An Infamous Army
First edition
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| Author | Georgette Heyer |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Regency, Romance, Historical |
| Publisher | William Heinemann |
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Publication date
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1937 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| Preceded by | These Old Shades, Devil's Cub, Regency Buck |
An Infamous Army is a novel by Georgette Heyer. In this novel Heyer combines her penchant for meticulously researched historical novels with her more popular period romances. So in addition to being a Regency romance, it is one of the most historically accurate and vividly narrated descriptions of the Battle of Waterloo. An Infamous Army completes the sequence begun with These Old Shades, and is also a sequel to Regency Buck.
In the early summer of 1815, while the Battle of Waterloo is just a threat, Brussels is the most exciting city in Europe and many of the British aristocracy have rented homes there. The novel opens in the home of Lord and Lady Worth, where several of their friends are discussing the precarious situation in Belgium. Everyone is anxious for the Duke of Wellington to arrive from Vienna. When the other guests leave, Lady Worth's brother, Sir Peregrine Taverner, (Perry) expresses his fears about remaining in Brussels, especially since his wife, Harriet is expecting their third child. In the end he decides that if his brother-in-law deems it safe to stay, then it must be safe enough. After he goes, Judith tells her husband about her hopes that Worth's brother, Colonel the Hon. Charles Audley (who is a member of Wellington's staff and is still in Vienna) will fall in love with her new friend, Miss Lucy Devenish. This leads her husband to accuse her of trying to play matchmaker and remark, "I perceive that life in Brussels is going to be even more interesting than I had expected."
Amongst the fashionable ton partying in the metropolis, Lady Barbara Childe (the granddaughter of Dominic, Duke of Avon) is making her mark. Lady Barbara, or Bab as she is called by her family and friends, is a young widow of great beauty and charm who can make any man fall in love with her. Her elder brother, the Marquis of Vidal highly disapproves of his sister's flirtations and is annoyed that she has made herself the talk of fashionable society. Furthermore, Bab has taken up with the notorious Belgian Comte de Lavisse. It is the general consensus that Bab is heartless. Bab has another two brothers besides the Marquis, Lord George Alistair, who was said to look and act exactly like his grandfather did in his younger days and Lord Harry Alistair, aged eighteen. Both are serving in the army. After a ball, (where Bab had scandalised Brussels by appearing with painted toenails) her sister-in-law, Lady Vidal, warned Bab that if she or any of her brothers cause a scandal, the Marquis will insist on them all returning to England. To which Lady Barbara responding that she would simply stay in Brussels alone.
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