An Infamous Army: The Alastair Trilogy, #3 -- Georgette Heyer

Though she's loath to admit it, Judith Audley, wife of the Earl of Worth, would like to match her brother-in-law, Colonel Charles Audley, up with her young friend, Miss Lucy Devenish:

The Earl put up his quizzing-glass.  "Ah!  May I inquire, my love, whether you are making plans for Charles's future welfare?"

Down went the embroidery; her ladyship raised an indignant rueful pair of eyes to his face.  "You are the most odious man that I have ever met!" she declared.  "Of course I don't make plans for Charles!  It sounds like some horrid, match-making Mama.  How in the world did you guess?"

But her plans are upset when Charles has no interest in the quiet, sweet, proper Miss Devenish -- no, it's the ravishing, fascinating and somewhat scandalous widow, Lady Barbara Childe, who gets his attention.  Almost immediately, he proposes -- and to her surprise, almost immediately, she accepts.  Oh, but if it were only so easy!  Lady Barbara wants to be sure that Charles knows exactly who and what he'll be marrying, so she sets out to prove just how awful she can be.

An Infamous Army is set in and around Brussels in the time leading up to and during the Battle of Waterloo.  The young Alastairs -- Lord Vidal*, Barbara, George and Harry, the grandchildren of Dominic, The Devil's Cub -- all have their parts to play, but Barbara is the one to watch.  She's a firecracker.

After reading the first two Alastair books, I thought I'd be in for another light, somewhat silly romp.  I was wrong.  The tone of the book was so different that I struggled a bit with the first half -- there's quite a lot about Wellington's preparations for his inevitable battle with Napoleon, and that's just not my cuppa.  

This is much more of a historical novel than a romance novel -- the second half of the book includes a description of the Battle of Waterloo that had me sobbing.  Sobbing.  And yet, on occasion, it still made me laugh:

"Oh, we don't give a button for the cavalry!" replied Mercer.  "The worst is this infernal cannonading.  It plays the devil with us.  We've been pestered by skirmishers, too, which is a damned nuisance.  Only way I can stop my fellows wasting their charges on them is to parade up and down the bank in from of my guns.  That's nervous work, if you like!"

Even though it totally wrecked me, the second half was what did it for me.  Her description of the battle was a pretty amazing piece of writing.  I do think that the first half will improve on me upon a second reading -- after actually reading about Waterloo, the preparations and lead up will be much more interesting.  But it wasn't just the war element that made this a darker read -- the romance itself was distinctly non-frothy.  It's very different than the romance in the first two books.  I honestly didn't know if it would work out between Charles and Babs.  And at times, I didn't know if I wanted it to. 

This story doesn't end in glittery rainbowed sparkly vampire kittens -- it's much more muted, bittersweet and real.  But as much as I loved the first two books in the trilogy, this is the one that will stay with me the longest. 

According to Wikipedia, this book is a crossover with Regency Buck -- so rather than moving on to the Inspector Hannasyde books, which was my original plan, I'm going to hunt that one down instead.  I'm actually really excited to read it, because I adored the Audleys so I'm looking forward to reading about their courtship.

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*Because, of course, Dominic became the Duke when my darling Justin died.  (I assume at a very great age.)

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Previously:

1.  These Old Shades
2.  The Devil's Cub

Comments

[Kyra]

Hi - sorry just a random lurker / occasional commente, hope you don't mind the random opinion spout.

I'm really glad you're reading (and enjoying) Heyer; I'm so terribly terribly fond of her. She reminds me of rain days, being 14 and dreaming of greye-eyed men in tight breeches. To be honest, Regency Buck is probably the one of her novels I like the least (aside from Cousin Kate - in which the gothic elements didn't quite work for me); the hero is autocratic in what comes across to me as A Bad Way and ... hmm ... I felt his having being such a git throughout compromised the romance. I look forward to your thoughts however.

I must re-read An Infamous Army; as I said above I read them back when I was 14 or so and, therefore, at the time this one didn't appeal to me as much as the others because it was about, you know, war and death, and the romance wasn't, as you say, sparkly.

[Elizabeth]

I think Heyer's battle description should be on some kind of "Most Skillful Writing Ever" list. It's moving, fascinating, devastating, uplifting and, above all, exhausting. I'm still recovering, and I read it in August.

For me, An Infamous Army stands on it's own as a great story HOWEVER it has very unsatisfactory repercussions for Devil's Cub. Bab's backstory makes it clear Dominic and Mary's son was an ass who caused them considerable pain, and I really wanted them to have a perfect happily ever after. But I guess this book is more about realism.

[Leila]

It is exhausting. And she conveys that feeling of numbness that comes from exhaustion and sensory/emotional overload, and it's still somehow sensitive. I don't know how she did it. So impressive.

I felt the same way about Dominic and Mary's son -- but at the same time, it made sense to me that a family so full of troublesome characters would actually have some jerks in the mix, and not just loveable rogues.

Kyra, I love it when lurkers come out of the woodwork! Now I'm all curious about Regency Buck.

[Maureen E]

the second half of the book includes a description of the Battle of Waterloo that had me sobbing. Sobbing. And yet, on occasion, it still made me laugh:

That's exactly my experience. Which was awkward because I was reading it at work and I kept laughing and then sniffing until finally my co-worker asked me what I was reading. Heh.

Also, I agree with you on Dominic and Mary's son. Although it did make me a little sad because surely Mary of all people deserves better. But it is fairly realistic.

[Nic Dempsey]

I get the feeling that An Infamous Army was a labour of love for Georgette Heyer and she needed to put the Alastairs and Audleys in so she could get the book published. The other one along that line is The Spanish Bride - about Harry Smith, which used his diaries as a basis and is largely about the Penisula War, though Waterloo gets a look in. And I love Regency Buck because of all the real people she uses and mentions, including my beloved Beau Brumell...

Sorry, I've just gone all Regency fangirl....

[Anne]

I seem to remember someone telling me that the timeline through These Old Shades, Devil's Cub and An Infamous Army is broken. There's either not enough time for the generations or an extra decade or three unaccounted for. (I think it's the latter, but I can't remember for sure now.) At the time, I amused myself by trying to come up with a Watsonian explanation that didn't require adding in a time machine but didn't manage one.

Not that the timeline makes a bit of difference in the books being great fun.

When I started reading Heyer intentionally (I'd picked up one of her books in elementary school and quite liked it but neglected to note the author's name), I grabbed two random books off the library shelf and got These Old Shades and Devil's Cub. I read them in the right order and am glad of it. That was sheerest chance as I didn't realize they were related until I got far enough into Devil's Cub to see the names.

[jen]

Hello!
I'm just another random lurker...I came across your blog a long time ago and added it to my list of subscriptions in an effort to keep up with YA lit :) Also because I agreed with your opinions on celebrities writing children's books.
Anyway, I would still probably be lurking except that I've LOVED that you started reading Georgette Heyer! I read both These Old Shades and Devil's Cub a long time ago, but when you mentioned wanting to read the last book in the trilogy I went out and hunted up An Infamous Army (I'd forgotten they were in a trilogy!). I'd read a lot of Georgette Heyer's light romances before so the concentration on history and battle scenes was definitely unexpected, and I'm still taking a little time to process everything. Coincidentally, though, I read Regency Buck right before this, so I was pleasantly surprised that I got to revisit Judith and Worth so soon. (Their relationship is...interesting; you'll see.) I enjoyed that one, though not as much as I did some of Heyer's others, so I'm looking forward to your comments on it! :)
Also wanted to mention that I just came across The Spanish Bride at a bookstore the other day, which might be interesting to read after An Infamous Army, since it's about two more characters mentioned there: Harry Smith and "his Juana."
...And okay. That's all. :) Back to lurking!

[web]

I predict some really good snark when you get to Regency Buck. :-)