Penelope Goes to Portsmouth

Here is another fascinating look back into England during what has become known as the Regency, the early years of the 19th century, when George III was thought to be mad and his son stood in for him. The class system, which was almost a caste system, is clear again in this novel. A person was where God placed him and should not question the Creator. Or as John D. Rockefeller said a century later, "God gave me my money." As an egalitarian I find it disturbing but accurate from the Chesney pen. As ever, an interesting plot is melded with excellent characters, but it is still the ambience that fuels Ms. Chesney's success. This is no sugar sweet, hearts and flowers romance of the sort too common from lesser writers. It has the feeling of reality, as the reader travels from London by stagecoach to Portsmouth on the southern coast. Along the way we meet diverse people, high and low, a villainous harridan who in effect condemns an honest man to death for refusing her advances. We see a drunken man reformed and heroic. I can't imagine any serious reader not being taken by this book. It is serious literature that anyone can enjoy.