You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO is from Ms. M, who is trying to round out her trio of the first romances she’s read:
I can remember the first three romances I ever read. I took them out of the library in 1995 or 1996, and I’ve found the titles of two of them, but not the third.
I think the setting was some time between 1790 and 1820, because it involved some British women visiting Paris (and there were hints of revolution). The heroine may have been a twin and I think she gets mistaken for her sister. On the boat crossing the English Channel, some Frenchman tries to interact with her by quoting a fairly well-known poem, and she responds by quoting the next couplet. She interprets this as a lame attempt at flirting, but later on, it turns out that he’s involved in some sort of covert operations and the poem is a password. When she points out that anyone might know it, he gets upset.
I don’t remember too much else about it, except that I thought it was a fairly straightforward romance the first time I read it, only to realize on the second attempt that it was actually a farce. The covert ops Frenchman gets very mad at someone toward the end and calls someone a “cochon-chien,” and everyone pictures a pig-dog hybrid.
Also, maybe the cover has woman wearing a rose-colored empire waist dress on it?
A pig-dog! How insulting!
French Leave
by
Maggie Mackeever
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Not the right thing, but the ‘mistaken quote’ element is used in the Astaire/Rogers movie The Gay Divorcee (The hired lothario is supposed to say the line to identify himself to her as her faux-lover for the evening so she can get her husband to agree to a divorce; but Astaire ends up saying it first and we’re off to the races…)
It kind of sounds like one of Kasey Michaels’s Alphabet Regency romances from the 1980s-early ‘90s.
https://www.fictiondb.com/author/kasey-michaels~series-list~5239.htm
Looking through the list, the Dubious Miss Dalrymple could fit? Or “A Mysterious Masquerade”? They aren’t a hundred percent on the nose though.
Thank you for suggesting fictiondb! I’ve never really been there before, but now I know that the other two books were published in 1988. I can’t assume that ALL the library’s Regency romances were from that year, but it gives me a starting place.
I don’t think it’s Kasey Michaels, but I will keep hunting!
No clue of the title but rings of Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels era. My money’s on cover art by Charles Geer.
This is not the right book, but “The Cliffs of Night”, by Beatrice Brandon, uses that poetry ploy. The heroine is visiting Ireland, and it is all archaeology, treasure, romance, and harpies, years before we got the paranormal plots we are used to today. This is an all time favorite of mine, and reminds me I should do a book squee about this. The Cliffs of Moher, a folksinging hero, lost Celtic treasure, a heroic dog, scampering about the Irish coast………
If it was a farce, you might try Marion Chesney.
French Revolution & Napoleonic spy heroes/heroines were a 90’s signature (IMO)and there were series by Catherine Coulter, Julie Garwood, Joanna Bourne, Celeste Bradley (lots of humor)and Elizabeth Boyle…really, SO MANY romantic spy plots!
@ Kate–Omg The Cliffs of Night is one of my all time favorites! I think it’s time to visit the keeper shelf for a re-read.
Slightly off topic, but I was walking to the shops a couple of years ago when someone leaned out the window of a car and sang the first two lines of ‘The Boxer’ at me. So naturally, I sang the next two lines back at him. He seemed satisfied with this, and drove off.
I did wonder, later, if I’d just screwed up someone’s blind drop… but it seemed logical at the time.
We received an update email from Mrs. M:
“Unfortunately, the Bitchery wasn’t able to help me out last May. But! I was going through GoodReads’ version of HaBO, which led me to the Library of Congress’s Lost Book feature – which led me to OCLC WorldCat’s Fiction Finder. It took a few tries, playing with the publication date and the genre/subject categories, but eventually I found it! It was French Leave by Maggie Mackeever, and if you compare it with my description, it turns out I have a pretty god memory for over 20 years ago!”