Miss Ware's Refusal

Simon, the Duke of Sutton, is blinded in the Napoleonic Wars, and shuts himself up in his London home. Judith Ware is a poor relation to gentry, forced to become a governess. Mutual friends arrange for Judith to work as a reader for Simon, and of course they fall in love. Although this is an older book (published 1990) and the setup sounds trite, it plays out in a very realistic way that feels far more historically accurate than most romances. The author is clearly influenced by Jane Austen. Although she mentions Judith reading Emma, the real influence here is Pride and Prejudice. Imagine a blind version of Mr. Darcy. Yes, it's that good. No purple prose, no miracle cure, no embarrassingly awful sex scenes, just good solid writing. Highly recommended.

I discovered this author by reading the review that appears below this one and how glad I am to have discovered Marjorie Farrell. I won't repeat the plot description that is well covered by the other reviewer - I just want to add my enthusiatic praise for well drawn characters and quiet plots (no mystery, murder and mayhem). The secondary characters are especially well done - I loved Mr. Wiggins. This is one that will go on my keeper shelf and will be re-read with pleasure. Connected books are "Autumn Rose" and "Lady Barbara's Dilemma"; this is my favorite of the three.

I have often wondered, since I first read this book some while ago, why no one ever reviewed it. So, as I have just re-read it, I thought I would take the opportunity to spread the word that this book is one of the Regency genre's hidden treasures. If you like Kelly, Balogh, Putney, Layton and Beverley, please do make the effort to get a copy of this wonderful novel. Marjorie Farrell, like Kelly, et al above, is absolutely scrupulous in her research and she tends to present her stories from a masculine perspective. So, if you like getting inside the mind and heart of the hero, she has given us one in this novel who is memorable and, as the saying goes, is one to die for.Simon Ballance, the Duke of Sutton, went into the army and fought as a staff officer under Wellington in the Peninsula. As in Red, Red Rose, Farrell writes with brilliant command about army life and the effect of combat on the mind, heart and soul of a man. After sustaining a head wound, Simon is invalided home permanently blind. The descriptions of him in hospital, the relationship with a fellow patient and the terrible traumatic effects of his blinding are absolutely brilliant. In a poignant scene, he is so helpless and desparate that he suffers lying in his own urine while those around him cry out in pain. This scene was as moving as Anne Gracie's ballroom scene in Gallant Waif or the hospital scenes in Carla Kelly's With This Ring.On his return to England, Simon at first is unaccepting of his fate and sinks into a predictable depression. As an orphan, his household staff fill in as family and are very supportive of their master, giving help where they can and waiting for signs of improvement. The improvement comes in the form of Miss Judith Ware, a slight acquaintance from the past and a woman of good family fallen on hard times. Simon's secretary Francis and his closest friend conspire to have Judith hired as a reader for Simon.Then, the developing relationship between these two highly intelligent and thoughtful people develops through a mutual passion for books, philosophy and interest in people and events. They truly are the other halves of each other but, of course, there are many trials to be overcome before they can be happily together. Through the false start of a suggested marriage of convenience (and Miss Ware's "refusal" of it), they go down a wrong track but, as in any romance, they find their was back to each other in the end.What was truly remarkable about this book was the author's unflinching insistence on portraying the disability of blindness in the true context of the historical setting. Every mis-step Simon takes, the reader feels it along with him. We know his frustrations, anxiety, disbelief, anger and pride. We understand how this desirable and wonderful man shuts himself off believing himself an object of pity, undesirable, unloveable and isolated. How Judith brings him out of himself is memorably portrayed. I simply cannot rate this b