He can be charming in company and has excellent, extremely polite manners but there is no warmth in his dealings with anyone outside his family. Sylvester, Duke of Salford, is an arrogant young man, very conscious of doing his duty but completely unconscious of how he speaks down to those who annoy him. I rank it only slightly behind A Civil Contract and The Grand Sophy in my affections and there is every possibility that it will surpass both of those in coming years as I seem to love it more each time I read it. Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (first published in 1957) is, I think, one of the best novels Heyer wrote. But reading Sylvester reminded me of my favourite reason of all: to feel a delicious sense of joy bubbling up inside me, from the very first page to the very last. There are a number of reasons why I pick the books I do: to learn something, to be challenged, to be distracted, etc. Rereading Sylvester by Georgette Heyer this week has made me so happy.
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