Georgette Heyer virtually invented historical and regency romance. Her witty writing and carful plotting forever changed readers expectations. These Old Shades was originally conceived of as a sequel to her first novel The Black Moth. Ultimately she decided that since These Old Shades was not a melodrama it wouldn't work as a sequel to The Black Moth; so she reworked the book as a stand alone novel and changed many of the characters' names.

A delightful change of station novel that Shakespeare and Dickens would have approved of. Léonie has been disguised as a boy all of her life. When a great lord shows up at her brother's tavern and buys her to train as his page her life is forever changed.