Apr 20, 2011 12:55 PM
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(Updated Apr 25, 2011 11:09 AM)
This tale’s as light as a feather,
The Corinthian and the brat travel together,
He is just a trustee in the unwritten pact,
Is it true that opposites will attract?
Ok, let me not make dizzy attempts at writing a poem, it would be best left with dear esteemed MSians like Geeta ma’am @geeta1963 and Sajit bhai @hermit
Georgette Heyer: The pretty authoress was a historic romance and detective fiction writer. She first tried her hand at the romance genre in 1921 with The Black Mothwhich was an instant hit. She started regularly releasing a thriller and a romantic novel each year from 1932. That shows her imaginative skills could swing in varied directions! Her husband George Rougier would provide outlines for her story and contributed towards proof-reading of her novels. She never believed in publicity and shied away from interviews!
Story- This one is an olio where I found spices of entertaining Bollywood movies! A Corinthian is someone who is wealthy, very stylish, trendy and powerful. 29 year old, handsome Sir Richard Wyndham is the protagonist in this romantic comedy. He has lived a disciplined, convenient, lavish but boring life. The story starts with a hilarious scene where Richard’s mom and his sister Louisa are almost commanding Richard to get into wedlock with a girl they have fondly chosen for him. His mom emotionally blackmails him (like moms usually do) by saying, "If I live to see you suitably married, I can die content." However, Richard is happy with his life and seems to be in no mood for marriage. (This one has a flavor of the first few scenes of Munna Bhai MBBS) To get rid of incessant pestering by his relatives he finally succumbs to their wishes and agrees to get married.
In such a state of gloominess, while taking a casual walk, he meets 17 year old shabby, unkempt Miss Penelope Creed who is climbing down from the balcony of a room with the help of knotted sheets! Richard suspects her to be a burglar at first sight, but after some interrogation, she informs him that her step family members want her to get married to their son Frederick to get hold of her large fortune. However, she strongly feels that Fredrick’s face resembles that of a fish! She plans to elope and join her beloved Piers Luttrel who stays in Bristol (a journey of 12 hours). She has not met him for the past five years, but is sure that he would receive her with open arms. Grabbing this opportunity to get rid of the mess in his own life, Richard offers to accompany her to Bristol. She disguises as Richard’s young cousin brother and they set off on their way. What follows next is an account of their adventurous yet hilarious journey to Bristol.
(Can I smell the very strong Jab we met spice here? There are trains playing an important role in the Bollywood flick, here there are carriages and horses!)
The night before Richard and Pen meet Piers,fate leads Pen(still disguised as a lad) to an emotional and sentimental young lady Lydia who is returning home after a secret date with her betrothed. To clear out of suspicions from Lydia’s father, she blabbers out that she was troubled by a ruffian by the name- Pen! Moreover, Pen’s hopes are shattered when she discovers Lydia’s secret date was none other than her beloved Piers! Will Richard be able to extract Pen out of this situation? Will the stylish Corinthian fall in love with this impulsive and immature brat? Do opposites really attract?
My Opinion- I had seen a lot of books by this authoress in my library and it surprised me that I had not even heard of her name before. I searched on Amazon.com for user reviews, (my trustworthy source of information, although I never buy from there) found ‘The Corinthian’ to be one of her best books and gave it a try. Although this book came in 1940, it has a very fresh and pleasant feel. I did not cling onto this book till I finished it since the suspense factor was very low. Period details made the book slow at a few places. But most of the book has dialogs and not long paragraphs which makes it an interesting read. The descriptions of characters made me fall in love with them! The dashing Richard is as overwhelming as Hritik Roshan in Dhoom 2 and the naughty Pen instantly reminds of Kareena in Jab we met who keeps running around following her heart!
3.5 out of 5
