Venetia (1958) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

• Venetia Lanyon: Twenty-five years old, beautiful and full of liveliness."There was something very taking in her face which owed nothing to the excellence of her features: an expression of sweetness, a sparkle of irrepressible fun, an unusually open look, quite devoid of self-consciousness."
• Aubrey Lanyon: Venetia's brother. Thin, undersized, with a countenance sharpened and lined beyond his sixteen years. He walked with a pronounced limp, but he defies it with his lively personality.
• Conway Lanyon: Twenty-two years old. Since his father's death, Conway has been the owner of Undershaw, but he has not come home from serving in the Army in Europe.
• Lord Jasper Damerel: The "wicked baron" whose lands march with Undershaw. Lord Damerel is thirty-eight and has only been to his estate once. He is counted as a terrible rake, but he hides a gentle heart...
• Sir John and Lady Denny: Oswald's parents. Lady Denny takes a maternal interest in Venetia.
• Oswald Denny: Nineteen years old. Is interested in courting Venetia.
• Clara Denny: a young woman with whom Conway previously at a boy-girl-attachment
• Emily Denny: Clara's sister.
• Edward Yardley: A solid looking man of serious disposition, who is thirty years old.
• Sir Francis Lanyon: Venetia's father. He has been dead several years.
• Reverend Julius Appersett's: Aubrey's tutor.
• Mrs. Gurnard: Housekeeper at Undershaw.
• Ribble: Butler at Undershaw.
• Miss Poddemore: Venetia governess (no longer employed in the household).
• Mrs. Yardley: Edward Yardley's mother. Venetia was quite sure Mrs. Yardley opposed a match between her and Edward.
• Mr. and Mrs. Imber: Butler and housekeeper at Elliston Priory
• Lady Sophia: The maried woman with whom Lord Damerel ran off with when he was young.
• Matthew Stone: Lord Damerel's godfather who left him an "independence."
• Croyde: Lord Damerel's bailiff
• Nidd: Damerel's groom
• Marston: Damerel's valet
• Dr. Bentworth: local sawbones
• Mr. Philip Hendred: Venetia's uncle.
• Mrs. Hendred: Venetia's aunt.
• Charlotte: a woman Conway meets in Europe
• Mrs. Scorrier: Charlotte's mother
• Amelia Buley: A spinster Damerel's aunts have tried to marry him to

Quotes edit see section history

• “As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.”

  Venetia Lanyon

• “The more enchanted the idyll, greater must be the pain of its ending.”

  Jasper Dameral

• “O God, I love you to the edge of madness, Venetia, but I'm not mad yet--not so mad that I don't know how disastrous it might be to you--to us both! You don't realize what an advantage I should be taking of your innocence!”

  Jasper Dameral

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• ‘Why, oh why did I never know you until now?’ ‘It does seem a pity,’ she agreed. ‘I have been thinking so myself, for I always wished for a friend to laugh with.’

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• I love you to the edge of madness, Venetia, but I’m not mad yet – not so mad that I don’t know how disastrous it might be to you – to us both!

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• ‘Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?’

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• presently she came to full consciousness, and remembered that she had found a friend.

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• ‘To be sure, it does seem a pity you should not, after such a promising start, but life, you know, is full of disappointments, and that, I must warn you, is likely to prove one of them.’

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• Would she could make of me a saint, or I of her a sinner –

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• she was able to accept his odd ways with perfect equanimity, and to go on holding him in affection without suffering any of the pangs of disillusionment.

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• why it has been most truly said that while your husband continues to show you tenderness you have no cause for complaint, and would be a zany to fall into despair only because of what to him was a mere peccadillo.

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• Trying to recall what they had talked of during that comfortable hour, it seemed to Venetia that they had talked of everything, or perhaps of nothing: she did not know which, but only that she had found a friend.

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• Dr Johnson’s maxim, that example is always more efficacious than precept,’

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Undershaw: The Lanyon estate.
• Ellilston Priory: The Damerel estate.

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Ransom, and followed by Miss Wonderful.

Preceded by Heaven, Texas, and followed by Secrets of a Lady.

Preceded by Scandal, and followed by My Sweet Folly.

Preceded by The Grand Sophy, and followed by Courting Miss Hattie.

Preceded by Sylvester, and followed by The Unknown Ajax.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Georgette Heyer (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Nothing that happens "on stage" in this book is objectionable to younger readers. However, a great deal of sexual behavior is referred to. Heyer uses a great deal of period slang and so readers should be able and willing to determine meaning from context.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Romance › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Heyer, Georgette
• Books › Romance › Historical