The not so silly ass: Freddy Standen, his fictional contemporaries and alternative masculinity

Here's a quick summary from the introduction to the volume:

Geraldine Perriam turns her attention to gender via one of Heyer’s best-loved male characters, Freddy Standen in Cotillion. This chapter closely reads Heyer’s subversion of the typical masculine romantic hero, a character that her own work was heavily invested in. (10)

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The traditional qualities of a romantic hero appear to be embodied in Freddy’s cousin Jack Westruther, who initially inspires Kitty’s devotion; but it is to Freddy that Kitty finds herself increasingly attracted as the novel progresses. Heyer often used the Westruther model for her romantic leads. Several of them were Corinthians – sporting, forceful, often cynical men – and a model for many a romantic novelist.

The character of Freddy Standen drew on other fictional heroes: Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel, Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Allingham’s Albert Campion. All three were outwardly frivolous and unlikely heroes, yet they possessed many of the usual traits of the masculine/man-of-action hero beneath foppish or foolish exteriors. In this the character of Freddy is different, despite exhibiting some of the traits required of a hero in the resolution of plot. To the last, he is a self-deprecating man, unsure whether his love is reciprocated and diffident about declaring his love for Kitty.

In this chapter I contrast notions of the romantic hero with the stereotype of the silly ass – a characterisation adopted by Heyer and many of her contemporaries. I consider a few other silly asses of the period, including a comparison of Freddy’s proposal to Kitty with Lord Peter Wimsey’s to Harriet Vane, in an examination of the demands of consistent characterisation. Freddy Standen is unique among Heyer’s heroes; the alternative masculinity of his characterisation enables Heyer to subvert the stereotypical romantic hero while maintaining the requisite conventions of romance plotting. The argument moves between the novel Cotillion, the characterisation of Freddy, other depictions of silly ass characters by authors who were contemporaries of Heyer and enduring interpretations of the romantic hero. (36-37)