When I first read Venetia (I was about 15) and I didn't get it. I missed most of the literary references, even though I was reasonably well-read for my age and I couldn't understand why she would choose Damerel over a season in London nor why she wouldn't expect him to change.
When I read it again as an adult, it made more sense. They clearly share a sense of humour, he is more intelligent than he is credited as, and they have time and space in which to develop an intellectual as well as an emotional relationship. There's a very overt sexual attraction - more so than in Heyer's other novels - and while Venetia is a non-typical but still innocent heroine, Damerel is definitely a Rake and not a faux one but the real shagged-his-way-through-Europe deal.
The thing that sold it for me was the realism of the relationship. Venetia doesn't gloss over Damerels past and neither does she glorify it. She accepts that he is who and what he is and that fidelity may not come easy to him. I don't think she's letting him off the hook and saying he can do what he wants, I think she's saying that she knows him and that she trusts him.
I think that Damerel will be faithful, precisely because Venetia has accepted him, rakish past and all. Because she doesn't want to change him, he will change and because she doesn't demand fidelity, he will find it easy to be faithful.
When I first read Venetia (I was about 15) and I didn't get it. I missed most of the literary references, even though I was reasonably well-read for my age and I couldn't understand why she would choose Damerel over a season in London nor why she wouldn't expect him to change.
When I read it again as an adult, it made more sense. They clearly share a sense of humour, he is more intelligent than he is credited as, and they have time and space in which to develop an intellectual as well as an emotional relationship. There's a very overt sexual attraction - more so than in Heyer's other novels - and while Venetia is a non-typical but still innocent heroine, Damerel is definitely a Rake and not a faux one but the real shagged-his-way-through-Europe deal.
The thing that sold it for me was the realism of the relationship. Venetia doesn't gloss over Damerels past and neither does she glorify it. She accepts that he is who and what he is and that fidelity may not come easy to him. I don't think she's letting him off the hook and saying he can do what he wants, I think she's saying that she knows him and that she trusts him.
I think that Damerel will be faithful, precisely because Venetia has accepted him, rakish past and all. Because she doesn't want to change him, he will change and because she doesn't demand fidelity, he will find it easy to be faithful.
Does that make sense?
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