(no subject)

[larryhammer]

After a dozen Heyers and a couple other Regencies in the past three weeks, I find myself wanting to read the Tough Guide to Regencyshire:

Do not be alarmed at the number of PERSONS who greet you on your arrival. They are only there to introduce you to the initial problem through conversation, and only one or two will take part in your ADVENTURE. However, you are obligated to keep the Persons and all their relationships straight, as most of them will be referred to in the course of affairs. In particular, the VACUOUS EGOIST will act as a foil for some part of your Adventure, but not be the focus of action, unless they are a BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY.

Except, of course, that applies only to the district of Heyerton. Any other entries we should make note of?

---L.

Comments

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Austen, of course, and Gothics up through Dickinsville and Wilkie-Collinswood?

DARK BYRONIC MAN

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Should you meet a tall, dark, dominant man who ruthlessly overrides your wishes, pause and consider your own character. Are you a feisty, self-confident lady (possibly no longer YOUNG) who tends to override her weaker friends? If so, you have met your LOVE MATCH and should proceed immediately to SUBLIMATED EROTIC SPARRING. If, on the other hand, you are a timid, shy young lady, easily trampled, you have met your EROTIC THREAT. Begin immediately to write LONG DESCRIPTIVE LETTERS to your closest friends. Be sure to request that they keep copies.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*

Or rather,

*faints artistically onto the sopha*

[larryhammer]

Short coats A style of clothing worn by younger children. However, unlike the Schoolroom, Adventurers never approach the Nursery, and as a result no one has ever seen short coats nor has the least idea what they look like.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Yes, but they're writing about their own time, and so get it right.

---L.

Re: DARK BYRONIC MAN

[larryhammer]

Oh dear yes. Good one.

---L.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

Who else besides Heyer were you reading? I haven't had a lot of luck with regencies. Or historicals, for that matter. I read much more contemporary romance. However, I suspect I am about to glom Laura Kinsale.

ALMACK'S

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

All Tours must make a stop at this Mandatory Destination. Even though vouchers are supposedly difficult to get, you may be assured that the notoriously kindhearted Lady Jersey will overlook your manifold flaws. If you are an EXCEPTIONAL CATCH, you may instead speak to Countess Lieven, Mrs. Drummond Burell, Lady Castlereagh, Lady Cowper, Lady Sefton, or Princess Esterhazy. In any case, the results are the same; patrons of our Tours are never denied vouchers.

Once you are actually admitted within these doors (be sure to arrive before eleven!), you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Certainly your fellow guests will be at pains to complain about the tedium of the company, the refreshments, and the music. No matter. After you have stopped at ALMACK'S, you are free to proceed to the more entertaining venues of a RIDOTTO, VAUXHALL, or possibly a MASKED BALL. A lady who has been to Almack's can do anything she wants to. Patrons of our tours generally take full advantage of that liberty.

You are not allowed to WALTZ until you have been given approval by a patroness. Again, none of our patrons has ever been denied this permission.

If you are a WITTY SKEPTICAL LADY, you may begin to wonder whether our Tour has a financial arrangement with the Patronesses. We recommend that such ladies save their wit and skepticism for the EROTIC MATCH.

[larryhammer]

Rereading a couple early books of Madeleine Robins. They aren't very successfully plotted (as she herself readily admits) and the best one, The Spanish Marriage, relies heavily on an idiot plot, but they have considerable charm, and the consequences of the idiocy are well worked through.

You may like Robins's new Regency mysteries, starting with Point of Honor, which are really alternate history hardboiled female detective novels wrapped in Regency clothing. Heyer writes Chandler.

I'm holding some early Jo Beverleys in reserve, from before she started writing Regency Historicals (though I don't know if they're still called that).

---L.

Re: ALMACK'S

[larryhammer]

You're definitely better at this than me. Hee!

---L.

[larryhammer]

Actually, it'd be better to call them Austen writes Chandler. Robins is writes closer to Austen's irony than Heyer's wit.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

You will know you are a HEROINE if you have a pair of SPEAKING EYES, and your laugh is a GURGLE DEEP IN YOUR THROAT. Other signs: a SPENDTHRIFT BROTHER who speaks in nothing but THIEVES' CANT (see also PIERCE EGAN); a SUITOR who is good, kind, clean-cut, very serious, probably a COUSIN, who will try to murder the HERO by the end of the TOUR.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

You will know you are in HEYERTON (as opposed to AUSTENDALE) if the time of your TOUR is the REGENCY, but you use the word TON as a noun instead of as an adjective.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

I will have to try Point of Honor again.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Only sign up to be a GOVERNESS if you are in HEYERTON. Your TOUR will then furnish you with a HANDSOME HERO to MARRY, who will find your lapses into THIEVES' CANT cute, and with a CHILD in SHORT COATS who is conveniently parked for many hours while you are enjoying the TOUR doing VERBAL DUELS with the HERO, only popping up to interrupt PASSIONATE SCENES.

WARNING: Do not sign up to be a Governess in BRONTEVILLE. There are no FRENCH GOWNS or AL FRESCO PIC-NICS for Governesses in Bronteville. The HERO will be the VICTORIAN BYRONIC MODEL who is extremely high maintenance, and you will be expected to WORK like a DRUDGE until your VIRTUE rewards you with RESPETABILITY along with the VICTORIAN BYRONIC MODEL, who will by then be BLIND, DRUNK, OR MAIMED.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I loved Point of Honour, though it's the only one of Robins's books I've read so far. And I've (gasp!) never read Heyer at all. Any suggestions on what to start with?

MONEY

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

If you are a BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY or the HEROINE, your LOVE MATCH will cross CLASS boundaries effortlessly and result in a life of financial security and even LUXURY undreamt-of by 99.99% of the population of EUROPE. Even if you are a GOVERNESS (but only in HEYERTON), you will always have the correct GOWN for any OCCASION and you need not spend days sewing, dyeing, mending, improvising, or remaking garments (see DRUDGE). Should you appear incorrectly clothed, e.g. in a sheer BALLGOWN in a COACH after MIDNIGHT on the road to GRETNA GREEN, the EFFECT will be considered charming or INTERESTING, not shocking.

[larryhammer]

Pretty much anything she wrote between the War and the early 60s is of a piece -- well, not counting the mysteries. My favorites are Sylvester (the latest reprint has for unknown reasons dropped the subtitle, The Wicked Uncle), The Unknown Ajax, Arabella, The Toll Gate, and The Grand Sophy. Avoid The Adjective Noun, however -- it's not as good, and widely rumored to have been written to break a contract.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Actually, you are advised to avoid Bronteville altogether. The inhabitants are grim and gloomy, and live disagreably far from TOWN.

---L.

[larryhammer]

I have a suspicion that while you Tour Fantasyland, you Adventure in Regencyshire. But that may be the effect of too many OVER-YOUNG GOVERNESSES.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Hair powder - Something which used to be in fashion, but which hasn't been worn for over a generation. You may encounter a GRANDPARENT's complaint about this disuse, but you may safely ignore his or her speech as merely part of the LOCAL COLOR.

Other ignorable styles which have gone out of fashion incude lace NECKCLOTHS and cuffs, brocade DRESSES, and wigs. If you encounter any of these, the appropriate response is a faint embarrassment at the failings of taste in your ELDERS.

---L.

Re: MONEY

[larryhammer]

I think Charming and Interesting are OMTs, not entries. Or rather, delightfully charming^OMT.

---L.

[larryhammer]

odious - Use this word with great care. Despite its repulsive meaning, its sense is invariably affectionate, and if you find yourself calling a gentleman not related to you odious man^OMT, you have marked that person as your EROTIC MATCH. There will be nothing for it but to give in to their advances in the end -- after a suitable amount of WITTY SPARING, of course.

---L.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

My favorites are: Grand Sophy, Devil's Cub, Faro's Daughter, Frederica, and The Toll Gate, I think. Great escapist fun. I even tried one of her moderns, but it was dreadfully depressing, the more so for being so true and real. (Green Corn?) And I've never gotten through her mysteries and Beauvallet and her other earlier-period historicals are merely okay. But her Regencies mostly sparkle.

Jo Beverly's are good, but sparkle less and simmer more. Still worth reading and I keep some of them for rereading. (My ultimate value-judgement on a book.)

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Still worth reading and I keep some of them for rereading. (My ultimate value-judgement on a book.)

Ditto. :-)

My thank to both you and Larry for the reading suggestions.