Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer – First Australian Edition, 1968

Description The Details:This copy is in good condition. Some mild staining to the cut ends, but pages are clear. Mild yellowing. Red boards are clean and bright. Dustjacket in good condition with some staining and mild chipping. Price clipped. The Story:From its inception, Georgette meant Cousin Kate to be different from her other Regencies. Here there were to be no glittering London scenes, no balls or evenings at Almack’s, no handsome lords or dashing rakes – in fact, the novel would contain no immediately obvious romance – or, indeed, an immediately obvious hero! Instead, the story was to be a mystery with a strong element of suspense and several sharply depicted flesh-and-blood characters in Lady Minerva, Sir Timothy and their poor son Torquil. The central character was to be 24 year-old Kate Malvern, one of Heyer’s fiercely independent women she is pretty, spirited and intelligent. But Kate’s situation is dire because she is well-born but penniless. Not for her the glittering social whirl of a London Season, instead Kate must devise ways and means of supporting herself. Plans to continue as a governess (a truly hateful role for most women of the period as Jane Austen makes clear in Emma), or to hire herself out as a housekeeper or lady’s maid meet with a shocked rebuttal from Kate’s old nurse, Sarah Nidd. Sarah knows what is due to Kate, but without money or family, Kate’s options are extremely limited – as Georgette knew and understood all too well. There is a strong element of historical reality in Cousin Kate. (https://jenniferkloester.com/cousin-kate-a-gothic-novel/) The Author:Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story conceived for her ailing younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. (wiki) Related