These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer

\n \nHeyer was one of the great protagonists of the historical novel in the post-war golden age... --Philippa Gregory\n \nConsidered the book that launched Gerogette Heyer's career, These Old Shades features two of Heyer's most memorable characters: Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, and Leonie, whom he rescues from a life of ignominy and comes to love and marry.\n \nThe Duke is known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Late one evening, he is accosted by a young person dressed in ragged boy's clothing running away from a brutal rustic guardian. The Duke buys Leon and makes the child his page. Leon is in fact Leonie, and she serves the Duke with deep devotion. When he uncovers the true story of her birth, he wreaks an unforgettable revenge on her sinister father in a chilling scene of public humiliation.\n \nPRAISE FOR GEORGETTE HEYER: \n \nOur Georgette Heyer display of the Sourcebooks reprints has been a huge success, not only to those early fans like myself, but to many new readers who appreciate her style and wit. \nNancy Olson, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC\n \nReading Georgette Heyer is the next best thing to reading Jane Austen. \nPublishers Weekly\n \nWonderful characters, elegant, witty writing, perfect period detail, and rapturously romantic. Georgette Heyer achieves what the rest of us only aspire to. \nKatie Fforde \n \nAbsolute monarch of the Regency romance. \nKirkus Reviews\n