These Old Shades is a Georgian

Georgian era

The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...

 (set around 1756) romance novel written by British novelist Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...

 (1902–1974). It was an instant success, and established her as a writer.

Plot summary

The wealthy and powerful Duke of Avon buys a young boy, Leon, suspecting that the child is being mistreated by his older brother; the Duke is also struck by the boy's unusual colouring, which reminds him of his enemy's red hair and dark brows. Making the boy his page, the Duke wins the child's devotion, much to the amusement of his friends, who find the Duke forbidding, selfish, and sometimes cruel. When it is revealed that Leon is actually Leonie, the Duke adopts the spirited, winsome girl as his ward and introduces her into society. Intrigue, romance, and the trademark Heyer wit ensue.

Devil's Cub

Devil's Cub

Devil's Cub is a Georgian romance novel written by Georgette Heyer. It is the sequel to These Old Shades, and is set in 1780. The book was published in 1932, and has not been out of print since...

follows up where These Old Shades left off. An Infamous Army

An Infamous Army

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 Regency romances...

completes the story with the Duke of Avon's great-granddaughter marrying the Hero of An Infamous Army. An Infamous Army is itself a sequel to Regency Buck

Regency Buck

For the band, see Regency Buck Regency Buck is a novel written by Georgette Heyer. It has three distinctions: it is the first of her novels to deal with the Regency period; it is one of only a few to combine both genres for which she was noted, the Regency romance and the mystery novel; and it is...

.

These Old Shades is itself a sequel. Heyer's first novel The Black Moth

The Black Moth

The Black Moth is a Georgian romance novel by Georgette Heyer. This was her first novel.-Plot summary:Jack Carstares, oldest son of the Earl Wyncham, disgraced six years earlier, returns home and becomes a highwayman so that he is able to live in the land he loves without detection...

was a melodrama and as a 'sequel' per se would not work in with the plot, she renamed many characters and made them 'shades' of their former selves for These Old Shades.

The Black Moth	These Old Shades
Tracy "Devil" Belmanoir, Duke of Andover	Justin "Satanas" Alastair, Duke of Avon
Lady Lavinia Carstares (née Belmanoir)	Lady Fanny Marling (née Alastair)
The Hon. Richard Carstares	Mr. Edward Marling
John Carstares	John Marling
Lord Andrew Belmanoir	Lord Rupert Alastair
Harriet Fleming (née Belmanoir)	Harriet Field (née Alastair)
Miss Diana Beauleigh	Lady Merivale (née Jennifer Beauchamp)
Jack Carstares, Earl of Wyncham	Anthony, Lord Merivale
Frank Fortescue	Hugh Davenant
Sir John Fortescue	Frederick, Lord Colehatch