Masqueradors, The

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Nov. 22, 2005 by Arrow.

ISBN:
978-0-09-947643-6
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
60667812

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(4 reviews)

Prudence and Robin Tremaine, are children of the notorious and brilliant Viscount of Barham, find themselves on the wrong side of the Jacobite rebellion. The brothers have been dissemblers since they were children. And in this age of slippery politics, they need to be. Their infamous adventurer father has taught Prudence and her brother Robin to be masters of disguise. To escape detection, the Viscount sends his offspring on the road to London, each masquerading as the opposite sex. Prudence pretending to be a dashing young buck, and Robin as a lovely young lady.

During the travelling to London to meet their eccentric and rather wayward father, they take a break for a meal, and overhear what is clearly a reluctant elopement... and decide to get involved. It quickly becomes clear that the brother and sister are not exactly what they seem to be... For they it is nothing to …

25 editions

Review of 'The masqueraders' on 'Goodreads'

Favorite Heyer yet. Completely delightful from beginning to end.

I especially enjoy how well it treats Robin's crossdressing. He's almost never shown as at all uncomfortable with having to masquerade as a woman, nor about flirting with men and even delights in how well he pulls off being an attractive and desirable woman. No one in on the secret is presented as dismissing him or treating him derisively because of this. The closest is one male character vaguely side-eyeing him once, but that came off more as taking issue with how much Robin enjoys the lie than it did the nature of the lie itself.

I found that aspect particularly impressive given that this book was written in 1928 and, nearly a century later, contemporary fiction almost never manages such a storyline without being a homophobic, transphobic mess.

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Subjects

  • Historical fiction
  • Historical - General
  • Romance - Historical
  • Fiction / Historical
  • Fiction - Romance