I completely neglected this blog over the holidays; too busy eating food with family and obsessively watching the first two seasons of The Vampire Diaries. (It's on Netflix; what can I do?)(I tried watching it a while ago but couldn't get through the first episode. Guess I was in the right mood for it this time!)
So I have a ton of blogging to catch up on!
I'm going to devote this post to an author quite out of my usual range. One of her books was on my iPod during my 54-hour trip to Buenos Aires, so that's why I decided it was time to blog about her. Georgette Heyer is an early 20th C writer of Regency Romances (romantic novels set in the early 1800s). I love Jane Austen, but I would likely never have picked up Georgette Heyer if I didn't keep seeing her name mentioned, by people whose opinions I value. (Like Robin McKinley.)(And people who like Robin McKinley.)(And Lois McMaster Bujold.) All right then, I said, maybe I should check this author out.
Delightful. That's the best word to describe her novels. They are light, fun, funny, sweet, hilarious, silly, witty, and altogether a treat to read. The plots are all pretty much exactly the same--well, there are a few variations--and she reuses different versions of the same characters in every story (the heros are all consummate horsemen with excellent fashion-sense. Probably so she can show off all her research into the fashions and pastimes of the day.) But that's exactly what you want an author to do, isn't it? She writes a book you love, and then she writes another one just like it!
So far I've read and thoroughly enjoyed all of these (not just in the past month, by the way!). I also tried one of her historical novels, but decided I wasn't nearly as interested in every detail leading up to the battle of Waterloo as Heyer was. (And I read The Reluctant Widow, which I didn't like as much, because I felt the hero bullied the heroine and she meekly submitted. Unlike most of her other heroines, which is why they're so likeable.) I have not tried any of her murder mysteries, but I will.
Reading Georgette Heyer is like going into your favourite pastry shop and being allowed to choose whatever you want!
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| The Nonesuch Everyone in the quiet country town is thrilled when the eligible Sir Waldo comes to visit, except the sensible governess who is past all that |
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| The Grand Sophy Irrepressible heroine sweeps in and shakes up aristocratic family that didn't know it needed shaking up |
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| Frederica Feisty but over-the-hill older sister is determined to make a brilliant match for her beautiful younger sister |
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| The Corinthian Fashionable young man finds heiress climbing out a window to escape a marriage she doesn't want and helps her return to the country to find her first love |
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| Friday's Child Two very immature characters marry on a whim and proceed to rescue each other from each other's improprieties |
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| The Convenient Marriage Someone needs to marry wealthy Lord Rule, and the beautiful sister he offers for is in love with someone else, so impulsive young Horry offers herself a sacrifice on the alter of family fortunes |
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| A Civil Contract Impoverished nobleman must marry wealthy tradesman's daughter who knows he will never love her but is determined to make him happy |
I discovered Heyer as a teen, in a used bookshop, and have loved them ever since.
ReplyDeleteI'm a history major, and liked some of the historical (Regency era mostly) but didn't like her moderns or her mysteries much. (I'm not much of a mystery fan -- not unless the characters are likable and make me care.)
Favorites: Devil's Cub, Faro's Daughter, Frederica, Venetia, Grand Sophy (despite the anti-Semitism straight out of Shakespeare).
These books got me onto Jane Aiken Hodge's Watch the Wall, My Darling which is an American meets The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, sort of.