Cotillion is a 1952 historical romance novel by Georgette Heyer. It's notable for being her most light-hearted romance novel.
Kitty Charing's eccentric guardian Uncle Matthew decides to name Kitty his heiress, but only if she marries one of his many great-nephews. Kitty is in love with Jack, Uncle Matthew's favourite great-nephew, but Jack doesn't want to get married yet. Then she receives a series of proposals from most unsuitable men before meeting another great-nephew, Freddy, and convinces him to propose to her. She hopes that Jack will become jealous upon hearing of her engagement and will marry her after all. What could possibly go wrong?
Contains examples of:
- Betty and Veronica: Freddy is Betty and Jack is Veronica for Kitty.
- Camp Straight: Freddy, who is not The Casanova, cares deeply about fashion, and is very fastidious about rules of proper conduct. He is considered so safe for women that men don't mind him being around their wives and Kitty uses him as her fake fiancé, knowing that he won't take advantage of this and want to marry her himself. But he is certainly straight, and becomes protective of her to the point of violence, which shocks everybody he knows, and eventually falls in love with her.
- Chaste Hero: Freddy. Often mistaken by readers as latent or closeted homosexual (see above) [1]
, but as a matter of fact there is no sign of his being attracted to anybody until Kitty comes along, of course. He is, because of this trope, considered so harmless, that other men don't mind him spending time with their wives. - Converting for Love: It's mentioned in passing that Olivia will probably have to become a Catholic to marry Camille.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Freddy may be a trifle slow, and he is neither tall or strong like his cousin Jack, but when the stronger, taller and rakish Jack calls Kitty a jade, Freddy punches him right in the face.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Parodied: Camille makes extravagant proclamations of what he would do to save Olivia, but is surprised when practical Freddy suggests simply eloping with her. Also played subtly straight with Freddy submitting to a day of sightseeing with Kitty.
- Hands-On Approach: Freddy and Kitty dancing.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Freddy tries to do this for Kitty, despite genuine reservations about Jack beyond simple jealousy.
- Kick the Dog: Jack blackmails Camille and insults Freddy.
- Loving a Shadow: Kitty's realisation that she only ever loved her childhood hero, not Jack himself.
- Masquerade Ball: Kitty has a miserable time at one of these until Freddy rescues her.
- Operation: Jealousy: Kitty tries one of these on Jack.
- Reformed Rakes: Subverted: not only is Jack not planning to reform for Kitty's sake, he's actively trying to seduce a friend of hers while courting her.
- Regency England: The book is set in 1816.
- Runaway Fiancé: Sort of: Kitty is running away from the possibility of being forced into an engagement to please her guardian, before coming up with a better plan.
- Secret Relationship: Freddy and Kitty pretend to have one of these.
- Subverted Trope: Jack is in many ways a classic Heyer hero—dashing, interesting, capable, a bit cruel, a possible Reformed Rakes—and Freddy is a classic Heyer sidekick—friendly, camp, a bit ineffectual. But this time it is the sidekick, Freddy, who gets the girl, and Jack is positioned as an asshole
