Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

But, but, but… I’ve never read Heyer and I truly want to. But all my money has been spent smashing herring to feed the rejected baby penguins and *tear rolling down cheek* my reading Heyer has had to suffer.

But if I were a winner I do vow: I would put the penguins to sleep with a chapter of Heyer every night.

(spamfilter: recently15. There’s my mental status for you!)

My favorite G. Heyer is Arabella.  First discovered the author on audio tape way back in the early 90s when I was commuting long miles.  I had never read a Regency, nor listened to a book on tape, and just selected the title at random.  What a delightful surprise!  I knew I was in Heyer heaven when I was oblivious to the bumper-to-bumper traffic because I was enjoying the story so much!

My favorite scene/lines comes from the nonpareil himself, Mr. Beaumaris:  “I am quite sure you did, my love, but while I am prepared to receive into my household climbing-boys and stray curs, I must draw the line at a lady rejoicing in the name of Leaky Peg.”

Cotillion! I’d love to win some Heyer books!

If I admit to having never read Georgette Heyer, will I have fruit thrown at my head?

It’s true. I’ve never read Heyer or Austen. I know. I’m rectifying the Austen situation this summer…

I’ve never heard of Heyer. :(  But If I won and liked it I’d buy her back list! (pick me! pick me!)

By the way, is she Romance or more romantic Fiction?  Or none of those at all?

Devil’s Cub:  “Having phlegm, sir, I am required to hold the bowl.”  Kate assisting the French doctor fix up the hole she shot into Vidal.  Man, I haven’t read that book in at least 15 years, and I still LOVE that scene.

Also, Venetia.  “I’ve suddenly had the most diverting thought!”

Although, my favourite Heyer was Simon the Coldheart, for reasons I’ve never delved into.  Maybe because it was so unlike her Regencies.

I’ve only read Beauvallet so far, but I really enjoyed it. I love the way she writes, and even if I don’t win, will one day improve my Heyer-fu. (That said, PICK ME! PICK ME!)

*clears throat* Anyway…

While I think it very romantic -and Sir Nicholas is in that Scarlet Pimpernel vein, which I lurve- I think my favorite part is Dominica vs. her aunt in the battle o’ wits.

Hey, Catherine, be warned that her backlist is HUGE!  But totally worth it.

And may I add, that action figure ROCKS!  How unutterably cool is it that somebody came up with a librarian action figure?

Never read her books but from some of the comments I’m truly tickled pink. WANNA READ (read: PICK ME!)

i just finished the corinthian*, and i loved it.  consquently, it took little over 24 hours from me finishing that and tracking down ‘the black moth’.  unfortunately, i’m at work and cannot begin it yet!

but before that, nope, hadn’t heard of heyer until she popped up here.  but i’m young and stupid, and therefore oblivious of cool things until they pop up on the internets.

*why can’t we nickname people like they did back in the day?  ‘nonesuch’ is so much badder than somethin’ like ‘brangelina’.

Fear not, thou are not alone in thy lack of Heyeristic experience fellow bitches.  Let it not diminish thy thirst for a sock-rockin read.  I too have yet to experience they awesomness that is Heyer and need an education!

So that huge backlist, that would be why I haven’t read Heyer yet.  I’ve gotten recommendations from every trusted source I use. Authors I love can’t say enough.  My books to buy list is too long as it is and I just know that the first Heyer will be like trying to eat just 1 potato chip. I’ll be lost to a Heyer reading orgy.  Which for me means a Heyer buying spree, and then there will be the new bookcase to hold them all….

Hey, do I increase my odds by commenting way too often?  In the course of searching for the correct title of Simon the Coldheart for my initial comment, I came across this:

http://www.georgette-heyer.com/

Holy fangirl!  A comprehensive and comprehensible resource for all things Heyer.

Okay, I’ll stop now.  Please send me a book.

I’ve only read 2 Heyer novels so far. Both this year. And my favorite scene at this moment is in Frederica when the title character gets into trouble walking her dog and pretends the dog belongs to the hero. I don’t want to give more than that away, but that was a hilarous scene.

It’s not Kate, it’s Mary.  Mary Challoner, and the scene that kills me every time is when Vidal says to his silly cousin something along the lines of, “I am not following them (Mary and silly cousin’s silly lover) because I am angry.  I am following them because I’m demmed sure I can’t live without her.”  Or something much more awesome than my memory.  There’s Cousin Charles in The Grand Sophy saying, “I dislike you excessively” instead of “I love you.”  There’s Frederica with her “restorative” pork jelly.  I adore Heyer!

And as much as I’d like the books again, this list of books was my birthday present from my husband, so DON’T put me on the list for the draw, okay!  I just had to correct Mary’s name.

Okay, I lied.  Just because I can, here you go (from Devil’s Cub):

Vidal spoke softly: “Come here.”

“I have something to say to you first, my lord,” returned Miss Challoner calmly.

“Good God, girl, do you suppose it was to hear you talk that I brought you to France?” Vidal said derisively. “I’ll swear you know better than that!”

“Perhaps,” admitted Miss Challoner. “Nevertheless, sir, I beg you will listen to me. You won’t pretend, I hope, that you are fallen in love with me.”

“Love?” he said scornfully. “No, madam. I feel no more love for you than I felt for your pretty sister. But you’ve thrown yourself at my head, and by God I’ll take you!” His eyes ran over her. “You’ve a mighty trim figure, my dear, and from what I can discover, more brain than Sophia. You lack her beauty, but I’m not repining.”

She looked gravely up at him. “My lord, if you take me, it will be for revenge, I think. Have I deserved so bitter a punishment?”

“You’re not very complimentary, are you?” he mocked.

She rose, holding her pistol behind her. “Let me go now,” she said. “You do not want me, and indeed I think you have punished me enough.”

“Oh, that’s it, is it?” he said. “Are you piqued that I liked Sophia better? Never heed it, my dear; I’ve forgotten the wench already.”

“My lord,” she said desperately, “indeed I am not what you think me!”

He burst into one of his wild laughs, and she realized that in this mood she could make no impression upon him.

He was advancing towards her. She brought her right hand from behind her, and levelled the pistol. “Stand where you are!” she said. “If you come one step nearer I shall shoot you down.”

He stopped short. “Where did you get that thing?” he demanded.

“Out of your coach,” she answered.

“Is it loaded?”

“I don’t know,” said Miss Challoner, incurably truthful.

He began to laugh again, and walked forward. “Shoot then,” he invited, “and we shall know. For I’m coming several steps nearer, my lady.”

Miss Challoner saw that he meant it, shut her eyes, and resolutely pulled the trigger. There was a deafening report and the Marquis went staggering back. He recovered in a moment. “It was loaded,” he said coolly.

Toss-up between “The Unknown Ajax” - which was my first Heyer and probably my first romance, waaaaay back before I was legal - and “Cotillion” in which the heroine picks the right guy instead of the obvious one.

Ohh… the pain, the pain….There are too many I love—Frederica, The Talisman Ring, The Grand Sophy, Arrghhh!

But if I had to pick a favorite scene, it would be the denouement scene in These Old Shades where the Duke of Avon, in his full metrosexual finery tells a story and unmasks the perfidious villain in front of all of high society.  Awse!

My best friend is a Heyer ‘ho and won’t even let me borrow… reading the above except from Devil’s Cub, I now know why!

I have to choose one scene?!

Okay, at the moment it’s in Black Sheep, when Abigail Wendover meets Miles Calverleigh for the first time:

She said unsteadily: “Talking to you is like - like talking to an eel!”

“No, is it? I’ve never tried to talk to an eel. Isn’t it a waste of time?”

She choked. “Not such a waste of time as talking to you!”

“You’re surely not going to tell me that eels find you more entertaining that I do?” he said incredulously.

That was rather too much for her: she did giggle, and was furious with herself for having done so.

“That’s better!” he said approvingly.

They are a delightful pair of characters, and the book itself is charming, funny and perfect bedtime reading. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to delve into Heyer for the first time. Generally speaking, she has a couple of types of heroes: ‘alpha-male’ sorts (I usually don’t like these, but Heyer’s are just fine) and the quiet but wry and funny men who charm the socks off you without even trying. Calverleigh is one of the latter, and Abigail is a sensible, mature, thoughtful woman that I can’t help but adore.

In Devil’s Cub, I am always entertained by Rupert’s wine buying.

Out of the multiple thousands of fiction and romance novels that I’ve read since I was 12 years old , I too have never read Georgette Heyer. In fact, I never even heard of her till maybe 2 or 3 years ago when I first saw her name mentioned online.
put me in for the drawing because I’d love to see what all the fuss is about.

Pick me!  I need to be exposed to the legend!

Too many fabulous, snarky, delicious scenes to mention.  Of course I love the scene in Devil’s Cub where Mary shoots Vidal.  I also I love the ending of The Nonesuch and almost every single line in Arabella.  But this exchange from Regency Buck may be my favourite:

‘Do you suppose, Lord Worth, That there is any great likelihood of my marrying you?’ inquired Judith in a sleek, deceptive voice.
He raised his brows.‘Until I ask you to marry me, Miss Taverner, not the least likelihood,’ he replied gently.

Ouch.
I am a complete Heyer fangirl: when Arabella was serialised on Radio 4’s book at bedtime I went to bed early every night so I wouldn’t miss it.  I think you can still listen to it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0092tc1

Devil’s Cub and Black Sheep are two of my very favorites!  I love the scene near the end where Dominic walks in when Mary is dining with the elderly gentleman.  Hilarious!

Miles ability to make Abby laugh in Black Sheep just endears him to me.

* Hangs head in shame*
I too have never been blessed to read a Heyer before…

Perhaps I’ll get lucky and SB Sarah can rectify this *lackoheyer* syndrome for me????

pls? kthx

I like The Toll House and the Grand Sophie. I haven’t read many, though, and I’m still hunting a copy of These Old Shades.

I read Venetia a couple weeks ago, and totally cracked up at the end when he says something like “I’ve been trying to propose, but we keep getting interrupted.”  And then they’re interrupted again.

Even with all the reading I do, I keep coming across “I can’t believe you’ve never read him/her” authors.  Until Venetia, Heyer was on that list.

This is my first time posting a comment and I’m drawn by the Heyer. I’ve only read Black Sheep because it is the only one I could find from my library that wasn’t in large print. (Not that large print is a bad thing) I love Miles Caverleigh - he’s such a grump!

I’ve been dying to read other Heyer novels.

Never read Heyer, either, but from everything I hear from readers who have, I think it’s just a matter of time before it’s required by the Constitution. So I’d love to get a head start!

I started reading Heyer in high school and remember cheering at the end of Cotillion when she ends up with Freddy. Have read most of the others, but I’m crap at remembering details from what I read. But I’d love to get reacquainted with the grand dame.

Oh, and Sarah, thanks for the mention. Tiny does love his Julia Quinn…

I love Venetia, Arabella, The Nonesuch...well, I think I’ve loved just about every Heyer book I ever read.

Also, I’ve taught Regency dancing. That should earn me a free book, don’t you think?

(spam word: added62. I would like 63 Georgette Heyer novels added to my bookshelf!)

I love, love, love Heyer.  I don’t think I can choose a favorite scene or character.  Her dialogue is brilliant!  And did you know that she wrote some clever mysteries, too?

Ooh, ooh, I’ve only just recently read Heyer for the first time!  It was A LADY OF QUALITY (I loved Heyer’s characterisations of Ninian and Lucilla).  Pick me, pick me!

I’ve never read Heyer, but have heard so many great things about her books that I’d love to try them!

spam detector:  waiting 41….hey, I’m waiting, and I’m 41—a sign that you should pick me!

I got A Lady of Quality at a used book sale this spring, but my TBR is so ginormous that I haven’t gotten to it yet.  To keep from being cast out of the Bitchery for all time, I promise to read it posthaste!

I was looking at the page that Suze linked to, but I have a question.  I’m assuming these are romance books, but I want to know if there’s sex in these or if it just never goes there.  I’m ok with either, but if there’s sex I want to know what kind.  It says she died in 1974 so I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a lot of forced seduction going on.  I’d appreciate the info.  Thanks!

I have never had the chance to read Georgette Heyer, either (I’m working on Austin’s Mansfield Park right now), but I’ve been in love with the new reprints! I read a guy blogger’s bit on how great it was that they got “proper” covers so that he wouldn’t be embarassed to read them in public anymore!

I have to say, the one whose story sounds the MOST interesting is False Colours. Twins switching places? Hell yeah!

My, my - maybe I AM lucky - my postword is “george55”!

My favourite scene is probably from ‘The Convenient Marriage’

Here is how I previously recapped it:

The HEROINE escapes from the home of the VILLAIN to meet her BROTHER (drunk) and his FRIEND (inebriated) on the street, in the early hours of the morning.

BROTHER and FRIEND proceed to the VILLAIN’s house to see whether he’s alive or not, and try to start up a card-party.

I’ve lightened up on ‘A Civil Contract’ since then, and if we get to choose, I already own Friday’s Child, and Cotillion (Freddy!).

Oh, I’ve read and loved all of them, but my favorite is probably “Frederica” simply because it was my first. I received it as a Christmas gift from my wonderful aunt (who always gave me the best books) when I was around 14 years old. I still remember the cover of that particular printing, too.

I also dearly loved “The Toll-Gate.”

And there I was, thinking I was just so special…

Yes, I’m one of those who’s never read Heyer, either. As a matter of fact, I’ll be reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time this summer, too. (And I call myself a romance author?)

Just like everyone else, I’d love to win, too. I promise I’ll not only be thrilled, I’ll actually read the book!
-S

I’m a HUGE Heyer fan. I spent a tidy fortune ordering all the Arrow reprints from England (my god, the shipping *shudder* the shipping).

Many of my favs have already been mentioned, but I’ll stand up for An Infamous Army as well. God I LOVE that book. The heroine is fab (Lady Babs, what a creature!), the hero is to die for, and the book is linked to my favorite “series”: These Old Shades (Justin and Leonie), Devil’s Cub (Justin and Leonie’s son Vidal and Mary), Regency Buck (Worth and Judith), An Infamous Army (Vidal’s granddaughter and Worth’s brother).

Plus, An Infamous Army has the most moving description of the Highland regiments marching out of Brussels ever written. I cry every time I read it.

I was looking at the page that Suze linked to, but I have a question.  I’m assuming these are romance books, but I want to know if there’s sex in these or if it just never goes there.  I’m ok with either, but if there’s sex I want to know what kind.  It says she died in 1974 so I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a lot of forced seduction going on.  I’d appreciate the info.  Thanks!

Catherine, there is no on-stage sex in Heyer. And DEFINITELY no forced seduction.

I’m assuming these are romance books, but I want to know if there’s sex in these or if it just never goes there.  I’m ok with either, but if there’s sex I want to know what kind. 

No sex. Nothing beyond a kiss. And they’re considered “historical fiction” in England, though they do follow all the “rules” for an RWA def “romance”.

I’ve re-read my Heyer paperbacks so often that I wear them, so they need replacing!

I adore the Grand Sophy, and the vague romantic poet.  I love Frederica, who doesn’t mind if her younger brother blows up the attic.

My favorite of the moment is Sprig Muslin, where the TSTL pretty young thing is rescued by the hero (repeatedly), shoots him, then learns to wring the neck of a chicken.  The denouement has 3 different sets of rescuers all converging on a rural inn, and getting into a traffic jam.

Oh, too many scenes from the Fredericka [or The Unknown Ajax, The Grand Sophy, Sylvester] to say here, but maybe when Lord Alverstoke chides Fredericka that her mutt who caused the havoc among the cows in the park was a Tajikistani Hound rather than a Balukistani. Well, that just lost all sense of the joke, but I do enjoy the scene.

Please pick me-me-me-me!

Cool, thanks for answering my question guys.  I’ll definitely have to check her out even if I don’t win.  (I still want to win though, Pick Me!)

Oooh, Heyer! She was my introduction to Regencies, when I read “The Grand Sophy”.  From her I discovered Clare Darcy and Barbara Cartland, and then the whole Signet regency line at my favorite used bookstore.  (Forgive me for liking Cartland so much.  I was young and didn’t know better.) 

My all-time favorite scene is from Devil’s Cub, when Mary shoots Vidal.  But I also like the scene in The Grand Sophy where Sophy shoots Lord Chalbury, so he can’t fight Cousin Charles and ruin her plot to get him and Charles’s sister Cecilia back together.  I forget what he says to her, but her reply of “Good heavens, I am not missish!” always makes me laugh out loud.  Because it’s the understatement of the century.  :)

Never read anything by her, so can’t give a favorite part. She sounds like a fun read, though, from the way you talk about the books.

I love them all, but my favorite Heyers are two books: Devil’s Cub and The Grand Sophie.

I wanted to be Sophie when I was a girl and I wanted to meet Vidal.

Oh, I remember that I loved Sophia Challoner, Vidal’s love interest.

And, I just learned from Wikipedia that there is a trilogy here:

These Old Shades: Duke of Avon
Devil’s Cub: Marquis of Vidal
The Infamous Army: Lady Barbara Child (Vidal’s daughter)

Sigh. I have several editions of La Heyer’s books in boxes and will probably go out and purchase those three again…

Eeee! Eeee! Heyer reprints! *performs the Dance of Joy*

This will make my Evil Scheme of acquiring all of her works SO much easier!

First ran into her work while I was living in Munich for a year, and gleefully devoured it.  It’s incredibly hard to pick just one scene, so I think I will have to go with the scene in “Devil’s Cub” where Mary is recounting her Adventures Thus Far to the gentleman she meets at the inn. Not only because it’s such a treat to hear her perspective on what’s been going on, but since the reader knows more about the gentleman in question than Mary does, everything becomes twice as hysterically funny.

Also, I love her mysteries (which I haven’t seen mentioned on the list yet). They’re set in contemporary (to her time) England, and always feature a romantic pairing, as well as brilliant characters, and quite interesting plots. And who could resist a book called, “Why Shoot a Butler?” ?

JaneDrew

Word: Policy58—it is my policy that if I can manage to purchase 58 Heyer books (multiple copies to give to others, natch), then I will!

I have to admit that Regencies aren’t my thing and never have been, though I had to read Austin for a college class and enjoyed them. As I result, I’ve never read Heyer, either. I love Mary Stewart’s early works, which are likely ‘modern romantic suspense’ equivalents to Heyer’s writing style. (By modern, I mean fifties and sixties). So…stick my name in the hat and I’ll happily give Heyer a try. Perhaps I’ll even add some of her works to my Library List to check them out if I don’t win.

I love Heyer—as a kid, I haunted the bookstore for re-issues and have carted all of them from apartment to house to house for the past 20-ish years…. several of mine are tattered and almost cover-less from so much love.

I love the “These Old Shades” trilogy—it carries the story from the French Court to England and then back to Brussels on the eve of Waterloo…. the characters are all delicious and she ages them rather gracefully.

The Grand Sophy and Venetia are particular favorites—Sophy’s potential mother-in-law, the languid Spanish grand-dame is spectacular….

and her unfinished treatment of John of Bedford in My Lord John—wow, I love that one…

Her mysteries as well are delightful and as witty, erudite and ‘spot on’ as anything by Dorothy Sayers.

My favorite quote? “A great many dramatic situations start with screaming.”

No, wait, that was Barbarella.

Okay, how about this one? “Oh, not at all, ma’am! I like being hit over the head with cudgels!”

Kat

I had an elderly aunt — she died a few years ago at the age of 101 — who thought there were few pleasures to equal a new eorgette Heyer. She, of course, read them when they were new and introduced me to them later. It’s nice to know a new generation i also enjoying them. I join the ranks of those who love the scene in Devil’s Cub where Mary shoots Vidal:

Miss Challoner saw that he meant it, shut her eyes, and resolutely pulled the trigger. There was a deafening report and the Marquis went staggering back. He recovered in a moment. “It was loaded,” he said coolly.

nearly 71? Not missing by much.

The scene where Sophy sets her Mamaluke-trained horse into full flying dressage mode in Hyde Park is a fav of mine. And the daunting pigsfoot jelly in Frederica. The use of “stoopid” as an endearment in Venetia. And George. Wonderful, wild, out-of-his-mind-in-love George in Friday’s Child (and the possibly gay buddy in that circle of friends). The French girl who wants to know if her cousin would ride hell for leather to rescue her as she was taken to the guillotine in a tumbrel (and her obsession with the tumbrel and his utter disgust at her overly florid imaginings of her own impending death) in The Talisman Ring. The amazing black moment in Faro’s Daughter where she tells him she hates him and he replies that he thought he’d learned to love her. *squee* Rotherham shoving his beautiful hands into his pockets in Bath Tangle. Ulysses, the mongrel dog, sleeping with the hero’s glove in Arabella. The utter ridiculousness of Sir Nugent in Sylvester.

Nearly every book has some really special, memorable bit that is simply unforgettable.

And, I just learned from Wikipedia that there is a trilogy here:

These Old Shades: Duke of Avon
Devil’s Cub: Marquis of Vidal
The Infamous Army: Lady Barbara Child (Vidal’s daughter)

There are actually four related books. Regency Buck has cross over characters with An Infamous Army (and Lady Babs is Vidal’s GRANDDAUGHTER, not his daughter). The hero of An Infamous Army is the younger brother of the hero from Regency Buck, and the secondary romance from Regency Buck also gets entangled in An Infamous Army when the husband develops a crush on Lady Babs (who is, IMO, the template for the bad girl reformed).

I love, love, love the parts in SYLVESTER where Phoebe is writing her book with her Sylvester-like villain.  I also like that Sylvester has a truly angstful event in his past, but it didn’t mold his entire character (as so often in modern romance).

My favorite of the more serious ones is A CIVIL CONTRACT—I love all the class issues, as well as the way Jenny works so hard at the marriage, and how Adam gradually comes around.

You know, Venetia may be my favourite heroine anywhere, ever. I am just vain enough to identify with her (I will SO end up with a Yardley if I’m not careful), while also eternally admiring the way she’s sane but in love. And I adore Damerel as well, foxed orgies and all, and the way Aubrey keep getting involved, bless him. Actually, Aubrey is brilliant in his bratty geekiness and vaguely sexy in a one-night stand kind of way. And most of all, I adore the dynamics between the three of them, with Nurse sitting guard like a vulture.

The only other Heyer-book I’ve read was The Grand Sophy which, although it carries less personal significance for me, is also awesome. Its minor characters are varied and vivid, Sophy is the sexiest thing this side of Argentina, and the whole thing read like a colourful, enchanting collage of monkeys, pistols, bluestockings and annoying little siblings.

Hanging my head in shame.  I made it through my teen years in the ‘70’s without ever reading a Heyer.  I was Victoria Holt girl.

Pick me, out of sympathy for a lack of romantic knowledge.

My word thing is labor86.  Appart from spelling labour wrong, I’m willing to admit that I’d read Heyer if I won, regardless of it being a labour of love or not.

I loved the part in Devil’s Cub where Mary gets Vidal to drink her broth after he’s been shot.

It’s so hard to pick just one (for overall story, I veer between “Arabella” and “Regency Buck” as my faves), but one of my very favorite Heyer scenes is towards the end of “Sprig Muslin”—it’s such sheer nonsense that I always have to stop and read it aloud to myself and then chortle manically over it. 

Amanda, the horrible hoyden, has decided that she can bully her straightlaced beau into marrying her by pretending that she has been ruined by someone else. 

” ‘Well, Hildebrand must be the one to do it.  Hildebrand!  HILDEBRAND!’

Hildebrand… his fingers writhing amongst his disordered locks as he wrestled with literary composition vouchsafed only an absent grunt.

‘Hildebrand, would you be so very obliging as to pretend to compromise me and then refuse to marry me?” said Amanda cajolingly.

‘No, can’t you see I’m busy!  Ask Uncle Gary!’ said Hildebrand.

... ‘I think you are very uncivil and disobliging!’ said Amanda roundly.”

Pure delightlful lunacy.

On a related note, I read a completely different sort of Heyer this past weekend, one of her mystery novels, called “Penhallow”.  It’s a psychological exploration of the build-up to a murder in a very Agatha Christie-esque setting.  I highly recommend it to Christie and Sayers lovers!

Oh, pick me!!  I’m also one of the deprived who has not read my own Heyer, and I can feel parts of me shrivelling from the lack. 

Honestly, I’d never heard of her until this site.  But reading the favorite scenes, I’ve DEFINITELY been missing out.  Please help!

I’m fond of Sylvester, the wicked uncle, both the book and the character. Those eyebrows!

A huge hooray to Nancy Pearl for including Robin McKinley’s Sunshine on the NPR list, as well. What a fab book!

I know I read at least several Georgette Heyer’s when I was young, but it’s been decades and they’re mostly lost to memory. I was wanting to renew my acquaintance, and I even checked one out at the library last night but would love to have a new edition!

Sylvester, the conversation Sylvester and Sir Nugent had about the duck in a thunderstorm. And any bits of the novel Phoebe wrote, which are wonderful send-ups of gothic novels.

Or the Convenient Marriage, when the heroine proposes to the hero. She’s young and spunky, and he’s ridiculously alpha, and yet it works, and cracks me up everytime.

Really, almost anything by Heyer. Devil’s Cub is probably my favorite, but so many people have already cited bits of it.

Cotillion is my favorite Georgette Heyer. ( I bought the most recent release for my 18 year old daughter)  But I also love Friday’s Child and the Devil’s Cub. I think that my favorite scene is when Vidal stabs Mary with his sword in his duel with her supposed husband.(This couple did a lot of violence to each other for a romance BEG)  His violent declaration that she belonged to me, made my teen heart swoon.

Vidal, Vidal, he was the ultimate bad boy.

My all time favorite is the scene where Mary and the mysterious older gentleman are having supper in The Devil’s Cub. 

My second favorite is the scene where Deborah has Max tied up in the cellar in Faro’s Daughter.

*Sigh*  So many years of good reading, over and over again!

Oh, one of the best parts has to be in The Grand Sophy when Sophy points out to her lovestruck cousin how completely inept her artistic swain, something along the lines of “romance is all well and good, but there’s something to be said for remembering to bring an umbrella….” Priceless!!!

And who can forget the pathos in A Civil Contract—and how Heyer does so much with glances and gestures to convey the mood.

I cannot wait to introduce these delightful heroines to my girls who will love them as much as I do!!

I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts and remembering all of the great Heyer books and lines.  I’ve read all of the Regencies and some of her mysteries but would love the new release!

Here’s the thing about her books…no sex, little kissing, but clever clever dialogue that leads to the inevitable chemistry and romance.  And, even though her books were written in the first half of the 20th century, her heroines are never TSTL victims.  They may not always make the best decisions but you cheer for them in the end.  And her alpha males are flawed and drool-worthy!

Here’s a site dedicated to all things Heyer:  http://www.georgette-heyer.com/

I have only read one Heyer, and I don’t remember the title or even the plotline, really, other than it involved a very independent young lady named Annis (or Anise?), and she had a sister-in-law named Amabel.  I remember thinking those were the coolest names ever, and whenever I think of this book it reminds me of my bestest friend from university, with whom I used to trade Mills & Boone and other romance novels back and forth. 

security word law93 - it is the LAW that I win this book and improve my Heyerology!

So this is what it takes for me to come out of lurkdom and finally register/comment!  I will admit that I haven’t read any of Heyer’s books, but because of the recommendations from this sight several of her books (including Infamous Army) are now on my wishlist at Amazon.  Just before seeing this post, I read the excerpt from Infamous Army that NPR posted, and if I don’t win a copy here I’ll definitely have to go buy one.

Venetia of course when she is trying to convince Lord Damarel that she would rather have him than respectability.

Or any of the hilariously unpleasant family gatherings in any of her mysteries usually just before or after a murder.

Or in Unknown Ajax the scene when Hugo finally makes it clear to his toplofty grandfather that his grandfather has no hold, financial or otherwise, on him.

So very, very many good parts.

I’ve only read The Corinthian, so I’m nominating that for my ‘most awesome bit of Heyer’. :) But I’d love to read more!

I’m amazed no one has mentioned False Colours yet!  I adore Kit and Cressy, and the scene in which Cressy faces down the blackmailer and does other spoilertastic things is hilarious and completely upended my expectations for the narrative.

I also really love Charles’s declaration of dislike in The Grand Sophy, not to mention the fact that she deals with proposals while wrangling ducks.  Absolutely brilliant.

My favorite right now is Cotillion, because that’s what I just got from the library. I don’t have a favorite character or scene yet, because if I let myself start reading now, this will become YET ANOTHER day when I get nothing checked off of my summer “to do” list.

All hail free books!!

Oh, The Grand Sophy without a doubt. The whole durn book, in fact. Looooved that book. Also particularly loved The Corinthian.

I’ve yet to read The Devil’s Cub, but I hear it’s the best.

Yay for this thread! My definitely beaten-up Heyer collection would probably be on my save-in-case-of-disaster collection.

I so appreciate seeing the individual scenes that others have listed, and I have to mention yet another from Devils’ Cub at the very end when they are all converging on the inn in France, and the innkeeper snootily inquires who all these strange English are, and Rupert says something about The Old Gentleman being Avon and Vidal being Avon when Leonie comes sweeping in, Rupert chortles something like, “She’s Avon too!” There’s no way I can do it justice without the book in front of me, but the timing of that scene is exquisite!

The imageword for me was “special13”—it’s psychic, innit?

Oh! I love Heyer, although I have only read a few!

My favorite Heyer scene has got to be in FARO’S DAUGHTER—love the “they hate each other but they really don’t” stories—when the heroine “kidnaps” the hero in her basement for a night, and he plays on her sympathy to get her to leave a candle to ward the rats away. She does, and when she checks up on him he’s used the candle to burn through his ropes, but her immediate concern isn’t that he’s free, but that he’s burned himself. She’s so worried about the injury he’s done to his hands that she lets him out of the cellar so she can tend to his wounds.

Oh! And second favorite, in the same book, is when the heroine’s brother finds out she has a man locked in the cellar and goes down to apologize for his sister and to let him out. But the hero’s refuses to be “freed” because the heroine’s intention was to keep him locked up, and then he scolds the brother for not having the balls for sticking to her plan. HA!

Can I enter though I’ve never read any Heyer? It’s on my TBR, and this would kick-start me :)

I LOVE DEVILS CUB!!! This isn’t a scene, but I just think it’s hilarious how the hero kills two people in a duel & wins an impossible horse/carriage race in the first twenty-five or so pages. Alcohol is to Vidal what spinach is to Popeye!

Me too!  I would ove to enter and sadly, I have never read what sound like marvelous books -please help pathetic me!

Mari

I’ve never read any Heyer! But I’d love to. :)

So much Heyer love! I enjoyed the cross-dressing in The Masqueraders, but my favorite line is from Devil’s Cub:

“I feel an almost overwhelming interest in the methods of daylight abduction employed by the modern youth.”

A sentence so cool, I read it three time the first time I saw it. <3

I’ve never read Georgette Heyer.  :(  Too bad.

Favourite Heyers:

1. Cotillion (this is my FAVOURITE simply because Heyer absolutely nails it by subverting all the popular romantic archetypes (the saturnine rake who isn’t the hero, the slightly effeminate, good natured fop who is, the heroine whose read a few too many romances and sets out to catch the rake, but falls in love with the fop), plus a masterful cast of supporting characters. A classic.

Favourite part? The ending, when Freddy steps up and (SPOILER) punches Jack, much to everyone’s astonishment (particularly his own).

2. The Quiet Gentleman. Heyer at her ensemble best (see also: Frederica and The Unknown Ajax). I love that the hero is this delicate, beautiful blond and the heroine is the practical, short necked Miss Morville.

Favourite part: when she rescues him after he falls from his horse. (and every scene with the Dowager).

3. Regency Buck. This is totally old school, but no one does it better than Heyer. Judith is the beautiful, hot headed heiress and the Earl (name forgotten) is her guardian, all dark and ironic and handsome. Sparks fly. There’s guest appearances by Brummell, a skanky Prince Regent cameo and Lady Jersey; Almacks, kidnappings, a shooting, heroic rescues, romance, heaving bosoms, misunderstanding and the kitchen sink.

Good fun.

Oh, And I’ve never thought The Devil’s Cub was Heyer’s best. If you can get past the age difference, I think These Old Shades (Vidal’s parents) is better.

I can’t believe no one has mentioned Frederica yet—the balloon ride is so great!!

And the Reluctant Widow—dying Dukes and French spies, what a combo!

You guys are taking me on a trip down memory lane today—this is so awesome!

Alcohol is to Vidal what spinach is to Popeye!

I just spewed tea all over my keyboard. Thank you!!! That’s utterly brilliant (you know, he’s not considered dangerous until he’s broached his forth bottle of port, LOL!). I can see that my Heyer collection and I are going to have a splendid weekend together . . . I’m still so damn grateful my godmother handed my Venetia on the first day of fall break my freshman year of college (and then pointed to the two full shelves of Heyer books when I begged for more!). Of course she’s the same brilliant woman who gave me Rosemary Sutcliff when I was eight and Dorthy Dunnett and Sharon Kay Penman. I should really call her . . .

I’d be drummed out of a job if I’d never read Heyer. My favorite has always been Frederica. Didn’t she have an Aunt Scrabster?? It was the most perfect word.

I second Kalen.  Heyer’s different periods and genres may or may not be to your taste, but they’re all well done.

WHAT is with the italics?  They just don’t seem to want to close.  I broke a thread the other day with italics, and I swear that I used the button correctly.

Anyway, back to Heyer.  The only people I’ve ever heard of who don’t enjoy her are people who are uncomfortable reading words of more than two or three syllables (or who read only for the sex scenes).  She uses words masterfully.

I’d also say that The Nonesuch would be an excellent starting place, but I really can’t see you getting turned off no matter which book you start with—provided that you enjoy words, and you’re not looking mostly for a stroke book.

One big difference between Heyer and a lot of current authors is that, today, we’re set up to buy series by having secondary characters featured, so that we usually know who’s book is coming next.  Heyer had a lot of fantabulous secondary characters, but because books were marketed differently back in her day, they stayed secondary.  Her books are essentially stand-alones.  There is no book of hers that you read solely to get the backstory for the next book, unlike some series I’m reading (hi there, JR Ward!).

Holy cow!  I fixed it!  Yay, me!

I’ve been reading Heyer since I was ten years old! I love them all, but I confess I have a special place in my heart for The Grand Sophy! Sophy’s Stepmother nearly killed me! OMG the evil fiancee!

But then, what about Avon and Leonie?!
Or the tragic villain in The Black Moth!
Or the Talisman Ring with the murder!
Or sweet dotty Freddy in Cotillion!
Or cross dressing kisses in The Corinthian!

Yowza! I just love them all!

Oh man this is perfect for me! I’m just getting into the Heyer so I’ve recently purchased 3 books (Cotillion-my favorite so far-The Convenient Marriage, and Frederica, which I’m reading now) and have checked out more from the library (Faro’s Daughter, The Corinthian, The Nonesuch, and The Grand Sophy) but it’s so hard to pick a favorite scene.

If you haven’t read The Grand Sophy don’t read below this point

For favorite I’ll probably have to go with the end scene of The Grand Sophy. From the moment Charles walks in the door and just totally has Sophy’s number (all “oh you’re ruined? I would’ve laid odds you’d called the Marquesa to meet you here”) to the very end when she tells Charles he can’t love her and he says “I don’t. I dislike you excessively.” That bit made me a little weak in the knees.

As for just starting out with Heyer, I recommend Cotillion but that’s because it’s the first one I read. I adore Freddy so very much. One of the best romance novel heros ever (can I pick every scene Freddy’s in as a favorite scene? Because I love him like pie). Also, The Grand Sophy. It gets mentioned a lot and for good reason.

And while we’re on the subject of secondary characters (someone is anyway) can I just say that I’d kind of love if someone wrote a story about Tiffany and Laurie from The Nonesuch. If ever there were secondary characters begging for a bit of a redemption story it’s those two.

Don’t enter me; I have the whole set of Arrow reprints, mysteries and all (and went broke importing them, too, until I found free worldwide shipping). Just wanted to mention that The Spanish Bride is related to the “trilogy” through all the army characters, and I want to say The Unknown Ajax might be as well. Memory is fuzzy on that one.

I adore Heyer. I still have a few I haven’t read yet; I use the new-to-me ones to break myself out of those bad stretches where I’m disappointed in every book I try.

Venetia is still my favorite, so far. Banter through classical quotes! It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Heyer is totally one of my passions—I pick up her books used or new whenever I see them (which isn’t nearly as often as I’d like), even if they’re foxed mid-century paperbacks.

I agree with all the favorite parts mentioned above and would add two:

the bit in Sophy when she runs into Sir Vincent et al in the park and there’s the line that the last time they saw her she was (approx) “arranging in the most ruthless way the affairs of a very confused family of Belgians” Foreshadowing is teh good.

and the end of Arabella the whole elopement scene, but especially the part where Arabella realizes it might be just a leetle bit awkward to ask Beaumaris for a phaeton-load of money the moment after they say “I do.”  Hee, hee, hee.

Now I have to go re-read some Heyer…

I’ve only read two Heyers so far: The Masqueraders, which I loved, and These Old Shades, which I hated. I definitely need to read more—at the very least to quell my inner termoil!

I often like Nancy Pearl’s recommendations.

I only recently discovered Heyer.  An Infamous Army‘s a good un, but so far my fave couples are in Cotillion (Kitty, Freddy) and The Talisman Ring (the sarcastic older couple, Sarah and Tristram).

My favorite scene is when Deb locks whatshisname in the basement in Faro’s Daughter. Although I do like it when whatshername shoots whathisname in Devil’s Cub. (No, I am on vacation nowhere near my Heyers; can you tell?)

“Leonie - you are not the first woman I have loved!”
“Oh, Monsignor - I would so much rather be the last than be the first!”

- has probably ruined me for the lacklustre dreariness of real-life romance for all time. OH DUC D’AVON, WHERE ARE YOU WHEN i NEED YOU.

But, even so, These Old Shades isn’t my favourite Heyer. That honour goes to The Talisman Ring.

“... he is thirty-one years old, and he does not frequent gaming-hells or cockpits, and when I asked him if he would ride ventre a terre to come to my wedding, he said ‘Certainly not’!”

“This is more shocking than all the rest!” declared Miss Thane. “He must be a perfect Monster!”

- Miss Thane, at this point, has been awoken in the dead of night, in a strange hotel in the middle of nowhere, to find a runaway young lady and a wounded smuggler in the front room, and has cheerfully risen to the occasion, all while still in her dressing gown. But even Miss Thane is outclassed by her brother Hugh, who is a Justice of the Peace, and holds very strong views on the smuggling of liquor. So long as the Excisemen never find out what these views are - Hugh later spends quite some time playing dice with the smuggler in the cellar - all will be well.

Did I mention that the smuggler is young, devastatingly handsome, reckless to the point of criminal stupidity, the heir to a local country estate, and has had to flee England to escape a Crime he Did Not Commit?

And can I add that they are all outclassed by My Cousin Tristan, who may not rideventre a terre, but still somehow manages to wrangle the rest of the cast into some semblance of sanity, solve the mystery and save the day?

But even Tristan is not my favourite. My favourite is Jem, the (as it turns out) villain’s groom, who wades into a punch-up midway through the book, cheerfully on Our Hero’s side.

[Tristan] “... gave him a whistle? With the whole household looking for you, you whistled?

“Yes, why not? I knew he’d recognise it. Lord, we used to go birds’-nesting together.”

“Did young Kettering chance to remember that he is in [the villain’s] service?”

“Yes, but this was for me, my dear fellow.”

I know it is hard to choose a favourite, when there is also The Grand Sophy, and Cotillion, and False Colours, and Friday’s Child - and A Civil Contract, so different from her other romances, and Envious Casca, my favourite of the detectives - but it’s entirely possible that The Talisman Ring is the best book ever written in the entire history of the whole wide world. And then some.

My mom’s favorite is The Grand Sophy, too, but I don’t see it.  My faves are the These Old Shades/Regency Buck/Devil’s Cub/An Infamous Army group, Venetia, and Arabella.  My sisters and I have been reading Heyer since the 70’s, so as you can imagine, our copies have been read to flinders!

Hmm, favorite scenes.

1.  The first three paragraphs of Chapter 5 in Venetia, in which our heroine is just waking up.  She’s just recently met Damerel, and as she awakens she realizes that she’ll be seeing him soon, and those paragraphs are some of the best anticipatory descriptive writing I’ve ever read.  Go check them out.

2.  In Sylvester, after naughty Edmund has cut off Fotherby’s boot tassels, Sir Nugent approaches him with intent to spank, and Sylvester hisses through his teeth, “You dare!”  Naturally, Fotherby does not dare.

3.  The excellent scene in The Grand Sophy when the unspeakable Eugenia Wraxton snatched up a private letter and “made herself mistress of its contents.”  Best description of snooping ever.

4.  And towards the end of Devils Cub, when Mary Challoner has run away from Vidal and meets up with the Duke of Avon in the little inn, and she doesn’t know who he is and tells him her story, and he knows who she is and draws her out adroitly.  Then, when Vidal shows up, mad as hell, and is about to run him through…

A moment later the door was flung open, and the Marquis strode in, his fingers hard clenched on his riding-whip.  He cast one swift smouldering glance across the room, and stopped dead, a look of thunderstruck amazement on his face.  “Sir!” he gasped.

Or not…Then comes an excellent example of parental discipline.  The Duke tells him, “...You will permit me to tell you that I find your manners execrable.”  (Had to look that one up in high school.)  The Marquis flushes at this statement, but when I tell my daughter this, she merely laughs!  Guess I don’t have the Duke’s presence.

I once gave a graduate student friend of mine a copy of Arabella to read.  She returned it, saying that it was TOO DIFFICULT, and gave to me in exchange a copy of one of the Miss Read books!  Needless to say, I remembered to speak to her in single-syllable words after that.  *Sigh*  As much as I would love to have the copies of Heyer, perhaps you should give them to those unfortunates who have not yet read the Incomparable Georgette.  They have a treat in store, and I envy them their first-time readings.

Hee hee, spamfilter sez children22!  No, no, just 2…

Oh, I loved The Spanish Bride!  And I just found out today (because work is boring and Heyer isn’t) that Juana and Harry Smith were Actual Historical Personages!  I never knew!

And Juana was Lady Smith, after whom various towns were named (in Africa and Canada).  I was wondering if there was a connection to Ladysmith Black Mombazo (?sp) but I’m too full of celebration cake to check.  Yeah, we’re busy at work today.

I love all the Heyer’s so it’s hard to pick!
These Old Shades
Devil’s Cub
An Infamous Army

are amazing individually-collectively-I so wanted to be part of that family!
The scene in An Infamous Army when Bab’s breaks her engagement with Charles sticks in my mind.

another favorite because of its painful look at an arranged marriage is A Civil Contract’ with plain dumpy Jenny, gorgeous Adam and the beautiful dramatic Julia.

I first heard about Heyer on this site, and I bought hardbacks that were printed in the 1960s as part of The Book Club (England).  I love the old covers, and I probably liked Black Sheep the best.

But I’ve gone through my few books and given them to friends who might appreciate them, so I’d love to win the new editions.  I’m particularly jonesing for Cotillion—I already bought a copy as a gift to a teenager pal.

These Old Shades was the first Heyer I ever read. I was 14 and I borrowed if from a friend. The book was out of print and it took me almost 10 years to find a copy of my own.

I finally ended up paying the outrageous sum of $30 for a battered paperback that I have treasured and read to pieces. I was recently able to retire the taped, and glued, and rubber banded together treasure when These Old Shades was reprinted.

I also adore The Grand Sophy, The Masqueraders, and The Talisman Ring. (And I sometimes wonder if the fact that my mother-in-law’s name is Venetia may have advanced my now husband’s suit.)

Do you know how I solve the too many syllables problem? I go to a dictionary. Some of the words I know I know but I can’t remember so I look them up, others have me scratching my head but Heyer is certainly improving my vocabulary more than grad school ever did.

Also, feel free to gift me with some books because my library doesn’t have her entire backlist (although it does have quite a few) and I’d go broke buying them all. My plan for the summer is to read as many as possible. I have a lot of catching up to do as my mother somehow failed to introduce me to Heyer despite the fact that she’s read her although she is the reason I read The Convenient Marriage because when she saw me with Cotillion she told me she loved Heyer and remembered The Convenient Marriage and I figure if my mother can remember something she read decades ago then it can’t be all bad.

It’s so funny to see the likes and dislikes. I adore These Old Shades, but find A Civil Contract rather depressing (and I can’t stand Beauvallet; I just loathe the heroine).

Oh, and I guess you an add The Black Moth to the line-up of loosely related books since the villain of that one is transformed into Avon and redeemed as the hero of These Old Shades (this may be the only May/Dec romance I’ve ever liked). I still can’t believe Heyer wrote The Black Moth when she was fifteen or sixteen. That’s pure freakn hump-a-hump-a burning talent.

I’ve never read the Heyers, though I did see these new covers in the Barnes Noble today. Shall I be slapped into Stupidom for not ever having cracked the pages of what seems, from the generously dole out excerpts above, like crack? I have heard she’s a classic, but I must ask, what is the appeal of them? Srsly, I just do not know as I’ve never read her.

enough74: As in, no, do not buy/borrow a Heyers, you have at least 74 in your TBR pile as it is, ya fool. Enough!

*sticks up hand* could I have a copy of Friday’s Child for all of Freddy Standen’s neckties?  Or his general smushable adorableness and integrity and slightly below average IQ?  That is, if Sourcebook is posting to the UK…

I have also never read any Heyer, but she’s been on my list foreeever and I would love to win a copy.

How fabulous that there are so many Heyer fans! I have read and re-read all the ones I can get my hands on numerous times, but I have to say my favorites are the following:

The Grand Sophy

Bath Tangle - especially the confrontation between Ivo and Mrs. Floore; priceless!

Lady of Quality

The Nonesuch

Please pick me!!! I’m completely in luurve with the new Sourcebooks editions!

Darn it, now I have to reread The Talisman Ring. I didn’t even remember that I’d read it.

(I really should begin again with the keeping of a list of everything I’ve read. Author, title, amount of pages and date of reading, minimum, but also definitely some kind of ranking/grading. It would help with book recommendations. After two decades of binge reading, I’m noticing that I am no longer clear about the details of books. I used to be able to state when and where I read something, whether it was a library book, borrowed, bought second hand or new or it it was a gift. I could picture the cover in my mind. Now, shockingly, in a few instances I’ve been half way through a book or nearly at the end when I’ve realized that I know what’s going to happen next! Quelle shock! *The horror of wondering wether Alzheimer’s is around the corner.*)

SBSarah - how about doing a piece on how you keep ‘score’ of your reads? And how other people do it…

lost98- No, I haven’t lost my mind yet. Just pieces of it since ‘98.

E-GAD! In my work-avoidance this afternoon, I have come across (via http://www.georgette-heyer.com) The Black Moth, full text, available on-line:

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/heyer/moth/moth.html

This would be the first one she wrote, at age 16, which was sort of the pre-cursor of These Old Shades.

So, for those of us who don’t win a copy, and can’t wait if we did, and whose local libraries have long since purged their copious Heyer collections (oh, I could weep!), or just don’t know what the fuss is about, enjoy!

(If the link doesn’t work, get there via georgette-heyer.com, click on Romances, Historicals under Novels, and then click on (Full Text) after Black Moth in the listing.)

I haven’t read any Heyer yet, but love historical fiction, and will almost always try something recommended by Nancy Pearl (how can you say no to an action figure?).

Arabella sounds familiar also. Maybe.

I think part of the problem is that I’ve read some of my Heyer translated, which is why I can’t recognize or remember titles. *Praying that this is the reason for those ominous holes in my memory*

I love the scene in The Black Moth in the garden, where Jack says he has to go away because if a ruined man proposed it would be the act of a blackguard, and Diana says “Have you asked the lady?”

LOVE.

And love the way Worth calls Judith “Clorinda” when she won’t tell him her name!

Yes - he totally had her number. The bit when her bosom is heaving with indignation (he’s said something to set her off, possibly something about her heaving bosom) and she says, “oh, if only I were a man -!” and he says, ‘that’s the stupidest thing you’ve said yet,” and I know I should be annoyed, but I just loved it.

Oh, and A Convenient Marriage - heroine with a stutter who isn’t magically cured. I really liked this one too, probably because the heroine (though she didn’t know it) had her cool, handsome husband totally wrapped around her finger.

HQN is also re-releasing some Heyers.  These Old Shades is out now, Devil’s Cub is coming out in August.

Wow, I’m starting to sound a little obsessed.  Maybe I should shut down and concentrate on work…  Nah.

Cotillion

I first read Heyer at our public library.  It was a revelation and led me to seek out all the others.  One of my favorites is “A Convenient Marriage.”  I love how Heyrer depicts the hero’s reluctance to love his new wealthy bride, (“a vulgar Cit”) and his gradual realization that this marriage promises a lifetime of quiet happiness as opposed to the flash and shallowness of his previous love.  I covet the new editions of her works and would love to hve them replace my tattered paperbacks.

Um, Suze, I love you for that link.

I have heard she’s a classic, but I must ask, what is the appeal of them? Srsly, I just do not know as I’ve never read her.

The appeal is multifaceted:

She’s a master story teller (she also wrote great mysteries).

Her dialogue is beyond witty. It’s THE best dialogue you’re ever going to find. Period. Waterboarding couldn’t change my opinion.

Her characters are originals, distinct, and highly entertaining (if they feel too familiar to you, it’s cause 99% of the Regency romance writers on the planet have riffed on them at one point or another; she basically invented the genre). And her secondary characters are an art unto themselves.

The only people I know who don’t find Heyer crack-tastic also find Austen too slow and too dense to get through. The openings of the books can be a little on the slow side for modern readers who are used to the “open with a bang” school of modern genre fiction. But if you give yourself enough time to get a couple of chapters in, you’ll be hooked. Just look at the ‘splosion of mad Heyer-love here.

Her characters are originals, distinct, and highly entertaining (if they feel too familiar to you, it’s cause 99% of the Regency romance writers on the planet have riffed on them at one point or another; she basically invented the genre).

Indeed, indeed. In fact, the reason I don’t really like Regencies is because I’ve pretty much read the Heyer backlist and there aren’t many writers in the same league (Loretta Chase comes close with her dialogue and characters etc).

The openings of the books can be a little on the slow side for modern readers who are used to the “open with a bang” school of modern genre fiction.

I’m so glad I found Heyer before I was a fully conditioned romance reader - sometimes I wonder if I would be willing to pick up a book now if I knew it wouldn’t have all the things I expect in a romance (... the bangs, so to speak…)

Indeed, indeed. In fact, the reason I don’t really like Regencies is because I’ve pretty much read the Heyer backlist and there aren’t many writers in the same league (Loretta Chase comes close with her dialogue and characters etc).

My “list” is pretty much Julia Ross, Candice Hern and Pam Rosenthal. I’ll throw in Tracy Grant too, though she writes Regency-set romantic suspense, not “romance”.

My Visa card thanks you…I just ordered a bunch of Heyer books via Amazon. Love me some witty dialogue and great writing. I see a lot of backordering in the future. LOL

i’ve only read “cotillion” and “the masqueraders,” but i love the scene in the beginning when the UBERSTAID cousin’s all “i know you don’t wish to become extravagant” and the heroine breaks in with a wishful “oh, how i’d LOVE to be extravagant.” and of course freddie’s sarcastic parents who are well aware of how…well, *freddie* he is, and are stunned when he proves to be sufficiently competent to handle the situation he finds himself in. and of course all this goes over freddie’s head.

I remember loving Heyer, and read a lot of her, back in the 80s, when I was nursing my grandparents through their last illnesses - but I haven’t read her in years, I think.  It would be a lot of fun to pick up one again, I bet.

My favorite?  Maybe The Grand Sophy, though I also loved The Corinthian and False Colors, if I remember correctly.

The points Kalen has made above are absolutely spot-on.  Heyer is hilariously funny, really laugh-out-loud funny, specialising in witty dialogue and in amazing, sometimes almost farcical denouement scenes (she sometimes reminds me a little, in her set-piece final scenes, of P.G. Wodehouse at his very best).  She also had an amazing facility for summarising a character in a few sentences, a kind of verbal thumbnail sketch, in which every word counts.  Her characters are memorable and utterly likeable and convincing, her heroines are determined and confident, her heroes swooningly arrogant alpha males with appealingly soft centres.

She single-handedly created the ‘Regency romance’ genre, and although she did make some mistakes (who doesn’t?), she took historical research very seriously indeed and worked hard at it.  As Kalen has said, if anything seems familiar when you read a Heyer, it’s always because she did it first, and usually, best, and more recent writers have often based plots, characters and style on hers.

Those unfamiliar with Heyer should remember when she was writing - between the mid-1920s (These Old Shades was her first big seller in 1926, if I recall rightly) and the 1960s.  So we have the Georgian, and later, the Regency, period, seen through the perceptions of a writer who was born in the Edwardian era and lived through to the social and sexual revolutions of the post-War period.  There is no overt sex in her books (that was illegal prior to 1960 in the UK, and I don’t think the USA was that different), but oh, there was sexual tension in bucketloads!  It is not at all difficult to imagine Venetia and Damerel burning up the sheets once they had sorted out all the obstacles.

Favourite scenes - far, far too many to list.  Favourite titles:  well, Venetia, The Grand Sophy, Frederica, Black Sheep, The Nonesuch, Lady of Quality, Cotillion, Regency Buck, Faro’s Daughter, The Uncommon Ajax, These Old Shades, Devil’s Cub, Bath Tangle ...  oh, they are all so good!

Don’t enter me for the contest:  I am already on my third paperbacks of many Heyer titles, because they wear out and fall apart, but I have them all.  Also as Kalen said, her short list of classic 1930s murder mysteries (I think about 11 in all) are good, too.

I, like Lori have never read a Heyer.

But would be more than happy to start with a freebie!

I’m so glad I found Heyer before I was a fully conditioned romance reader - sometimes I wonder if I would be willing to pick up a book now if I knew it wouldn’t have all the things I expect in a romance

That’s the feeling I was talking about a couple months ago, discovering Heyer after having read many imitators.  But it didn’t detract from my enjoyment.  Some of the Heyers I’ve read have felt very fresh, especially knowing that she came first.  If you and others hadn’t steered me toward her, I’d never have tried her.

The scene in Arabella in which Arabella tearfully confesses to have been pretending to be rich, and Mr. Beaumaris cheerfully tells her he knew all along. Best resolution to a Big Mis ever!

I love Heyer too and have read all of her Regencies. (BTW, I highly recommend that Heyer fans pick up a copy of The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge, which is not only a biography but also includes some information about how particular books came to be written.) The only Heyers I have had some trouble with are the ones with a lot of cant in them, for example, The Toll Gate.

Picking one favorite is too hard - I think A Civil Contract is probably best in terms of deep characterization but I’m also very fond of Venetia, Sprig Muslin, and The Nonesuch. However, for pure scene picking, it’s hard to beat The Grand Sophy. I seriously, seriously wish that someone would make a film out of it: I think it would adapt really easily.

So many scenes to choose from: the mad drive in Sophy’s phaeton when Miss Wraxton has intimated that her credit would be enough to carry off what might be seen as imprudent in others; the scene with the kids and the monkey; Sophy’s driving the horse that Charles has forbidden her to ride; her breaking up of a touching tearful scene by explaining to Charles that she can cry on cue; but my all-time favorite is the lunatic scene towards the end, where people keep arriving at a run-down house in the rain, Sophy’s indolent Spanish stepmother is wandering in and out preparing dinner and muttering about Lope de Vega, Cecilia’s ducklings have escaped, the poet is wandering around with a candle so he can go off and write an inspired poem, and Sophy actually shoots Lord Charlbury to make Cecilia more sympathetic towards him!

Believe it or not, I have read hundreds of romance novels but never a Heyer.  I need to correct that, so I need to win one of these books!  ;)

I’ve never read a Heyer book before, but I keep on hearing about how great they are here.  I would love to start reading her now ;)

As a poor college student anything free is good!

I seriously, seriously wish that someone would make a film out of it: I think it would adapt really easily.

Arabella was made into a movie, but wasn’t true to the story (or even the spirit of the story), and Heyer hated it.  I remember reading somewhere that she was adamantly against any of her stories ever being made into a movie again.  Maybe she put something in her will…

Don’t want to be entered into the draw: I’ve all the books, some of them twice.
Cotillion - definitely, just for the hero.
April Lady - I know it’s a really slight book, but I always like it - the scene at the end, where Cardross is furious at Nell:
“Tell me, my sweet life, at what figure do you set your beauty, your dutiful submission, your admirable discretion, and your unfailing politeness?”
- and then she leaves, and he calls after her that he didn’t mean it… *sigh*
Or Friday’s child, for the inanity - our hero, Sherry, learns his friend’s theory about the deus ex machina that’s driving the plot:
‘“What the devil is all this about a dashed Greek?” demanded Sherry. “George was trying to tell me about him, but I’m hanged if I could make head or tail of it! All I know is, I’m not acquainted with any Greeks, and what’s more, I don’t want to be!”
“It ain’t a thing you’re acquainted with, dear old boy. Duke knows what it is. Comes up behind a fellow when he ain’t expecting it. Thought it was after me, but it turns out to be Monty. Good thing,”
“Yes, but what is it?”
Mr Tartelon said, with a quiver of amusement in his voice: “I fancy he means Nemesis.”
“That’s it!” Ferdy said, looking at him with respect. “Nemesis! You know him too?”
“Well, it’s more than I do!” declared Sherry. “What’s more, whoever he is, he had nothing to do with my coming to Bath!”

I could do this for hours.

How to pick, how to pick. Favorite male character: Hugo from The Unknown Ajax. He’s big and he’s funny. Come to think of it, I may have married him.  Favorite female character” Prudence from The Masquaraders. She’s also big, utterly brave and absolutely imperturbable. I’ve only managed the first part.

The first favorite scene that comes to mind is Friday’s Child, Hero running away from her husband and telling her friend that she brought the mantelpiece clock because she couldn’t leave it behind. He is utterly bewildered but politely responds that of course she had to bring it, it’s a very handsome timepiece.

OK, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never read a Georgette Heyer book *hangs head in shame* Obviouly, this needs to be rectified. Would I cause a ruckus if I asked which book I should start with?

orannia

Marianne - oh, yes! I remember that. I borrowed Friday’s Child from the library and kept it for a year (very bad).

I loved Sherry and Hero, such a cute, hapless couple - again, sort of anti-heroes compared to the secondary romance (can’t remember the names!), who were all dramatic and beautiful and passionate like a ‘typical’ romantic couple.

As rfp says in her post:

That’s what strikes me about the Heyers I’ve read so far: the appeal of moderation. Ordinary people can be interesting, particularly through the eyes of those who love them. Freddy in Cotillion comes to mind–I gradually fell for his trustworthy niceness just as Kitty did.

RfP, how many Heyer’s have you got through?! Do you really think Cotillion is one of the best?

(I love this post)

Arabella was made into a movie, but wasn’t true to the story (or even the spirit of the story), and Heyer hated it.  I remember reading somewhere that she was adamantly against any of her stories ever being made into a movie again.  Maybe she put something in her will…

According to IMDB, the Reluctant Widow was also made into a movie:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382207/
I just checked the description, and the character names have been changed, which is never a good sign.  Apparently the heroine is now French.

I never win anything, but this has yet to stop me from trying.
I have also, sadly, not read any Heyer yet. This contest could (possibly) kill two birds with one book.

I devoured Heyer when I should have been studying for very important exams that would change the direction of my life forever in England. I also read a ton of Hemingway at the same time, and haven’t re-read either, altho I remember my favorite is The Rake Also Rises.

But the very first one I read was Regency Buck which I remember had a scene where Prinny groped the heroine and Beau Brummel had a guest appearance (tho not simultaneously. I really can’t remember the others much but I loved them.

There’s also one very pervy one where a brother and a sister dress up in drag and quite seriously court a man and a woman (who are not in drag), yet somehow everything gets resolved. Anyone know which one that is?

I have never read Heyer…I feel the sad lack of Heyer in my life…in fact, I think giving me a free copy of a Georgette Heyer book as a public service, whattya say?  Help a bitch out?

I’ve only read The Nonesuch and loved it.  Ever since then, I’ve been followed by a “must read more Heyer!” feeling.  Especially those new covers.  They’re so beautiful I want to make a bouquet of them and stick them in a vase by my bed.

Marianne: Thanks for that snippet from Friday’s Child and providing me with a giggle for today. That definitely should be in the running for Best Dialogue!

@Janet Mullany: Thanks for mentioning Beau Brummel!  I almost forgot that little scene where Judith (?) is talking to this quiet, dapper guy about what a loud ass Brummel is.  And, of course, the quiet guy *is* Brummel.  Fortunately he doesn’t hold it against her.  Not as good as the “guess who I secretly am” scene from Devil’s Cub, but still pretty good.

And I like A Civil Contract, even though I’m still not convinced of the awfulness of Julia.  She was immature and selfish, but I still secretly think she had True Love for the hero.  That speech she gave about “I could withstand any sacrifice, as long as the two of us were together”... I believe her.

(Also: winning a book would be okay by me.)

Janet, that’s The Masqueraders, one of her early ones.  With Prudence and her “mountain” and Jack (I think?!), who makes a better woman than his sister.  I love it when Prudence’s love interest forces her to try to drink him under the table, and then forces her to admit to the masquerade.  Hmm.

I’ve never read Heyer, but based on all the comments she’s going on my (lengthy) to-read list.

*sticks up hand* could I have a copy of Friday’s Child for all of Freddy Standen’s neckties?  Or his general smushable adorableness and integrity and slightly below average IQ?  That is, if Sourcebook is posting to the UK…

... is it Serena: you mixed up two of my FAVES! Freddy and Sherry :) OK, Friday’s Child fave: “Do not I beg of you my lord say more” ... dear Isabella Milbourne :) and Freddy ... LOVE him, love his kindness, how sensible he is and how really he and Kitty are PERFECT for each other, neither one of them over the top dramatic but just perfect. And Vidal, well, swoon :) I have EVERY single Heyer: old and new. My first was Regency Buck: I was sick, my mum took all my books out of my room and just left Clorinda and her beau :) And April Lady, oh, the line when he says, “Our dear ***** is returned to us” ... or the staggering footman with the dressing case imbedded with diamonds ... or or or so many many scenes: like in Frederica where he can never propose and eventually his secretary (so daringly in love with Adonis’s sister) ... OK enough! Great contest :)

I’ve never read her because I’ve never been able to find any of her books at the UBS, but she’s on my list!

My favorites are Devil’s Cub, Friday’s Child, Cotillion, and The Grand Sophy, but favorite scene is the duel between George(?) and Sherry n Friday’s Child.  Duels are supposed to be tense, but this one was lighted hearted and farcical.

I’ve never read any of her either, but I would love the opportunity!

Quite a few favourite moments:

Mary shooting Vidal in Devil’s Cub, and Mary talking to the mysterious gentleman at the inn at the end of the same book (this bit had me laughing out loud in hysterical laughter).

Miles abducting Abigail for her own good at the end of Black Sheep..

Alverstoke’s inability to propose to Frederica because they keep getting interrupted.

Having finally discovered Georgette Heyer through a friend, I need to track down more of her book, because all the ones I’ve read so far are delightful.

I’ve never read Heyer, either, and I’d love to have the opportunity to love a new (to me) author.  *crosses fingers*

Beauvalet, probably because both my cousin and I read it at the same time, over 40 years ago. I thought I’d read all of Heyer’s
but An Infamous Army is new to me! And since I haven’t read any of the others in 40+ years- pick me, pick me!

Daphne B said:

And I like A Civil Contract, even though I’m still not convinced of the awfulness of Julia.  She was immature and selfish, but I still secretly think she had True Love for the hero.  That speech she gave about “I could withstand any sacrifice, as long as the two of us were together”… I believe her.

I think she had True Infatuation for the hero - I think Heyer makes it clear that Julia never really knew Adam but was just in love with the surface qualities she saw in him: a good-looking war hero whom her family approved of. And I think the scene near the end puts her beyond just being immature: she’s pitching a hissy fit because people didn’t pay enough attention to her at dinner due to their preoccupation with something as petty as some silly old war, and she’s convinced that the only reason Adam would have stayed in the city is because of her, even though she’s now supposedly happily married to someone else.

RfP, how many Heyer’s have you got through?! Do you really think Cotillion is one of the best?

Meriam, apart from the 6 I discussed in that post, I think I’ve read 2 more—Black Moth and… another of that vintage.  Sprig Muslin, maybe.  They didn’t engage me like the others.  Oh, and Pistols for Two.

Cotillion is very assured, and frothy without becoming hackneyed.  As you highlighted above, I really like the way two very ordinary people come to find each other fascinating and wonderful.  I haven’t found another of Heyer’s “fun” Regencies that I like as well (in Talisman Ring I adore Sarah & Tristram, but the younger couple are aggravating), but I haven’t read some of the favorites you and others recommended.  The “serious” romances are so different that it’s hard to compare them.

Nancy Pearl is great.  She also had Robin McKinley’s book “Sunshine” on her plane list.

I haven’t gotten a chance to read her works yet, but they sound like fun!

The Devil’s Cub was the first Heyer I ever read, the first real romance I ever read and I believe I was all of 12 years old - almost 40 years ago.  I still have that copy and it’s much, much, MUCH loved.  I fell in love with Dominic and fell in love with Georgette Heyer.  This book is indeed a classic and a definite must-read.

I’m ashamed to say that I have never read Georgette Heyer, but she sounds fabulous.  I’d love to have the chance to read one of her books.  Thanks so much for this chance to win one!

I’m mostly a lurker here, but I stop by often.  You all are often the highlight of my day!  Thanks!

I really haven’t anything to add, except that Heyer was my first romance novel (I think it was Sprigged Muslin) back when I was a callow 16yo and had only contempt for romances… and then was promptly converted. Alas! All my copies have disappeared or fallen apart (I have a much-read copy of Sylvester held together by a rubber band). I would love to get a copy of any of them, were my name chosen for this contest… but I know what I’m going to ask for when Christmas comes!

(now… will Patricia Veryan ever be republished? almost as good as Heyer, I think, for plot, characterization and witty dialog)

which? easy - any and every! up georgette! yay reissues! double yay perfect cupcakes with flawless icing!

My favorite Georgette Heyer is The Masqueraders. Having a Junoesque Heroine, Prudence, and her petite brother, Robin, who each pretend to be of the opposite gender makes for some very funny scenes.

Robin is a scamp and Prue very sensible. They’ve traveled around the world assuming different identities and running cons with their grandfather as long as they can remember.

They both find love and and new places in the world as they learn their grandfather’s secret.

But that’s just my favorite. I love Heyer’s entire body of work and mourn deeply those that I no longer have. If you haven’t read Heyer, you are missing a LOT!!!

frederica… when she’s tending the hero’s little sister who is at death’s door…and he suddenly realizes he loves her…

though it’s most memorable for me because i read it the first time while sitting in the pediatric emergency room because my three year old was having mysterious dizzy spells. i had absolutely no trouble summoning up empathy for the characters…

(son fine now, btw)

How strange is this? Just a couple of days ago, I posted an essay on the MyLoveStory.com blog talking at length about Georgette Heyer. And then, having reread the last chapter of The Black Moth and the first chapter of These Old Shades as research for the essay, I was totally sucked in and reread the entire These Old Shades. Staying up to 1:30 in the morning to do it. And loving it, simply loving her way with distinct and hilarious characters and comedy of manners that she somehow was able to drop into the middle of a big fat melodrama complete with a sinister Comte.

Long live Georgette Heyer! She wrote the book over 80 years ago and there isn’t a word that reads wrong or dated today.

frederica… when she’s tending the hero’s little sister who is at
death’s door…and he suddenly realizes he loves her…

Isn’t that Sophy and not Frederica?

I dont have a favorite Heyer yet.. but I might if I win one. I have read Venetia and another which I cant remember.

Frederica is tending her own gravely ill brother.  Sophy is caring for the hero’s little sister.  Lordy, I love these books.

AG Tigress—11 contemp mysteries?!?  Say it isn’t so!  I thought I owned every book she ever wrote (well except The Great Roxhythe and My Lord John—but you gotta draw the line somewhere.)  I only have 10.

My favorite scene is from Death in the Stocks where the hero (Giles) and heroine are discussing the murder:  (Kenneth is the heroine’s brother and Arnold her half-brother.)

    “Kenneth seems to be taking this pretty badly,” Giles said.  “Yet I shouldn’t have said that he cared much about money.”

    “He doesn’t, but of course he is rather hard-up at the moment and after thinking you’re next door to being a millionaire, it must be fairly sickening to find you’re just as poor as you always were.  I’d better go, I suppose.  Do you know, Giles, I’m almost beginning to wish Arnold hadn’t been murdered?”

Don’t enter me in the contest, save it for somebody new to discover La Belle Georgette.

I’ve led a sheltered life—and have never read a Heyer, even tho I have plenty of friends who adore the woman.  In fact, I have an ‘adopted niece’ (daughter of good friend) who is named Sophie, because my friend loved the book The Grand Sophy.

Diane

I hate to admit that I, even though a lover of Regencies, have never read a Heyer.  I know I’m missing out.  Please, please correct this unfortunate situation. ;)

I have only read one Heyer book which I absolutely loathed.  I think I should win so that you can send me a book that I may like and tell other people about Heyer.  I keep hearing about her and I’m wondering how I had such a bad experience.

I’d love to win some Heyer books!  I, even though a lover of Regencies, have never read a Heyer.

I would love to win some books.  I have not read any books by Georgette Heyer.

I fell in love with Georgette Heyer when I was dealing with my late mother-in-law’s effects.  The family pretty much assigned her enormous library of paperbacks (neatly stored in converted Kleenex boxes—very practical way to save space) to me.  I had to go through them all, make a list of what she had left so people could take their faves, and pull out anything that was too decrepit to keep.  At the time, I thought Regency romances were the silliest thing on Earth.  But then I sat down on the sunny front steps and opened—what was it?—Venetia.

At suppertime, I was still there, giggling.

I’ve read her collection pretty much to death and I would adore the chance to win another copy of one of my old favorites.  Best bits, top of my head:

*The scene at the end of The Nonesuch in which the odious Tiffany is finally treated as befits her age.
*The bit in the middle of the same book where the heroine realizes that she is being gossiped about.  My heart hurt in sympathy.
*The bloviating suitor in either Frederica or The Grand Sophy—I think it was The Grand Sophy—who is egged on by the children of the house because they think it’s hilarious that the family has to put up with him as long as he doesn’t say anything rude.  And he doesn’t, he just never shuts up!
*The scene in The Unknown Ajax where the family contrives to hide a wounded criminal from The Law while The Law is standing just across the room.
*Venetia’s shocking discovery about her past—and what she does about it—and the way the people around her react.  (Although I did feel a sneaking sympathy for the butter-toothed heiress and hoped that she would find somebody to love her someday.)
*Venetia’s brother’s horrible mother-in-law.  Sometimes Heyer sees into people with a gimlet eye.

Must stop or will be up until dawn rereading Heyer . . .

This thread is making me want to start rereading far too many books! I can’t pick a favorite Heyer because I love too many of them, but my top five would probably be: The Reluctant Widow, False Colours, The Nonsuch, Sylvester and A Civil Contract.  Freddy from Cotillion is my favorite character, followed by the irrepressible Nicky from The Reluctant Widow.

A favorite scene:

Nicky, the younger brother of the hero, has left his dog to guard the heroine in case of danger while he is gone. Unfortunately the dog takes “guard” very literally and our heroine Eleanor is forced to spend the day trapped in a room with only an old horse-racing guide for amusement:

“Good dog!, she said in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. “Lie down, sir!”.
Bouncer barked at her.
“You stupid creature, he did not mean you to keep me chained to my chair! scolded Eleanor. “Lie down this instant!”
Bouncer stood his ground and went on growling in a sort of crescendo which could not be regarded as other than menacing. Elinor sat down again. Pleased with his success, Bouncer followed suit, lolled his tongue out, and panted gently.

I also love Sylvester’s reaction to Phoebe’s romance novel version of him: “Very clever, Miss Marlow, but could you find no better name for me than Ugolino?”

My very favourite scene is from Cotillon where Kitty and Meg discuss how Freddy would react to the idea of someone (romantically) abducting a lady at her wedding.
And of course the end of Friday’s Child where Sherry tries to shush Kitten when she discovers (in front of all people) that she would like Sherry to knock her up.
The pragmatics of it cracks me up every time.

I just finished reading The Black Moth (provided by Suze’s link) and I found myself quite unsatisfied with it.  Can anyone tell me if this is a typical Heyer work or if most of the other ones are more well developed. 

It wasn’t a bad book, but it was very hard for me to get engaged by.  Everyone spoke of marvelous, witty dialogue in all her stories, but I just didn’t see it in this one.  Most of the secondary characters bothered me and I wish they were less well developed so I wouldn’t have spent half the novel wishing I could stab them in the eye with a pen.

So, is this her usual style then?

Add another reader who hasn’t been in the Queendom of Heyer as yet.  I did, however, purchase These Old Shades at B&N;the other day (it was one among many on my TBB).  I also picked up one more at a thrift shop, Venetia, which is in my TBR mountain.  What can I say…I became a book junkie much later in life than most and have been trying to catch up in the last several years.  I don’t have copies of any of the books we’re being tempted with so here’s hoping:)  Nancy

“Tried59”...uh, no?!

The only Georgette Heyer I’ve read is The Unfinished Clue. My favourite character in that was Dinah.

I just finished reading The Black Moth (provided by Suze’s link) and I found myself quite unsatisfied with it.  Can anyone tell me if this is a typical Heyer work or if most of the other ones are more well developed.

Catherine, that’s one that I didn’t really enjoy.  However, she’s surprisingly varied.  I asked for recommendations a few months ago and got a list ranging from silly to serious and from high-society to grimy war story.  Here are my reactions after reading six Heyers (Black Sheep, Corinthian, Civil Contract, Infamous Army, Talisman Ring, Cotillion).

Catherine, The Black Moth was her first book, and I think she just got better. I’d also avoid My Lord John, Simon the Coldheart, Powder and Patch,  Royal Escape, The Conqueror and Beauvallet.
(There’s also one of her mysteries that she had supressed during her lifetime, which has been reprinted. I’m blanking on the name, but while I was glad to have the opportunity to read it, I think she was right to let it go.)
And Spanish Bride is very different from the rest, because it’s a fictionalised account of a real relationship. 

I wouldn’t write her off because of Black Moth - I’d try one of the later books - more humour, and less melodrama.

My dear mama introduced me to Georgette Heyer when I was a teenager, and I’ve read and reread them since, always with enjoyment, delighting in the wit and skill of the writing, the historical details, the characters she draws.  I recently introduced a friend to them, and she was hooked!  All those who haven’t read ‘em - you have such a treat in store.

There are so many wonderful individual characterisations - from subtle ones like Jenny in A Civil Contract to wonderfully drawn nincompoops.  Understated, charming, amusing dialogue (Mr Beaumaris and the dog Ulysses in Arabella).  Women reminiscent of Miss Bates from Persuasion - needy sisters, whining mothers, obnoxious companions.

There may be no rumpy-pumpy, but the attraction between characters is so clearly drawn through word and gesture - subtle, clever writing.  A bat squeak that can be far more effective than the obvious.

Regarding the film: Georgette Heyer hated it - she refused to see it, based on what she knew during filming, and her seventeen year old son left half way through a screening, “speechless with rage”.

Another snippet: she didn’t have much time for fan mail, but one letter she treasured was from a Romanian political prisoner who had read Friday’s Child (in English) just before being imprisoned for twelve years.  Having a retentive memory, the prison retold the story (translating and aiming to keep the writing’s wit) many times to her fellow inmates.  She didn’t see a written page in the twelve years, but, she says, “My memory, however, could not be sealed up and thanks to it and to you, my fellow-sufferers begged, again and again, to hear ‘What Kitten did next’”.The original letter is reproduced in The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge.

There’s a lovely bit in the Aiken Hodge book, quoting Heyer writing to her publisher about Lady of Quality:

“I’ve left [Carleton - the hero] making himself thoroughly obnoxious to Lord Beckenham, in the Pump Room, and must go back to him, and think of a few more poisonously rude things for him to say.”

Another book about her work: Georgette Heyer’s Regency England by Teresa Chris.

Favourite scenes: so many!  lots already mentioned.

I did put this one in a comment on an early SBTB entry:
Venetia, arriving back to find Damerel somewhat sozzled, and remarking that she would “build me a willow cabin at your gates” (they’ve been quoting Shakespeare and other poets back and forth throughout) but that “November is not the month for willow cabins.” 

That wonderful final scene in The Grand Sophy, arrival after arrival, and Sophy managing it all.  Also Sophy telling the nasty sinister moneylender that if SHE were his daughter she’d keep his office cleaner (thus completely discombobulating him).

Sylvester telling his nevvy that he and his brother would have cut off Sir Nugent’s boot tassels too.

Miles, in Bath Tangle, explaining patiently that he hasn’t eloped with Abby (as she’d have to agree, and her sister would never let her), but abducted her (thus neatly avoiding such unnecessary hassles).  And then he challenges her to insist he’ll take her back (which of course she doesn’t).

Thank you, Sarah and Candy, for highlighting Georgette Heyer’s work.

Frederica is tending her own gravely ill brother.

Ah. I haven’t finished Frederica yet so I thought maybe I’d missed something but I knew that when Sophy was tending Amabel is when Charles realized he loved her so I was hoping Heyer didn’t pull quite the same trick twice.

Just a sideline: the Nancy Pearl article also recommended Robin McKinley’s book, Sunshine, which has been mentioned/recommended in comments here on a number of occasions.  Good to see it getting more guernseys.

Oh Heyer!!

These Old Shades every time!

Although yes, Sophy, Fredericka, Cotillion, Arabella & The Reluctant Widow are also firm favourites, and thanks for reminding me of The Talisman Ring (from memory)
“How many seasons have you been at Almack’s?”
“You are surely not proposing to me with what I am certain is a black eye and a bandage on my head?”
“My ear you look delightful”
pause
“Oh. You must be in love!”

I also love how Sarah refers to being a strapping wench and she goes out in her cloak hoping to be mistaken for a man pretending to be a woman.

And hooray, someone else loves the Quiet Gentleman, such an unassuming heroine and such a gentle growing romance against all the other subplots.

But my absolute favourite, These Old Shades, the last few pages where after returning triumphant, Leonie’s mother interrupts the rejoicing and they all go quiet as she stands shrinking in the door way.

“Maman?” Leonie held out her hand tentatively.

Her mother dissolves in tears, and so do I, every damn time.

oh is it too late?  i haven’t read any heyer and would love to - i have yet to look for her in the library, but i can’t get any for my beloved kindle :(

Catherine,

Bear in mind that “The Black Moth” was written when GH was only a teenager, to entertain her sick brother - if you look on it as a first effort by a beginner, written nearly 100 years ago, it’s pretty good, I think, but no doubt that many of her others are better IMO.
I’m one of those who read the whole canon as a teenager and can’t read any modern Regency because it just feels wrong cos it isn’t Heyer. This is exacerbated because I’m English and so much of it is written by Americans who get the feel and fine detail just slightly wrong, somehow.
Please don’t enter me for the draw, SBs - I’ve got a complete collection of vintage GH in the attic : )

LOVE me some Heyer!  She is the Original Regency romance writer and started the genrue for all of us fans to love!  Witty dialog, clever characters and heroines to love.  The heros varied but were always interesting—sometimes quiet, sometimes dashing.  It is marvelous that a whole new group of readers can learn to love Heyer.

My favorite Heyer is always the one I read most recently.  So I’ll pick The Nonesuch.  Too many favorite scenes, and I agree with the previous comment on Tiffany and Laurie.  The end, when he’s trying to stop her from running away, is priceless.  But my favorite scenes are the ones with Sir Waldo and Ancilla - the growth of their feelings is so perfect and understandable.  And the moment they finally resolve their misunderstanding is understated, but spot on.

I haven’t read everything she’s written, but I’ve read everything I can find in our library and our UBS, which hasn’t been much.  Hooray for Sourcebooks and reissues!

I haven’t read any of Heyer’s books and now feel deprived after looking at some of those reissue covers(they are mouth-watering good!). I have read Forever Amber and there’s some Anya Seton on my TBR pile,tho.

I’m probably too late but not only have I never read anything by Heyer, but I’m starting out on my ridiculously long and complicated vacation tomorrow, which will start with a direct flight from Cairo to NY. How I could use an awesome carry on book!! (I do still have to do it all in reverse you know :)

I’m ashamed to say that I have never read a Heyer book! I’d like to, though. Wink-wink. And perhaps even nudge-nudge.