SEE NO LOVE

A Regency with one amusing (if rather stiffly handled) twist: poor Emily, daughter of Lord and Lady Harmon, is myopic as a mole--a catastrophe, for Lady Harmon will not allow Emily to wear her spectacles in public. (""No gentleman is going to offer for you if he sees you with those disgusting things upon your face."") So Emily crashes and bumbles, addressing furniture and bunches of flowers, saying terribly wrong things to people she cannot distinguish. But then: how wonderful are the spectacles that Papa thoughtfully buys her! ""For the first time she realized that trees have leaves. . . and discovered she could tell one person from another."" Still forbidden to use her spectacles, however, Emily attends the house party at Maidencourt, where she is Mama-ordered to entice Viscount Stearnes, the boorish brother of Emily's new friend Lady Violet (a noodle). The Viscount prefers horrid Lady Isobel Darcy, naturally, who herself lays claim to Philip, the Viscount's handsome ducal uncle. So, after assorted disasters (Emily addresses a suit of armor, dumps hot tea on Lady Isobel, spears a neighbor with an embroidery needle, and gets lost), the stumbling heroine is rescued by an unseen someone. . . named Philip, of course. And though scandal ensues when Emily nearsightedly cavorts with a rake, it all works out u Philip arrives to propose--while Emily dares to put on her spectacles. Emily is rather a ninny, if appealing, and the one-note joke is wearing after a time; but the old myopia joke is a fresh one, Regency-wise, making this otherwise routine effort modestly noteworthy.