Stephanie Jane reviewed Venetia by Georgette Heyer
A fun romance tale
4 stars
Content warning Slight ending spoiler in 3rd paragraph
I first listened to this audio version of Venetia, read by Richard Armitage, back in January 2011 and my brief review from back then said: "This version is abridged from the original novel which I (still) have not read, but I did not feel that I was missing out at all. The story is great fun with lots of twists and turns before its resolution, and the characters are both believable and interesting. Armitage is a fabulous narrator, able to voice each character appropriately and distinctly, which definitely added to my enjoyment of the book."
Seven and a half years later, my enjoyment during this relisten was not at all diminished. Armitage's voice may head a little towards pantomime dame when voicing Aunt Maria but I could picture her as such an outlandishly 'fashionable' creation so this worked for me. His lowered tones for the rake, Lord Damerel, are simply delicious!
I went through a Georgette Heyer stage in my early teens because Mum was a fan and owned a couple of dozen of her novels. (She had lots of Dennis Wheatley and Helen Forrester too which probably explains my wide-ranging reading tastes now!) I vaguely remember most of the heroines being, or at least wanting to appear to be, essentially helpless whenever the man of their dreams strode into view. Venetia isn't like that at all. Scandalously independent thanks to her unsupervised upbringing, she competently runs her family's ancestral estate, spars on equal verbal terms with the depraved Damerel and, (SLIGHT SPOILER!) when disaster strikes, Saves Herself! Yes!
As I mentioned, this audiobook is abridged and runs about five hours. Consequently, I assume, we have all the best characters and plots with little, if any, filler - if there was any originally. I don't know. Heyer's characters are superb. Memorable and great fun, I think the supporting cast made this story for me just as much as its central romance. Probably unfairly I consider Georgette Heyer my guilty pleasure because Regency Romances are considerably lighter than my usual reading fare, but when they're this well done, who cares!