An infamous Army by Georgette Heyer is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, at least according to this list I have tried to observe in my sections, available on The Guardian (and probably other) sites, while The Greatest Books of All time site, using a more powerful algorithm than the human mind has it just 3065th, and I must say I take comfort in that, since it is not on my top, well anything, 5k, 10k list of favorites, thousands of books that are ‘the best’ are reviewed on my blogs, and the current one is here https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html in case you want to visit

 

An infamous Army by Georgette Heyer is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, at least according to this list I have tried to observe in my sections, available on The Guardian (and probably other) sites, while The Greatest Books of All time site, using a more powerful algorithm than the human mind has it just 3065th, and I must say I take comfort in that, since it is not on my top, well anything, 5k, 10k list of favorites, thousands of books that are ‘the best’ are reviewed on my blogs, and the current one is here https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html in case you want to visit

 

 

7 out of 10

 

My feeling is that An Infamous Army has a lot in common with a soap opera, albeit this is subjective and most likely wrong.

 

-          A non sequitur, it has to be subjective

 

I was not thrilled by Regency Buck https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/regency-buck-by-georgette-heyer-is.html either, although that captivated my attention to some extent, enough to expect little from

 

-          Another Georgette Heyer feature

 

Since it is clear that I am dismissive of An Infamous Army – without being entitled in any way, a quote come to mind – ‘everything has been said before, much better’ something to that effect, and therefore this is futile

Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/one-fat-englishman-by-kingsley-amis.html was very hard on Jane Austen and many other established authors, Henry James, Vladimir Nabokov, Evelyn Waugh, the list is long, and I wonder what he would ay of Georgette Heyer, and come to think of it, he does not mention her

 

‘Checkoff formula: you take a lot of characters, all miserable because of something they won't do, and let them talk without influencing each other for three acts, and at the last moment you introduce some arbitrary calamity, or some proposed change like a return to Petrograd or a holiday in the Cry-mere, which you know won't make any difference to any of them, and then you go on for ten minutes or so after the thing should have stopped even by your own standards, to show how delicate and unemphatic your art is’

 

-          If this is what he wrote about Chekhov, well, God help Georgette!

 

I see An Infamous Army as being in contrast with Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/06/vanity-fair-by-william-makepeace.html the latter is one of my favorites, and both of them take place during the Waterloo campaign, ergo this is not about the background

Becky Sharp is the main character of Vanity Fair, and one of the most resplendent, mesmerizing figures I know – in a literary form – resilient, strong, determined, smart, admirable in her lack of qualms and amorality, she will never give up, and despite the fact that she does not have means, she wins the game in the end

 

The tests applied to An Infamous Army have been unfair, first, the expectation that, coming from Georgette Heyer this could not satisfy too much – a sort of nocebo effect – then there is the Thin Slicing Theory explained in Blink https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html the psychology classic by Malcolm Gladwell, where you can find how we take decisions in a short time, and keep the opinions formed quickly

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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