7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1944 Pages 312 pp Originally published 1944 Preceded by Faro's Daughter Publisher Heinemann | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print OCLC 179792748 Followed by The Reluctant Widow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Regency era, Romance novel Similar Georgette Heyer books, Romance novels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday's Child is a novel written by Georgette Heyer in 1944. It is generally considered one of Miss Heyer's best Regency romances, and was reportedly the favourite of the author herself. Heyer retained only a single fan letter, which was from a Romanian political prisoner who kept herself and her fellow prisoners sane for twelve years by telling and retelling the plot of Friday's Child.
Contents
Friday's Child is one of several Heyer romances where the hero and heroine are married early in the novel, and the plot follows their path to mutual love and understanding. Other examples include The Convenient Marriage and April Lady.
Plot summary
The wild young Viscount Sheringham is fast running through his considerable income through gambling and other extravagant pursuits; and he cannot as yet touch the principal, unless he marries. As the lady with whom he currently fancies himself in love, the beautiful Isabella Milborne, is also an heiress, he proposes.
Isabella rejects him unhesitatingly, citing his dissipated lifestyle. A lively quarrel then follows with his obnoxious widowed mother and her brother, who wish to retain control of his father's fortune themselves. The Viscount storms off in a fit of pique, vowing to marry the first female he meets.
This turns out to be the pretty but orphaned and shy Hero Wantage, who has secretly loved him since they were children, and who now lives with one of his neighbours in the position of Cinderella, complete with Ugly Sisters.
The rest of the novel, chronicling the Viscount's gradual transition to maturity and the realisation that the one he really loves is Hero (the "loving and giving" child of the title), is told with Miss Heyer's characteristic wit, and features some of her most memorable dialogue, plot twists and characters (such as the fiery but lovelorn George Wrotham, whose hobby is fighting duels).