A Civil Contract

As other reviewers have said, this is a departure from the standard Georgettes, in a couple of ways. First is the less sentimental view of romance, along with a marriage early in the book and a denoument that doesn't entirely follow the formula. Second and maybe more important is that the characters are more fully realized. Both spouses are treated with so much care that they become three-dimensional to an extent that protagonists in many of the other novels just don't reach. This novel doesn't give "Ahhh" romantic satisfaction in a way that most of Heyer's Regency novels do, but it provides something more lasting that might help your own marriage.

This is a wonderful story that makes us all thank God we did not marry our first infatuations. Contrary to what the first reviewer here says, the heroine is not fat, as her mother-in-law states however "she will run to fat" in her future. Heyer has again done a fabulous job with her charactors. I happen to love the the girls dad. He is an overly generous man who loves his daughter and will do whatever he has to see she is given the best his money can buy. Once his deals are done he does not throw himself onto the family that she is now married into and can't understand the families great love of Fontley-the family estate.(Neither of us understand loving something that is old damp falling to pieces, drafty and inconvenient with complaining servants). The family has issues, besides being top lofty, stuck on the family name, broke, having a mother who likes to complain and make all feel guilty, a daughter who married beneath her station but is trying for piety, the younger sister who has more of her dead father's lively disposition, and who loves "Papa Chawliegh even though he is a funny one" and Lynton himself married to a woman who is rather plain-not ugly, but no where near the beautiful but terribly spoiled girl of his infatuation. While reading this you will wonder at the patience of one and the gall of others.......lol The aunt is fun, dad has a good recipe or two, and this is a fab read.

Jo Beverly gives one of the best introductions I've ever read, and she's right -- you either love "A Civil Contract" or else you don't. I belong to the former camp because I not love this novel, I also think that it is probably the best Regency-era romance novel that Ms Heyer ever wrote. To begin with, "A Civil Contract" isn't what you'd usually expect from a Regency-era romance novel: the hero, Adam Deveril, has returned from the Napoleonic wars only to be greeted by the news that he has inherited a badly in-debt estate with his father's sudden death at the hunting field. A deeply honourable man with principles, Adam is willing to sell the estates and give up on his dream of marrying the love of his life, the beautiful and much pampered Julia Oversley. Fate steps in the shape a rich merchant, Jonathan Chawleigh. Mr. Chawleigh offers to help Adam settle his father's debts, save the estates and see that the rest of the Deverils are settled comfortably, if Adam will marry Mr. Chawleigh's plain and practical daughter, Jenny. And even though every feeling revolts at such a scheme, Adam finally agrees to the scheme so that his mother and sisters will be comfortable, and so that he can save his ancestral home. But will Adam be able to put aside his feelings for Julia and allow himself to feel some affection for practical Jenny? Or will he spend the rest of his life bitterly regretting that he had to give Julia up? The novel centers on the first year of Adam's marriage to Jenny -- how the couple learn to live with each other, to understand each other and to cope with their families (in this case Adam's melancholy and slightly melodramatic mother, and Jenny's brash and over bearing father). Is their marriage a success? Does Adam come to love and value Jenny? I've always liked to think so. But not many readers have agreed; many believe that while Adam comes to value Jenny, all he feels for her is affection and gratitude. Whatever conclusion you come to however, it is undeniable that "A Civil Contract" is one the best, almost realistic look at an arranged marriage that has been recently written. Once again Ms Heyer makes us care for the principal characters involved and to hope that Adam really has come to passionately care for Jenny (as she so devoutly hopes that he one day will). "A Civil Contract" is a superbly written book, and is one that really should not be missed.

We have all read Regencies in which the destitute hero marries for money and finds true love as well. "A Civil Contract" is not one of these stories. Adam Deveril is one of Georgette Heyer's quiet gentlemen: handsome, honorable, and brave. He needs a great deal of bravery when his father dies. That death shatters Adam's life. He has a career in the army; he must sell out. He loves the fairy-tale beauty Julia and she loves him; a man in debt to his neck cannot afford a merely respectable portion, nor can the lover honorably ask her to join him in grinding poverty. He does what his honor insists that he do. None of the things which he has lost could help him . He needs to marry money, in the form of the plump and plain daughter of a domineering and vulgar man--a very wealthy man, who is willing to take on Adam's debts to marry his daughter to a nobleman. But Jenny loves Adam, and has loved him ever since she, as Julia's companion, watched the golden pair fall in love. Jenny can marry him and rescue him financially, which Julia can't; she can be the wife of the man she loves, knowing that he still loves Julia; she can fulfill her father's dreams for her. And she does.Surely this must have happened in life. Not every merchant's daughter would turn out to be beautiful. Not every wealthy merchant would turn out to be a man of sensitivity and charm. Not every marriage made for money could turn out to be a marriage for love.The novel begins with Adam, his problem, his terrible losses, his quietly heroic determination to do both the honorable thing and the sensible thing,no matter what his personal desires are. All he has to sell is himself and his title, and he sells them. It is important that we know all this, because only with this knowledge can we see how much this has cost him. Heyer wants us to admire this man, and we do.Of course Jenny loves him, we feel. Who wouldn't? As we come to know Jenny, we see how different she is from both Adam and Julia. Jenny is plain, as they are not. She doesn't have good taste; she allows her father to overdress her plump form and bury her plain features in expensive and tasteless jewelry. These are only surface features; the real difference lies in her practicality. Adam has been harnessed into practicality, Julia will never be practical, but Jenny is naturally practical. She knows that her father's money will enable Adam to restore his estate and care for his family. She is willing to go into a marriage in which the loving is one-sided and unacknowledged, in order to make Adam's life better. This is not a novel about "happy ever after." It may well bring on tears (or at least a little sniffle); it does for me. There are sad moments, but there are also happy ones and humorous ones. This may not be your favorite Heyer, but I think you will find some reality with your fairy tales will make a terrific novel.

I probably read almost all the Georgette Heyer Regencies about 20 years ago and enjoyed them all ... but this, somewhat to my surprise, was the one that stuck with me the most. Re-reading it now, I understand why better and think that it is almost a small masterpiece. No evil villians, no larger-than-life heros (well, Jenny, but even she has her very "human" moments), no sudden mind-altering changes of heart -- but perhaps a greater miracle: the steady growth of love between some honorable and loveable people -- more than the hero and heroine, in fact. Unlike one of the other reviewers, I rather liked the last few pages because where they were left off is, really, where they would be in "real" life and you get the feeling that the story truly does continue and get even more wonderful after you leave off. I guess I would like it better if we could glimpse the changes in their more intimate moments also .... but then Georgettte Heyer wouldn't have been writing the story and it would be nothing like a masterpiece. Please read it - sometime when you have the time to savor each step of the way and some of the truly, truly funny moments, as well as the touching ones.