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Cover of The Foundling

The Foundling

Georgette Heyer

629 pages

A sparkling, affectionate romp about a stifled duke who sneaks out of his gilded cage and accidentally adopts a chaotic cast of misfits.

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What it feels like

A delightful, sparkling farce that reads less like a traditional romance and more like a joyous coming-of-age adventure. The narrative moves at a brisk, theatrical pace as our gentle, over-managed hero slips out of his gilded cage and into a chaotic road trip filled with blackmailers, runaway youths, and beautiful airheads. The prose is classic Heyer, elegant, effortlessly witty, and dripping with colorful Regency cant. Readers will find themselves wrapped in a cheerful, cozy atmosphere where the stakes are just high enough to be exciting but never truly threatening. It is a perfect read for anyone who loves a beta hero slowly discovering his own spine, offering a warm, affectionate romp that leaves you smiling long after the final page.

Mood
  • cheerful
  • cozy
  • theatrical
  • breezy
Tone
  • wry
  • affectionate
  • lighthearted
  • sparkling
Pace
brisk
Themes
breaking free from expectations · the burden of privilege · coming of age · unlikely alliances · self-discovery
The writing
Elegant and effortlessly witty, heavily seasoned with colorful, authentic-sounding Regency cant.
The arc
Moves from stifled passivity to confident, joyful self-determination.
Who it's for
Readers who delight in gentle, character-driven historical farces featuring a sweet, unassuming hero coming into his own.
Content notes
  • comedic kidnapping
  • blackmail

About the book

The Groom. Enormously wealthy, scrupulously mannered and suffocatingly confined by his title the 24 years old Adolphus Gillespie Ware, the 7th Duke of Sale -- known to friends as Gilly -- is a diffident young, easily pushed around by his overprotective uncle and the retinue of devoted family retainers who won't let him lift a finger for himself. He sometimes wishes he could be a commoner and longed for a spot of true excitement. When he learns that his marriage has already been arranged, orphaned Gilly, who is determined to wed for love only, discovers that his intended is the same woman he has secretly loved for years.

The Bride. Lovely Harriet Presteigne had already been informed that she was expected to marry diffident Gilly, her old childhood friend. Unfortunately, the thought had never occurred to the groom-to-be until his uncle cum guardian told him. She accepted with reasonable good grace the necessity of carrying on the line. She liked Gilly; she simply didn't love him -- certainly not in the way he dreamed love should be.

The adventures. So when Gilly's cousin found himself in quite a pickle -- a beautiful country girl claimed Gideon had proposed! -- Looking for some excitement, Gilly delightfully took it upon himself to remedy the situation with an incognito journey. But his secret foray into the countryside was fraught with danger as well as thrills, he confronts a blackmailer, he encounters a runaway school boy, a beautiful but airheaded orphan, appealing and well-spoken comic villains, and a series of alarming and even life threatening events from which he can extricate himself only with the help of his fiancée... In night Gilly brought to Harriet's home Belinda Ware, a beautiful young "foundling," asking his fiancee's help in hiding her from her "pursuers." It was as fantastic a story as Harriet had ever heard --a situation which showed the seemingly gentle Gilly in quite another light....

Description from Open Library.

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