero here, but the French Emperor exists only as a shadow figure.  Appalling loss of life on both sides, and it's never really clear to me what was at stake here other than national pride.

The best I can say is that this is the last Georgette Heyer book on my "To Read" list, and I can now cross it off.