6.28.2007

Georgette Heyer

Not a lot of people may know this author, but once they do, they jump on the bandwagon. There are many more spots than these on the internet but these seemed to be the most complete to me:
Folks just discovering Heyer:
This is no bodice-ripper, but it is wonderfully romantic in a madcap sort of way. In fact, Heyer wrote it in 1934, and it’s a Georgian, not Regency period, if that matters (I believe it does, to some) but reading this thing was like watching one of my favorite screwball comedies of that era. The heroine is a humorous scamp, the hero - Gad, I fell in love with him! He only shows up in about a third of the book, but he is so well drawn, so clever and funny and wry, that he steals every chapter he’s in. The rest of the book is dominated by secondary characters who kept me in stitches, particularly the overindulging brother, Pel and his drinking/gambling buddy, Pom.

I picked it up yesterday and couldn’t put it down - read it right through the night...

I said, “no, it’s not sexy at all - but it IS romantic, but just tantalizingly so. What it is, is freaking hilarious.”
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Anyway, I overcame my prejudice and took out the only two Heyer books on the shelves: the aforementioned Beauvallet and another complete gem, The Unknown Ajax.

Well, be still my beating heart. I am a convert to Georgette Heyer's romances, even if I might not be converted to anyone else's.

And reading a description of the dashing Beauvallet, an English pirate riding into France to steal away the Spanish girl he has fallen in love with, made me open my eyes to what is appealing in manly men...
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Gentle irony and subtle humor in prose that is not uncomely and sometimes rises to Austenian heights--Georgette Heyer a much underrated, underread master of the historical romance. It's a shame because there is much fun to be had with Ms. Heyer's magnificent novels.
Steven Riddle is not new to Georgette Heyer, but he is reading Powder and Patch for the first time.
The Black Moth:

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posted by Julie D. at 12:04 PM