The Talisman Ring (Heyer)

Another novel. I blush. This specimen is, I am assured, the best of Georgette Heyer's work. The copyright information tells me it was first published in 1936, and the writing style fits nicely in that era. There was a time when novels were more measured, a little drier, and still possessed of restraint. Fictional characters had more respect. They were granted a portion of privacy through the right to retain some details behind a shield of decency and propriety. Georgette Heyer endows her characters with generous helpings of dignity.

What's left when you cordon off the visceral sensationalist element? Elegant wit, softly crackling conversation, good natured drollery, a dash of adventure, a tinge of romance, and a soundly trounced villain. And, naturally, the proposal of a marriage or two just as everything is winding down. The whole is draped in delicately figured language and tinted with the high tones of refined society. For once I was not brow beaten into emotionally engaging with the characters, and the book was all the more delightsome for affording this freedom. I may return to Heyer some day for frothy summer reading.