Thank you, Rebecca, for this absolutely charming set of stories! I just finished the last one and as all of them did, it left me smiling. True, every story was predicable, the plots already used in one or other of the full length books, but that detracted nothing from the delight. Little delectable cream puffs, each one delicious. The adorable heroine with her curls and dimple–the impeccably dressed hero with his elegant cravat–the chance encounter at the Inn–the thwarted trip to Gretna Green–oh my! I love this stuff.
Archive for the ‘Georgette Heyer’ Category
Pistols for Two, by Georgette Heyer
Posted in Georgette Heyer on August 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle, by Georgette Heyer
Posted in Georgette Heyer on August 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »
We have here the usual ingredients for a tasty Heyer confection–the elegant bored millionaire/nobleman, the impetuous not-beautiful-but-nonetheless-adorable young lady, the wise older woman. And clothes, of course there are clothes. Also horses!
But there is more, and the characters are by no means cardboard. Sylvester, the wealthy cynic, is still mourning the loss of his twin brother, whose death devastated him. He adores his charming mother–who is an invalid. She is slightly shocked by his coldly sensible decision to marry whoever seems most suitable of a set of candidates: five genteel young women of good family.
And then–pandemonium! His choice, for a multitude of complicated reasons, falls on the tomboyish Phoebe–who is HORRIFIED. Because why, because she has written a scandalous roman a clef based on her horrible experiences in London society and Sylvester was her model for the villainous COUNT UGOLINO! Very recognizably the model, alas. Plot occurs–snowfall trapping characters together, accident and incident and a flight to Calais. All in all–extremely entertaining. And, need I say it, it all ends happy.
PS I just discovered that there is in fact a Count Ugolino–I had thought it a diverting fabrication, but he figures in Dante’s inferno : Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, who is damned for political crimes and betrayals, and also–cannibalism. He snacked on his own SONS .
Sylvester is NOTHING like him.
The Corinthian, Or, Escaping the Fish Faced Cousin
Posted in Georgette Heyer on August 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I have just read another of Georgette Heyer’s charming regency* romances–the genre which she basically INVENTED, and which gave rise to a million imitators and some actual plagiarists–Barbara Cartland, I’m looking at YOU. Jane Austen was certainly an inspiration for Georgette Heyer, but the former wrote about her own time, whereas the latter’s books were historical, about time gone by.
Georgette Heyer did an astonishing amount of research for her books, and was an acknowledged expert of regency language and vocabulary –but what people loved–and love still!–is the wit and charm, not to mention the completely engaging stories. Jack shall have Jill and naught shall go ill! The fabulous and frothy historical romances were an amazing hit the minute they were published.
She well knew that they were considered silly stuff:
“I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense. … But it’s unquestionably good escapist literature and I think I should rather like it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter or recovering from flu.”
The one I just read, The Corinthian, is one of her earlier regency stories–she wrote a bunch set in other eras, including one about William the Conqueror–but the regency seems to have suited her best, and after 1940, when she wrote the Corinthian, she focused on that world, not straying for over 30 years (though the very last book she wrote–published posthumously–was set in medieval times). The regency clothes, the language, the fashions provide a glittering backdrop to her charming fairy stories.
The Corinthian starts with our elegant hero, the Corinthian–so called not only for his peerless style but also for his excellence as a sportsman– perceiving someone climbing out of a window–naturally, a beautiful young lady dressed as a man! And what do you know, one thing leads to another and soon they are on the mail coach escaping not only the young lady’s horrid relatives (who are trying to marry her off to her fish faced cousin) but also the Corinthian’s horrid family, who are engaged in a similar effort on his behalf. Adventures! Stolen necklaces! Amusing low lifes! And as always, magnificent horses and witty conversations–ah, it is such effervescent entertainment! And, how delightful that she was so prolific!
*The regency was that period when the Prince of Wales was regent owing to the quite shocking madness of King George.
A Civil Contract, by Georgette Heyer
Posted in Georgette Heyer on August 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »
