Georgette Heyer

[erilyn]

Quick poll - to those of my friends who have the excellent taste to be Georgette Heyer fans, which of her romances (as I haven't read the detective novels) are your favourites?

Mine would include Masqueraders, These Old Shades, Grand Sophy, Talisman Ring, Nonesuch, Cotillion, and The Corinthian. And it was hard to narrow it down to that many :)

Comments

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

The Talisman Ring. I love every character in it, even the villain and the comic Bow Street Runners - but mostly Hugh, who just likes to eat, sleep and drink - and reread it on a regular basis. And These Old Shades of course; if I'd written a line like "Oh, Monsignor - I would so much rather be the last [woman you loved] than the first", I could go happily to my grave. And The Masqueraders, and Friday's Child, oh, and Devil's Cub; the one with the twins ... damn. My books are packed at the moment, and I'm blanking on the name. A Civil Contract, which is so untypical, but unforgettable. The Foundling ... and ... um. maybe I should just list the ones I don't like very much instead?

And of the detective novels, the absolute stand-out is Envious Casca. They're all pretty good, except for Footsteps in the Dark, which is a bit like a Scooby-Doo mystery, but that one's unmissable. (My favourite bit? When, murder having been committed at Christmas, the family sits down to dinner but, in a show of feeling, the butler's taken the sprig of holly off the Christmas pudding.)

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

I shall definitely have to check out the detective novels, not sure why I've never got around to it *g*.

The one with the twins is False Colours, love that one too :) Talisman Ring - if I had the power to have one book made into a movie, it'd be it. So long as they did a good job, the movie of Reluctant Widow (the only Heyer adapted to a movie afaik) is not very good.

maybe I should just list the ones I don't like very much instead?

I'm thinking everyone would have been able to come up with shorter lists if I'd asked that *g*.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

Talisman Ring would actually make a good film, it has a strong enough plot to carry a script. Fond as I am of all the rest, a lot of them are just boy/girl/misunderstanding/resolution. But I wouldn't trust anyone working in the film industry today not to mess it up, we're probably best off with our imaginations.

A lot of people just don't get Georgette Heyer, including my housemate, who once told me she'd read all the detective novels, but she thought she'd leave the bodice-rippers. Me, in great indignation: "I don't read bodice-rippers, and Georgette Heyer didn't write them!" They don't seem to register that the humour is what sets them apart in the genre. Eh well, their loss.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

But I wouldn't trust anyone working in the film industry today not to mess it up, we're probably best off with our imaginations.

Sadly, too true.

Did this insane housemate try the romances before making this pronouncement *g*? Bodice-ripping in Heyer?