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A Civil Contract
 
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A Civil Contract (Paperback)

by Georgette Heyer (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd (2 Jun 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099474441
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099474449
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 25,928 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton and a hero at Salamanca, returns from the Peninsula War to find his family on the brink of ruin and the broad acres of his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. It is Lord Oversley, father of Adam's first love, who tactfully introduces him to Mr Jonathan Chaleigh, a city man of apparently unlimited wealth with no social ambitions for himself, but with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his one and only daughter.

From the Publisher
"Georgette Heyer is unbeatable" - India Knight

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A Civil Contract
73% buy the item featured on this page:
A Civil Contract 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
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 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Civil Contract, 25 Jan 2006
By A Customer
This is one of my favourite Heyer books because I think it carries a truth about life and people. In this underrated book she goes beyond her genre. It has the Heyer touch of intersting situations and confrontations, but beneath that it is a book about character. The principal characters have to let go of romantic illusions and get on with the realities of life. Viscount Lynton, inheriting mortgaged estates, has to put behind him his hopeless passion for a ravishing debutante who is out of reach because of his impoverished financial circumstances. In this beautifully written story he learns to love and honour the plain girl he marries for her money. Jenny Chawleigh, painfully aware of her lack of beauty, has the good sense to accept the situation and make the best marriage she can. Everybody in the story has lessons to learn and in the end it is through wisdom and generosity that the married couple achieve contentment and the promise of happiness. It is a triumph of accepting what one can have, and letting go of what one can't. I have read this more times than I can count because I always enjoy it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A heart warming story, 13 April 2007
By Mims (Norfolk, UK) - See all my reviews
I am a great fan of Georgette Heyer and read her books over and over again. I particularly enjoy this story of the triumph of genuine affection and enduring love over blind infatuation and romantic fantasy. Heyer always writes brilliantly and is capable of conveying the deepest emotions in the briefest of phrases and subtlest dialogue. Perhaps this book is not quite as witty and sparkling as many of her others, but it has a depth of human emotion and tenderness which I find quite moving. Read it!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Less high romance than most, 28 Dec 2007
This is (as always with this author), an extremely well written story, with well-rounded, attractive characters. Unlike many of the others, it is realistic about love and marriage. It is also more about the hero than the heroine. Adam is forced to give up his first love, and to marry another girl who he doesn't know, and for whom he has feels no attraction at all. Jenny's motivation for this marriage of convenience with a man who clearly does not want her is less clear at first. If this were another lesser author, she might be a little plain, but she would also have been nauseatingly perfect. Of course, as this is Georgette Heyer, she isn't perfect, and she is very plain. She isn't "spirited" or "willful", as one might expect either. That role is left to Adam's lost love - who is not the perfect little soul that Adam believes her to be. Jenny is shy in the normal unromantic way that real people are shy - that is she appears rude rather than charmingly bashful - who was ever charmingly bashful outside of a romantic novel? She is abrupt, a little sturdy of frame, and of gait, and uneasy in her new setting. Her working class roots mean that there are many unseen pitfalls awaiting her in aristocratic society. With time, and after many painful experiences and misunderstandings, the couple learn to live together and to achieve a contentment, although never romance. Never fear that this novel will not entertain you though. The usual complement of funny and charming minor characters are all there. Mr Chawleigh in particular is a delight - a constant thorn in Adam's sensitive flesh. I like this story because it has two believable main characters that have real faults just like the rest of us, and who struggle to make the best of the life they have been given. One of her best.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars uncomfortable
I didn't enjoy this book anywhere near as much as Georgette Heyer's others. I found it rather depressing actually as a forced marriage isn't anyones idea of joy especially when... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Esta

4.0 out of 5 stars Hugely enjoyable
Though I was a great Georgette Heyer fan in my schooldays, it must be getting on for 40 years since I last read one of her novels ... Read more
Published 2 months ago by booksetc

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable.
This is kind of an anti-romance novel, in a way, as the Jenny and Adam did not marry for love and the hero's real love is an exasperating air-head who I was thoroughly glad he did... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Kit

5.0 out of 5 stars heart wrenching
This is indeed a well written book as most of other Heyer Books are and it does tell us a part of real life in all its nakedness. Read more
Published 16 months ago by lady

5.0 out of 5 stars Not romance - better.
I've recently been on a Georgette Heyer kick and had worked my way through a few by the time I got to A Civil Contract. Read more
Published 17 months ago by flintshine

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of mature love
Not mature in years but in character, Adam Deveril and his wife work at their marriage and learn to appreciate each other. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2006 by Heyer Fan

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