Lady of Quality is the last Regency romance novel written by Georgette Heyer. It was first published in 1972 and was the last of her novels to be published during her lifetime. The story describes the romantic relationship between Annis Wychwood, a wealthy spinster, and Oliver Carleton, a rake who cares little for society's opinion of him. The two meet while jointly supervising Carleton's ward, Lucilla. Heyer granted her heroine a level of independence that was rare in Regency times and rare for Heyer's novels. Although the hero's personality is similar to that of many of Heyer's other heroes, in a departure from romance novel convention he experienced little personal growth in the novel; his primary change was to accept that he would like to have a wife. Heyer frequently highlights the heroine's many masculine qualities, which include a fierce independence and a disregard for social mores. Modern literary critics have noted that the relationship between the protagonists is modelled on those of the latter 20th century, offering companionship and allowing both parties to retain a level of independence. The heroine's unwillingness to conform attracts the hero, rather than repels him. Background British author Georgette Heyer essentially invented the Regency romance in 1935 with the publication of Regency Buck, and her early Regencies were quite successful. In 1950 she began to work on what she called "the magnum opus of my latter years", a medieval trilogy intended to cover the House of Lancaster between 1393 and 1435. To earn income, she periodically interrupted her research to write additional Regency romances; Lady of Quality, published in 1972, was the last of them, and the last of her novels to be published during her lifetime. Heyer suffered a stroke in July 1973 and was in ill health until her death the following year. Plot summary The novel is set in Regency England somewhere around 1818, and events are related through third-person narrative. As the story opens, a wealthy, beautiful and intelligent woman named Annis Wychwood reaches the age of majority. Now having greater control over her personal and financial affairs, Annis decides to move to Bath and live alone, to the displeasure of her brother and his family. Several years later, on the way back to Bath after a visit to her childhood home, Annis meets Lucilla Carleton and Ninian Elmore. Lucilla is running away to Bath to avoid her marriage to