Another oddity. I’m on something of a binge of Joan Smith books just now, and almost every one has a review that says: not her best work. I’d love to know what her best work is, actually, but that aside, here’s one where I can also say: not her best work.
Here’s the premise: Jennie Robsjohn (such an odd name!) was a teacher at a seminary in Bath until she inherited a small fortune – ten thousand pounds. Enough for her to give up her job and live like a gentlewoman, and if she goes to London, perhaps she’ll meet a nice man and marry. A baronet, perhaps. But at an inn along the Bath to London road, she encounters a man in his thirties accompanied by a young girl who’s protesting volubly about being dragged here and there. Jumping immediately to the wrong conclusion, Jennie wades in to rescue the obvious victim of a rake, only to discover that the gentleman is a marquess and the girl is his rather wilful daughter.
Lord Marndale soon discovers that Jennie, with her take-no-nonsense school-marm ways, has far more effect on Lady Victoria’s behaviour than he has, so he cajoles her to his beautiful estate and persuades her to act as companion to his daughter while he flits to London for government business. Jennie’s quite willing to do so, because he’s handsome and rich and single, and a girl can always hope, can’t she? And he’s very generous and attentive to her, which might mean something or it might just mean that he’s buttering her up to keep her as Victoria’s companion, and nothing more.
And that’s really the whole plot. There are other characters thrown into the mix as potential partners for both Jennie and Lord Marndale to ensure maximum confusion between hero and heroine, and there’s Jennie’s companion, the outspoken Mrs Irvine, to stir things up, but at bottom the issue is solely about Marndale’s intentions. Romance? It’s the usual thing for a book of this age, in that absolutely nothing is said or done that’s unequivocally romantic until the last page. All Marndale’s actions can be interpreted either way, as growing love for Jennie or as a cynical attempt to keep her looking after Victoria, and as for Jennie, she never gives any indication of being in love at all, even though the whole book is written in first person from her point of view. If anything, her thoughts are purely pragmatic – that it would be a very good match for an ex-school teacher, if she could get it.
So definitely not Joan Smith’s best work, especially as the latter part of it focuses on the very modern idea of a Friday night to Monday morning ‘weekend’. Despite that, it’s very funny in places, and I enjoyed it enormously, so I’m going to give it four stars.
I like her Friends and Lovers, Escapade
I’ve actually read both of these. Loved Escapade, disliked Friends and Lovers, which just goes to show how opinions may vary. And probably it depends on mood as well – if I read them at a different time, my responses would undoubtedly be very different. But thanks for the suggestions!