Beauvallet

By: Georgette Heyer

Narrated by: Matt Addis

Brought to you by Penguin.

Witty, elegant, stylish and the best comedies of manners since Jane Austen.

'Mad Nicholas' to his friends, 'Scourge of Spain' to the enemy, Sir Nicholas Beauvallet has never been known to resist a challenge. When a captured galleon yields the lovely Doña Dominica de Rada y Sylva, he vows to return her and her father to the shores of Spain. But he has no sooner said than done, so he proposes a venture more reckless than any of his exploits on the high seas which have made him Drake's equal and a favourite of the queen. He will take Dominica as his bride even if he must enter the lion's den....

©1929 Georgette Heyer (P)2021 Penguin Audio

fun adventure

some of this is kind of hard to understand because of the heavy language. but it's a fun adventure mixed with romance and a spunky heroine and dashing hero.

Before the Regency Romances

In later years Georgette would feel more at home at Regency squeezes and leave swashbuckling to Rafael Sabatini, but it’s fun hearing her pay him tribute. Since structure and pace were yet to be perfected the story takes some time to take off yet it’s worth the wait. The narrator’s voice has the ring of steel!

Swashbuckling at its best!

A swashbuckling story from the Elizabethan era. It tells the story of Nick Beauvallet, a British pirate attacking Spanish galleons on the high seas.

Beauvallet is famous for always laughing and smiling in the face of danger.

He falls in love with a Spanish Noble woman named Dominica and thus begins our adventure as he goes into Spain, against all odds, to bring her back to England to be his bride.

The voice actor did an amazing job and made it so that one of the most memorable characters is Beauvallet’s servant, Joshua. Joshua is the comic relief, and the actor did an amazing job of delivering the lines in such a way that I laughed out loud.

Swashbuckling loitering fun and romance

Excellent voice acting despite the Elizabeth's English involved. lots of fun action. Very romantic.

This Georgette Heyer Has It All!

Beauvallet, written in 1929, was the third of six historical novels written by Ms. Heyer. While my favorite novels by the author are of course her Regency novels.. as she is the quintessential queen of the Regency genre’… this book of course has a romantic element to it but also has many rogues and villains; many conspiracies; political intrigue, and much more. Particularly interesting, although certainly not surprising, was the close ties between Spain’s Prince Phillip.. or was he the king, can’t remember.. and the Catholic Church. His two “advisors”, one of whom was English, clearly had their own agendas. One was quite ready to use the “kind” Inquisition to ferret out the real identity of the prisoner. I thought Ms. Heyer handled that inclusion well, with obvious intent. .. As one reviewer said, this was swashbuckling at its best!! And the narrator is absolutely fantastic!!!