Debt of Honor

by Diana Brown

Book Overview

SEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS WORTH OF PERIL Lord Peter Chalmsforth could barely believe his eyes when he saw Miss Fiona Guthrie waiting for him in his drawing room. Just a short time before, this independent... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451142160
• ISBN13: 9780451142160
• Release Date: March 1982
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding romance, with tricky issues

I wish this kind of Regency was still published today. I discovered the works of Diana Brown recently, and I strongly recommend her works (at least in traditional Regency). Some of her books were published by St Martin's Press, others by Signet and so forth. The story and the premise were intriguing enough to provoke a debate on a Regency readers group in which I participate. One of the major questions asked (of a reader of Regency romances) is: "What constitutes a lady's honor? Should it be judged on the same grounds as a man's? Or does her honor constitute solely of her reputation, which is based in turn of her birth, her connections, her dowry, her marital status, and of course, her chastity?" Another question to ask while you are reading this book is "What is worth sacrificing, and for what?" The hero and heroine of this novel (for it is indeed a novel) answer these questions differently, as do people around them. I had a different take from another reader as well, in that I agreed with neither the hero nor the heroine.The synopsis: Lord Chalmsforth (not Lord Peter Chalmsforth, as in the book) is considering marriage at the start of the novel, because his middle brother has died unmarried and his younger and only surviving brother is too young and also too immature. To this end, Peter Chalmsforth visits his mother (a lady of impeccable tastes), and discusses his plans with her. At the end, he sets out to waylay his brother to prevent an unsuitable marriage to the conniving daughter of a country clergyman. He arrives in the country, only to discover that the lady in question is actually quite respectable, but that his brother's attentions have shifted to the sister of his friend - who is also desired (or found attractive, at any rate) by Chalmsforth himself. Chalmsforth makes a huge blunder (or a couple of blunders) that will henceforth color the heroine Fiona Guthrie's impressions of him and his expectations, and determine their futures.Fiona Guthrie is a young lady of great determination, remarkably attractive but sadly penniless thanks to the financial imprudence of her father, a man of ancient lineage who did not survive his late wife for long. She is nevertheless determined to hold her parents's marriage (for love) as her example, and she will not marry without love. Fiona is also passionately attached to her childhood and family home, a historic house connected allegedly to Mary, Queen of the Scots (who Fiona views as superior to Elizabeth I). She is co-owner of this home with her scapegrace gamester brother, Niall. Unfortunately, Niall does not take this fact and others into consideration when he plays cards with a notorious rake, loses the sum of seven thousand pounds, and then compounds with a moneylender, using the estate as collateral.To save her brother from debtor's prison and worse (he has misrepresented the estate as larger than it is, and has failed to mention that he is only part-owner), Fiona Guthrie seeks out her mother's si

This is very nearly perfect...

and the kind of Regency that I wish were still published today. I discovered the works of Diana Brown recently, and I strongly recommend her works (at least in traditional Regency). Some of her books were published by St Martin's Press, others by Signet and so forth. The story and the premise were intriguing enough to provoke a debate on a Regency readers group in which I participate. One of the major questions asked (of a reader of Regency romances) is: "What constitutes a lady's honor? Should it be judged on the same grounds as a man's? Or does her honor constitute solely of her reputation, which is based in turn of her birth, her connections, her dowry, her marital status, and of course, her chastity?" Another question to ask while you are reading this book is "What is worth sacrificing, and for what?" The hero and heroine of this novel (for it is indeed a novel) answer these questions differently, as do people around them. I had a different take from another reader as well, in that I agreed with neither the hero nor the heroine.The synopsis: Lord Chalmsforth (not Lord Peter Chalmsforth, as in the book) is considering marriage at the start of the novel, because his middle brother has died unmarried and his younger and only surviving brother is too young and also too immature. To this end, Peter Chalmsforth visits his mother (a lady of impeccable tastes), and discusses his plans with her. At the end, he sets out to waylay his brother to prevent an unsuitable marriage to the conniving daughter of a country clergyman. He arrives in the country, only to discover that the lady in question is actually quite respectable, but that his brother's attentions have shifted to the sister of his friend - who is also desired (or found attractive, at any rate) by Chalmsforth himself. Chalmsforth makes a huge blunder (or a couple of blunders) that will henceforth color the heroine Fiona Guthrie's impressions of him and his expectations, and determine their futures.Fiona Guthrie is a young lady of great determination, remarkably attractive but sadly penniless thanks to the financial imprudence of her father, a man of ancient lineage who did not survive his late wife for long. She is nevertheless determined to hold her parents's marriage (for love) as her example, and she will not marry without love. Fiona is also passionately attached to her childhood and family home, a historic house connected allegedly to Mary, Queen of the Scots (who Fiona views as superior to Elizabeth I). She is co-owner of this home with her scapegrace gamester brother, Niall. Unfortunately, Niall does not take this fact and others into consideration when he plays cards with a notorious rake, loses the sum of seven thousand pounds, and then compounds with a moneylender, using the estate as collateral.To save her brother from debtor's prison and worse (he has misrepresented the estate as larger than it is, and has failed to mention that he is only part-owner), Fiona Guthrie