Our Admirable Betty

by Jeffery Farnol

First published 1918

Amazon Project Gutenberg

3.4(34)

Major John D’Arcy, a veteran soldier settled into a quiet country life, finds his routines disrupted by Lady Elizabeth Carlyon—Betty—whose intelligence and independence make her impossible to treat as a conventional object of courtship. Family complications, misunderstandings and threats from beyond the household repeatedly bring the experienced Major and the younger Betty into conflict and alliance.

Farnol places the romance in early Georgian England, using former soldiers, servants, estates and social expectations to create a world in which old martial loyalties coexist with domestic comedy. The contrast between D’Arcy’s confidence in physical danger and his uncertainty with Betty gives the novel much of its humour, while questions of family duty and personal choice prevent the courtship from becoming merely decorative.