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The TollGate Georgette Heyer 9780099476368 Books

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The TollGate Georgette Heyer 9780099476368 Books

Terrific book! We recently spent two months going cross-country, and this was the first book I read – a great start to the trip. The Toll-Gate was published in 1954, when Georgette Heyer was at the peak of her powers as a writer, and it shows. The hundreds of how-to books on writing generally pick one perfect story and use it as a template for study. When I finished The Toll-Gate, I thought it would be a great illustration of the Perfect Story, an adroit balance of romance, mystery and history, with likable, believable characters. It would be a great first Heyer.

Captain John Staple, nicknamed Crazy Jack, is a genial giant of a man, home from the wars in Europe, feeling a little restless in civilian life. His mother and sister are anxious for him to marry, but Jack isn’t very interested. He loves women no less than they love him, but he has no intention of marrying any woman who doesn’t, in boxing slang, plant him a leveler that knocks him onto the mat. The Captain slips away from a boring family gathering in the country to visit a friend in the wilds of Leicestershire. On a lonely back road he passes through a toll gate being manned by a frightened boy whose father, the gatekeeper, has disappeared. John stays the night in order to help the boy. In the morning, manning the gate, he opens it to Miss Nell Stornaway, and takes root where he stands. He’s finally gotten his leveler.

From here the story moves forward quickly, into dying lords, scapegrace cousins and their sinister friends, highway robbers and Bow Street Runners and a dark mystery afoot, with Nell in a certain amount of danger. The dialog is sharp and fun, the story absorbing, and most of all, the characters shine. I’ve seen two complaints in reviews – first, yes, there’s a lot of cant slang, particularly in the character of the highwayman Chirk. I really think most of it can be understood in context, and though it’s fun for people like me who study Regency slang, others might want to pop in to one of the many online dictionaries, if they’re interested. Second, yes, the opening chapter, the boring family dinner given by the head of the Staple family, the Earl of Saltash, could be argued to be unnecessary. The first ten pages was written when Heyer intended to return to the family in the story as another source of conflict. Still, she decided not to cut it, and I think it works, showing the sort of man John is, seen in contrast to his stuffy aristocratic relations.

All in all this is one of Heyer’s best. Don’t miss it


Tags : The Toll-Gate [Georgette Heyer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Captain John Staple’s exploits in the Peninsula had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack among his fellow Dragoons. Now home from Waterloo,Georgette Heyer,The Toll-Gate,Arrow,0099476363,Fiction Historical,General & Literary Fiction

The TollGate Georgette Heyer 9780099476368 Books Reviews

For a change I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet. None of us need to opine on whether or not Ms. Heyer has set the standard all writers in this genre who have come after her will forever be compared to. I will take nothing away from her ability to set up the characters in a manner that is truly incomparable. Once she's taken care of this set-up, we can then read to our heart's content without considering for one minute whether or not any actions or deeds performed by the characters were "out of character."

In this sweet story which, to my mind, is heavy on "mystery" and light on "romance" - still and all, the amount of romance that is contained in the story is absolutely riveting in the swiftness that our main guy, Captain John Staple sees, meets, and greets the woman that will forever change his bachelor status. She is none other than the giantess, Lady Nell Stornaway, which is meaningful when one considers, our lady giantess comes only to Captain John's chest. Indeed, he is kind of a giant himself and no doubt that factor is part of their attraction to one another.

When John decides to man a "manless" toll gate until he can learn what befell the regular gatekeeper, he doesn't count on his world being changed forever. He's always been a gent who hankers for adventure and stepping into a substitute gatekeeper role is just the latest in a series of escapades. We know he will set things straight because a more capable, kind, honorable gentleman we've never come across. How refreshing! Not a rake, not a dandy, just a good man who knows who he is, probably one of the most confident heroes I've ever come across. Having been on a Laura Kinsale "binge" with all those damaged heroes, which I truly enjoyed - nothing against Ms. Kinsale and her genius - yet, it was still nice to feel "clean" again after wading through several deep pits. Very sweet, heartwarming story.
I'm a lifelong fan of Georgette Heyer, own all her books and have reread them numerous times. This is a nice one, but not among her best. For one thing, the plot takes an abrupt turn at the beginning, when a family party at a country estate sets up assorted characters who never appear again once our hero, Captain John Staple, takes off from this gathering. Also, Ms. Heyer was best known for her humor, complex plots, and Regency life (though she wrote some great novels set in other eras). There are no glittering balls, court presentations or nights at the opera here. Captain Staple, a giant of a man, gives way to a combination of compassion and curiosity when he encounters a grubby urchin minding a toll-gate with no supervising adult in sight and spends the night. But his plans to move along take a U-turn when he encounters Nell Stornaway, a Junoesque lady of quality in somewhat reduced circumstances. What is the connection between the missing gatekeeper and Miss Stornaway's contemptible cousin? Stay tuned. There is some humor, and certainly some romance, but this is mostly a mild mystery story. Characters are well-drawn, as always, and it's a very readable tale but lacks the glamor and sparkling wit of many other books. If you haven't tried a Heyer book before, I strongly recommend Venetia, Frederica, or Black Sheep to start with. If you've read some, but not all, of Heyer's work, this would be a pleasant addition to your collection. One thing I particularly liked about this book was that both hero and heroine were not conventionally good-looking. There are relatively few ian women in Regency fiction, and I appreciate the addition of this one.
Terrific book! We recently spent two months going cross-country, and this was the first book I read – a great start to the trip. The Toll-Gate was published in 1954, when Georgette Heyer was at the peak of her powers as a writer, and it shows. The hundreds of how-to books on writing generally pick one perfect story and use it as a template for study. When I finished The Toll-Gate, I thought it would be a great illustration of the Perfect Story, an adroit balance of romance, mystery and history, with likable, believable characters. It would be a great first Heyer.

Captain John Staple, nicknamed Crazy Jack, is a genial giant of a man, home from the wars in Europe, feeling a little restless in civilian life. His mother and sister are anxious for him to marry, but Jack isn’t very interested. He loves women no less than they love him, but he has no intention of marrying any woman who doesn’t, in boxing slang, plant him a leveler that knocks him onto the mat. The Captain slips away from a boring family gathering in the country to visit a friend in the wilds of Leicestershire. On a lonely back road he passes through a toll gate being manned by a frightened boy whose father, the gatekeeper, has disappeared. John stays the night in order to help the boy. In the morning, manning the gate, he opens it to Miss Nell Stornaway, and takes root where he stands. He’s finally gotten his leveler.

From here the story moves forward quickly, into dying lords, scapegrace cousins and their sinister friends, highway robbers and Bow Street Runners and a dark mystery afoot, with Nell in a certain amount of danger. The dialog is sharp and fun, the story absorbing, and most of all, the characters shine. I’ve seen two complaints in reviews – first, yes, there’s a lot of cant slang, particularly in the character of the highwayman Chirk. I really think most of it can be understood in context, and though it’s fun for people like me who study Regency slang, others might want to pop in to one of the many online dictionaries, if they’re interested. Second, yes, the opening chapter, the boring family dinner given by the head of the Staple family, the Earl of Saltash, could be argued to be unnecessary. The first ten pages was written when Heyer intended to return to the family in the story as another source of conflict. Still, she decided not to cut it, and I think it works, showing the sort of man John is, seen in contrast to his stuffy aristocratic relations.

All in all this is one of Heyer’s best. Don’t miss it