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    The Convenient Marriage
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    The Convenient Marriage
    Unavailable
    The Convenient Marriage
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Convenient Marriage

    Written by Georgette Heyer

    Narrated by Richard Armitage

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Horatia Winwood is the youngest and the least attractive of the three Winwood sisters. She also has a stammer. But when the enigmatic and eminently eligible Earl of Rule offers for her oldest sister’s hand – a match that makes financial and social sense, but would break her heart – it is Horatia who takes matters into her own impetuous hands. Can she save her family’s fortune? Or is she courting disaster? Witty, charming, elegant and always delightful, Georgette Heyer – the undisputed Queen of Regency Romance – brings the whole period to life with deft precision and glorious characters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateAug 1, 2010
    ISBN9781843794424
    Unavailable
    The Convenient Marriage
    Author

    Georgette Heyer

    Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) was an English writer of historical romance and detective fiction. Born in London, Heyer was raised as the eldest of three children by a distinguished British Army officer and a mother who excelled as a cellist and pianist at the Royal College of Music. Encouraged to read from a young age, she began writing stories at 17 to entertain her brother Boris, who suffered from hemophilia. Impressed by her natural talent, Heyer’s father sought publication for her work, eventually helping her to release The Black Moth (1921), a detective novel. Heyer then began publishing her stories in various magazines, establishing herself as a promising young voice in English literature. Following her father’s death, Heyer became responsible for the care of her brothers and shortly thereafter married mining engineer George Ronald Rougier. In 1926, Heyer publisher her second novel, These Old Shades, a work of historical romance. Over the next several decades, she published consistently and frequently, excelling with romance and detective stories and establishing herself as a bestselling author.

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    Reviews for The Convenient Marriage

    4/5

    343 ratings83 reviews

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    • 2/5
      While I generally enjoy Georgette Heyer's books, this one I simply could not get behind. One of the main characters possesses a stammer-all well and good, but Heyer g-g-gets it ou-ou-out on every p-p-p-page. I nearly thought I would rip the pages out, and heartily wished the character would die so that she would shut up. Sadly, no such fortune.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      fanfare for a Regency filled with a warm romance of the Regency period. The Convenient Marriage will give the listener a jolly good time.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Don't get me wrong, the book itself is great, but Richard Armitage's reading is what makes it spectacular. Wow.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Silly, niave, foolish 17 yr old proposes to a 34 yr old wealthy titled rogue so that her older sister wouldn't have to marry him and could marry the man she loves. She behaves as a spoiled, selfish brat, gambling and spending her husbands money believing that their bargain in her not inferring in his life is the way of society marriages. I listened to the audiobook and was able to finish it but it was ridiculous.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It started off kind of slow but became my favorite Gorgette Heyer so far. Also, i just love Richard Armitage so much. He's wonderful!
    • 5/5
      Love these characters! Highly recommend! This is a must read for all those who love spirited heroines!
    • 4/5
      Absolutely adorable! I loved this arranged marriage situation that grew into something tender and deep!
    • 5/5
      Richard Armitage makes Rule sound such a compelling hero and Georgette Heyer made Horatia such an artless, beguiling heroine. This story was cute and amusing and fabulous.
    • 5/5
      Richard Armitage just did such a fantastic job! Just loved listening to this! Was sad when it was over!
    • 5/5
      Oh that voice!! The perfect match for this charming story.
    • 5/5
      Another great story by Georgette Heyer.
      I really enjoyed it!
    • 5/5
      Classic Heyer ! She invented the regency romance. She is great.
    • 4/5
      The narrator... oh my! He makes the whole story. I love the old world charm.
    • 3/5
      In an effort to save her family from financial ruin, Horatia proposes marriage to the wealthy and notorious Earl of Rule. Despite the significant age difference and Rule's reputation as a rake, Horatia believes it is her duty to secure a prosperous future for her loved ones.

      However, Rule has his own reasons for agreeing to the marriage. He is being pursued by Lady Louisa, a scheming and manipulative woman who will stop at nothing to make him her husband. Rule hopes that his marriage to Horatia will deter Lady Louisa's advances.

      As the couple embarks on their unconventional marriage, they face various challenges and conflicts. Horatia is determined to make the best of her new role, while Rule remains skeptical and distant. Yet, as they spend more time together, their bond begins to go beyond 'convenience'.

      Georgette Heyer is again masterful at witty story telling although the heroine Horatia is idiotic and insipid. It is not just her distracting stutter but her naivety which made it impossible to root for her. In addition, the romance between her and the Earl was in no way believable, in fact, it seemed oddly like a father-daughter relationship (weird, but understandable as there is a large age gap between them) If it wasn't for the antagonist Lord Lethbridge creating some intrigue and conflict, this book would have been completely dull.
    • 3/5
      The narration is top notch! But because it’s abridged, there’s just so much missing that the character, relationship, and plot are underdeveloped. About halfway through it all stops even making sense. The first half is still really enjoyable, but overall disappointing.
    • 5/5
      Stellar reading by Richard Armitage of a treasured Georgette Heyer novel. What a joy!
    • 4/5
      The four star rather than five star rating is for the fact that this is an abridged rather than unabridged version. Having listened to both versions, much is lost of the story and the interaction of the players in the shortened version. The narrator of this version, Richard Armitage, does indeed have a sultry voice and performs the voices of Rule and Horacio well. His other male voices, however, tend to sound too similar, and his female voices are, to be expected, not very female. His stammering portrayal of Horrie though is superb. The narrator of the unabridged version, Caroline Hunt, does a wonderful job of this book, which is one of Ms. Heyer’s most entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Loved the narrative. He did such a splendid job conveying everything the author set out in the novel. I did feel like the book was well written and the characters and scenes were adequately painted. I perhaps wanted to have more of a point of view from Horrie but that was my personal preference. A solid listen!!
    • 5/5
      Wonderful, funny book with heroes and heroines who are somewhat flawed but a delight to read about!!!
    • 3/5
      This was an unusual Heyer novel in many ways. At first I liked our heroine, but gradually less so as the book continued, and I did not like our hero at all. However, the side character and the humorous situations were quite good, hence the middling rating. 2.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Very cute and entertaining and brilliantly narrated. Horatia is such a unique character and so different for her time.
    • 3/5
      Love or license? Fidelity or freedom? Hard choices for a willful young beauty in an age of romantic extravagance. THE KNOWING BRIDE — When dazzling Horatia Winwood married the powerful Earl of Rule, she was saving her sister from a loveless match, rescuing her family fortune, and providing herself with a life of ease. Hers was a marriage not made in heaven but in the coolly logical mind of a very self-possessed young beauty.Not until Horatia was deep in dangerous intrigue with her husband's vengeful rival, the dashing and arrogant Lord Lethbridge, did she suddenly find -- to her own tumultuous surprise -- she had fallen in love with the man she had married for money. But was it too late, now that she was but a heartbeat away from betraying both him and herself?
    • 4/5
      Young Horry offers to marry the Earl of Rule in place of her sister.

      The usual Heyer wit with a gentle romance and sparkling plot, with a highly satisfactory conclusion. Brilliant.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading this, but not so much as Heyer's other books. I found it hard to believe that two people in love with one another both failed to notice that the other was in love with them. The problem with 'marriage of convenience' plots is that they require a lot of suspension of disbelief and a lot of opportunities for characters to misunderstand each other. Though to give Heyer credit, Rule trusts his young bride far more than most protagonists.
    • 3/5
      It's quite a good story overall but the constant change of perspective was a bit tedious. Also as far as a romance novel goes there's a remarkable lack of romance. The characters are quite diverse and feel real so I would have liked getting to know them better. The narrator is magnificent.
    • 4/5
      A sparkling comedy of errors - Horatia Windwood offers herself up to the Earl of Rule as the Winwood he should marry, rather than her elder sister, Lizzie, who is in love with someone else. Rule is clearly enchanted by her,and Rule's sister, Lady Louisa Quain immediately sees that Horry is going to lead him a merry merry dance and she does. Horry takes on the marriage on her own terms, leaving Rule to carry on with his mistresses while Horry gets involved in various scrapes with other unsuitable members of the ton. There are a couple of hilarious fights between the ludicrous Crosby Drelincourt and Horry's brother Pel. The dialogue sparkles and, of course, everything falls into place at the end. Wonderful.
    • 4/5
      Many reviews that I’ve read on Ms Heyer’s works have compared her to Jane Austen, yet with such clever character exchanges, witty dialogue, and complex (for the characters) plotting, her style often reminds me of P. G. Wodehouse, albeit with very much her own mark.I really liked the humour in this upbeat novel. This tale features an entertaining heroine in the form of Horatia. This is a wonderful character creation, as is Horatia’s bother Viscount Pelham. Some of their funny one-liners are brilliant.
    • 5/5
      The great joy in Heyer's novels is not necessarily the means by which the principle characters contrive to misunderstand each other until they finally end up on the same wavelength. No, the deligh in these is as much the supporting characters and the set pieces that scatter the book. In this case, the principles are Marcus, Earl of Rule and his very bold young wife, Horatia Winwood. The deligh, however, rests in the passage where Horatia's brother, Pelham, hher brother in law Edward Heron and pelham's friend Roland Pommeroy try and save her from herself. This culminates in an attempt the hold up a coach as highway men. the humour with which this scene is presented is positively brilliant. When Sir Roland tries to enquire of their victim where he got his fine horses, you have to laugh at his bafflement when the man doesn't want to deal. Priceless. As usual, the entire book could have been avoided had the two principles actually had an honest conversation at the end of chapter 1, but that would have been to miss the fun.
    • 5/5
      Such fun! Richard Armitage is the best narrator. His variety of voices is very entertaining.
    • 4/5
      I think I would have enjoyed this less if I was reading it myself, but instead I let Richard Armitage read it to me and his character voices were just delightful! His reading took what could have been annoying behavior by our heroine, her brother, and his friend and made it amusing. I could picture every scene in my head and laughed aloud many times. The hero even won me over, and that's a surprising feat for a man who begins his marriage with a mistress!