I like bluestocking heroines. I also like kind, decent heroes who appreciate them. Read Carla Kelly’s Miss Grimsley’s Oxford Career for a good example of a story of this kind. The The Baron and the Bluestocking has characters like these, but it is plagued by one of the densest heroines I have ever encountered. If you like heroines who jump to conclusions – the wrong ones of course – and hang on to them long after any reasonable woman would have figured out her mistake, have I got a book for you.

Elizabeth Watson is an scholarly young woman who has published a history of the Second Punic War. It came to the attention of Lucius Atwater who admired the book and left a large fortune to the author in his will. The money would be quite welcome since Elizabeth’s mother has spent all her resources, both interest and capital, and the Watson family is looking toward debtor’s prison, but Elizabeth is ready to turn it down. Right about then, I began to wonder about her sanity.

Mrs. Thomas Atwater, Lucius’s sister in law, was surprised when the money didn’t go to her wastrel son. She sails in – all hostility – and insults Elizabeth. That gets Elizabeth’s dander up and she decides to take the money, and have a London Season so she and her beautiful sister Sophia can kick up their heels a bit. Just then, Mrs. Atwater’s nephew, Julius, Lord Atwater, comes to call. He is handsome, charming, polite, and kind; he praises Elizabeth’s book, wishes her well, and is all that is proper. So Elizabeth gets it into her mind that he is evil. Why? He’s an Atwater. She persists in this notion even though Julius is never anything but the perfect gentleman.

Mrs. Atwater’s schemes all backfire and Elizabeth is the toast of the ton . She is an acclaimed Original, courted by many gentleman, and always there, always the soul of courtesy, is Julius. He lets her know that he does not approve of his aunt’s ways and has taken steps to bring her in line. Does Elizabeth’s attitude toward him soften? No. She remains convinced that he is evil and I was thoroughly convinced that she was an idiot. Matters come to a head when Elizabeth receives a proposal of marriage from a gentleman as proper as Julius, but not nearly as kind.

The Baron and the Bluestocking is smoothly written and I finished it quickly. There were some engaging secondary characters in it, such as Sir Connor O’Connor, a cheerful and penniless baronet looking for an heiress to marry. Elizabeth’s sister Sophia, was a sweet young woman, not the usual spoiled beauty that you find in stories of this kind. Even Elizabeth’s foolish, spendthrift mother was engaging in her silly way.

It was Elizabeth who was so exasperating. I could understand an initial misunderstanding, but she went on willfully believing the worst of Julius Atwater almost until the book was over. I was so fed up with Elizabeth that I nearly welcomed an unhappy ending for her. Goodness knows she did not deserve the intelligent and thoroughly nice Julius.

There’s a sort of continuum of exasperating behavior with which I can contend; if it’s reasonably exasperating than I can tolerate it. But Elizabeth’s obtuseness in The Baron and the Bluestocking was so absurd I wanted to shout at her several times while I was reading. For a smart woman, she sure was stupid.