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

[hnix.livejournal.com]

The Nonesuch!

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

If I was going to pick just one...I don't think I could *g*. Maybe Grand Sophy?

[maxi47.livejournal.com]

I have about 4 Heyers here to read. Have been distracted, but I'll be taking notes so that I know what to look for. :-)

[alasen.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the romances, but I like the detective novels. I'll lend them to you if you're interested. I have all but one of them, I think, although a couple I don't like all that much.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't happen to have been lent them by luthien67? I seem to recall that she is a fellow Heyer devotee :)

Read them!!!

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

That'd be cool, thanks :)

[askance.livejournal.com]

Venetia, Bath Tangle, Frederica are all vying for favourite. This week. Next week it will be different :)

[maxi47.livejournal.com]

No, I've been picking them up in second hand bookshops. I couldn't even tell you what titles I've got at present. *L* Since I'm packing to move right now I don't have the energy to go hunting for them, either.

I have a long reading list at the moment as well. Since I got my pocket computer I have been busily downloading free eBooks off the net, and I have about 80 backed up to read. I'm concentrating on the Regency classics at the moment. They fit *very* comfortably into my Hornblower obsession. Funny that. ;-)

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I think I should have put that disclaimer in my original post ;)

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

How goes the packing? As someone who has never moved in her entire life, it terrifies me *g*.

The majority of my limited knowledge of the Napleonic wars comes from Heyer books ;)

[maxi47.livejournal.com]

The majority of my limited knowledge of the Napleonic wars comes from Heyer books ;)

My knowledge is getting to the frightening stage. I can now pick anachronisms in other people's work. Scary, *very* scary. You should see the reference books I have on just the Royal Navy. ;-)

I haven't even started the packing yet. I'm taking pictures off walls, and moving things around so that I can get cleaning done. This place is too small to pack things away. I get the keys tomorrow, but don't officially move out of here until next Friday. That's when the furniture is being moved. I am moving the other stuff over during the week, a car load at a time. Fun stuff, but it does mean that I will be able to have some things set up ahead of time. That's more than you really needed to know, wasn't it? ;-)

[littlerhymes]

Choosing favourites is like pulling teeth but Arabella, Friday's Child, Cotillion, Frederica and The Grand Sophy are all v. v. dear to my heart.

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I have tried to make a list of my top five before, and it's really, really hard! *g* However, I'll take another stab at it. *g*

Top five this week, and which are always close to the top five if not in it: Venetia, Frederica, Friday's Child, Cotillion and A Civil Contract (which I really didn't like when I first read it at the age of thirteen, but I keep revisiting it and I can see so much more in it now, even though I don't read it for quite the same reasons as the others.)

Others that I'm fond of include the Quiet Gentleman, the Unknown Ajax, the Toll-Gate, the Grand Sophy (which would be in the top five if not for the fact that I don't really care much for Sophy herself. damerel and I discussed our dislike of Sophy once and eventually came to the conclusion that she's Mary-Sue-ish in her faults. One good way to make ewonder all indignant is to refer to TGS as 'the Grand Mary-Sue. *g*), These Old Shades (yay for the only novel in the universe featuring a heroine with my name!!!!), Devil's Cub... Argh!!!! This always happens!!!! I end up listing them all, except for Cousin Kate.

Oh, and there's also this, which is the closest I will ever come to RPG (ie. not very.) I created it mainly as an amusement for damerel, whose LJ username says all that needs to be said about her own Heyer favourite, really.

[luthien.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't lend her any, but I made her a list of the ones she should definitely read. Hmmn, I think that might have been the last time I attempted to list a Heyer top five!

[askance.livejournal.com]

Is there only one entry in it or is there more friends-locked ?

As for Sophy, the only good thing ws that she was wrong about what her father wanted. That makes her a little more likeable when she stuffs up :)

[luthien.livejournal.com]

The user-info and the list of interests are the main thing about that LJ. I know 'Vidal' did get into a discussion thread once, but I can't remember where!

That's a good point about Sophy. Her faults still annoy me, though, because I refuse to find them endearing. *g*

[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.)

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to chose. The Grand Sophy, Sylverster, The Unknown Ajax, The Foundling, ans Devil's Cub. This week, indeed.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Isn't it hard? I was prompted by various favourite Heyer lists at Amazon - all of which included Convenient Marriage. Dad and I were like "What the hell?" cause that wouldn't be in either of our's top ten *g*.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

The most recent time I re-read Grand Sophy I couldn't help but think what a Mary Sue she was *g*. So it might be starting to slip from being one of my favourites :)

Cousin Kate wouldn't be my least favourite, though it creeped the hell out of me when I first read it. Maybe Infamous Army? I can't stand Babs, and Worth and Judith from Regency's Buck are badly written. Civil Contract is certainly one that's grown on me through the years, ditto with Spanish Bride (too much war stuff I didn't get when I first read it *g*).

[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*.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

I always have issues with the heroine from Sylvester, not sure why but she irritates me :) Argh, everytime I read the comments, I agree with people on most of the favourites, perhaps I should have asked what are people's least favourite instead *g*.

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

I know, because I keep adding to the list in my head. I'm glad they're being reissued, all of my were damaged when my basement flooded.

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Ours are just falling apart from age, they're my dad's (and some of them belonged to his parents *g*).

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Sometimes I forget how long ago she wrote them, they're so timeless.

[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]

Very very true. And you wouldn't catch my dad reading any other romances :) His normal fair is more fantasy, classic sci fi and history (especially military).

[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?

[sarren.livejournal.com]

YAY!!! Other Georgette Heyer addicts!!

I can't remember a time before I'd read them all over and over (they were originally my mums) My all time favourite has always been These Old Shades, closely followed by Frederica. Other faves are Arabella, The Grand Sophy and Sylvester (when he's so upset dancing with her and makes her cry and subsequent apology *melt*) The Corinthian, Powder and Patch....OOOH Simon the Coldheart!!! I loved that TO DEATH...aargh Beauvallet, where he follows her into Spain...

Least? I could never finish Lord John, so that one obviously. Maybe also The Spanish Bride - even as a child I couldn't get past the bride's age. So he dotes on her? so do paed.... nevermind.

Now I have to go reread all the detective ones, you realise. Have just got down Envious Casca...


(in case you're vaguely curious about this complete stranger who's dropped by, we met at Highlander con and danced together, I saw the photos recently and thought of you and then when you posted about Sinpozium I came on over for a looksee)

So...hi *waves*

[erilyn.livejournal.com]

Hey!!! Great to hear from you :) You should come over for Sinpozium ;)

It's interesting how many Heyer fans there are amongst slash fen, but hardly surprising given how good they are *g*. I got into them through my parents (they're dad's, but mum reads them too).

I don't think I've ever finished Lord John either, and I don't like The Black Moth. I like Sylvester...except for the girl, she just irritates me. And you've made me want to re-read Beauvallet, it's been too long.

alasen has just lent me some of the detective books, but haven't had a chance to read them yet.