An Accomplished Woman [Paperback]

Lydia Templeton is a clever and contented 30 year old spinster in 18th Century England. 9 years ago, she rejected Lewis Durrant, her father's neighbour, a sensible yet taciturn man. Lydia is prevailed upon, much against her better judgement, to accompany her Godmother's young ward, Phoebe, to Bath. Lydia despises Bath, and all the "tabbies" therein, and resigns herself to stultifying boredom. However, Phoebe's equal emotional attachment to two different young suitors soon provides Lydia with some knotty problems to work on, and her finely tuned sense of irony delivers plenty of fun in the observation of the ghastly Mr. and Mrs. Vawse and the almost equally dreadful mother of one of Phoebe's swains. You can be in no doubt of the final outcome (in regard to Lydia), but Phoebe provides an unexpected twist or two toward the end. A cut above your average historical romance, this maintained my attention until the end.

I've just finished my third read of this in as many days. Jude Morgan has been on my auto-buy list since he wrote three mysteries as Hannah March, but this is my favourite novel of his by some way. The characterisation is skilled and polished, the plot is character-driven and the pace, structure and ending are satisfying and effective.

There are nods to Austen and Heyer, but Morgan has his own delightful, wry, witty voice and there are plenty of jokes. My favourite so far is the wonderful mock-Wordsworthian poem written by Mr Beck, a suitor of one of the characters (not our heroine, but our heroine's friend) which is truly hysterical.

A real delight.

This book is for every Austen fan, who loves the sedate pace of life in the mid eighteenth century. In fact the characters could have stepped out of an Austen novel, but in fact they belong quite delightfully in this book by Jude Morgan.

Lydia Templeton is a 30 year old unmarried woman who turned down well known local neighbour, Lewis Durrant hand in marriage and seeks to make herself content in her single life. Lydia is clever and enjoys academia and not the obvious roles an eighteenth century spinster should be doing, sewing and fluttering eyelashes at unsuspecting beaus. Their subsequent relationship makes for pleasant reading as they both enjoy testing each other with their quick witted remarks and behaviour as the reader becomes to realise that Lydia was foolish in turning down Durrant some years previous.

Lydia is asked to accompany her godmother's ward Phoebe Rae to Bath as Phoebe has got caught up being in love with two different men. Lydia's role is to guide, advise and not make an opinion who is the best suitor out of Mr A and Mr B. Nothing is easy for Lydia's chaperonage in Bath, a place she despises even more so when she runs into Mr and Mrs Vawser who Morgan creates as the most obnoxious and unctuous of characters. Durrant has sought Bath as a place to find a wife and create a marriage alliance. Durrant's nephew Hugh Hanley who has spent every season and even more so now spending his Uncle's money also arrives in Bath to check what his Uncle is up to. Hanley does not want to acknowledge that his Uncle may marry and the whole estate will not fall in to Hugh's hands but any offspring of such an alliance.

The time in Bath, Lydia finds is spent rather boringly so and she waits in the background as the suitors Mr A and Mr B make their own path and subsequent destiny, which surprises the reader, although you can be of no doubt what happens to Lydia everything else seems thrown up in the air and lands a different way to what the reader excepts - a sign of a good book.

Morgan has developed some really great characters, there is no doubt in my mind that Lydia Templeton has so much of Elizabeth Bennett in her and Lewis Durrant Mr Darcy. The other characters, Hugh Hanley has elements of Mr Wickham and Mrs Allarydce (Mr A's mother) has something of the Catherine De Bourgh/ Mrs Bennett. Look out for some really witty and quite honest banter between Mrs Allarydce and Lydia. However this apparent connection with Pride and Prejudice is my own opinion and I feel that the author has drawn on such a book as a great way of creating and starting a story and its plot but all these characters are rounded and the plot enables them to develop as you see society in the eighteenth century and all its idle fripperies and infatuations.

I did find it rather difficult to get into the book each time I picked it up, but once I did I was hooked and kept reading. A great book if you want something Austenesque without reading Austen or of similar ilk.