The Talisman Ring is another of Georgette Heyer’s swashbuckling 18th century romances, very much in the vein of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s light and fun and entertaining and forgettable. An enjoyable read.
As a close and passionate reader of Georgette Heyer’s novels (some of them I’ve read easily a dozen times), I’ve noticed that she seems to be heavily influenced by William Shakespeare’s comedies. The Masqueraders shows this influence more than any of her other books. In it a con artist brother and sister, fleeing the disastrous Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, hide their identities by cross-dressing. The brother dresses as a woman, the sister as a man. They rescue a damsel in distress at an inn and are soon drawn into the expected romantic hijinks. This is by no means the best of Georgette Heyer’s novels, but it is a light, entertaining, fun read.
Cannonball Read IV 