osprey_archer | Book Review: Danse de la Folie

Sherwood Smith's Danse de la Folie! I got about halfway through at the sedate pace at which I generally read novels while in grad school, then threw caution and my GPA to the winds and devoted myself to the book, just for the pleasure of making absolutely sure that Clarissa and Kitty get their happy endings.

I mean, of course they do, this being a Regency romance. But I needed to know! The romances are sweet, and very different, so I think most people will enjoy at least one of them: Kitty’s is more dramatically romantic, while Clarissa’s feels much more Austenian. (Jane Austen remix might be a good way to describe the book, in fact.)

But much as I enjoy the romances, I think my favorite thing in the book is Kitty and Clarissa’s friendship, because they are in some ways so very different. Clarissa is quietly in command of herself, and very much of her time, while Kitty not at all sure about social situations - she seems quite a bit younger than she is, which is not surprising, given what a secluded life she’s led - and, perhaps also because of that seclusion, a little more iconoclastic (without for a moment seeming like a transplanted modern girl).

But they both love books and poetry and have good hearts: Clarissa’s expressed through politeness and delicacy, while Kitty is more apt to go with headlong enthusiasm, but both of them genuinely like people, and they look out for each other, and it’s lovely.

I also think it will appeal to people who like historical fiction but not specifically Regency romance, as I haven’t been able to get into Regency romances myself. I tried to read one of Georgette Heyer’s and didn’t get very far, and also I attempted a Regency written by my junior high English teacher - yes, my junior high English teacher wrote Regency romance. You can bet I just about died of joy when she, a real! published! author!, complimented the retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” that I wrote in her class.

(In my version, the little girl attacked the wolf rather than the other way ‘round. He was stealing her basket of sweets for her grandma! Take that, wolf! The petrified wolf thinks of her as Monster Girl.)

But so anyway: Danse de la Folie. A gentle book, but engaging because of the sharply observed characters and the light but sure touch with period detail: a good cheering read for a rainy day.