A few recent Heyers
7 February 2005 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerMy rereading of the past couple weeks, which provoked the Tough Guide post. In career order:
Of course, after so much light and bright and sparkling, this journal want some shade -- it wants a post of solemn specious nonsense about writing epic poetry.
---L.
- ETA2: Devil's Cub (1932) - A rake, flying England after a duel, in his haste abducts the wrong sister; adventures ensue. Set c. 1770.
- ETA3: Regency Buck (1935) - An heiress and her brother are wards of a batchelor; tedious, lifeless fortune-hunting ensues, wrapped around an unconvincing murder plot. The best parts are Beau Brummel and, well, nothing else.
- The Talisman Ring (1936) - Possibly one of her silliest plots, which is saying something; one of Heyer's few books in which a murderer in the family is brought to justice, instead of the scandal being hushed up; set mid-1790s.
- Faro's Daughter (1941) - Nearly as silly, and rather less interesting; also set in the 1790s. Am selling this one off.
- The Reluctant Widow (1946) - One of Heyer's least interesting heroines--actually scatterbrained, for all that's she's one of Heyer's young, gently-born governesses.
- The Foundling (1948) - A nobleman attempting to come of age meets a stunningly beautiful idiot; hi-jinx ensue. Fun one, though there's practically no romance.
- Arabella (1949) - A vicar's daughter is taken for an heiress by the haut ton; hi-jinx ensue.
- The Grand Sophy (1950) - Another young woman used to having her way in a motherless household finds the strong man she needs; the climax is one of Heyer's best extended comic set-pieces. The gross antisemitism is gratuitous, and could have been removed with three word changes.
- The Quiet Gentleman (1951) - Attempted murder is hushed over to avoid scandal; worse, the pseudo-Byronic young puppy is tiresome here. Meh.
- The Toll Gate (1954) - Another scandal-worse-than-injustice book, made palatable by being quite fun, when we're above-ground.
- Sylvester: or, The Wicked Uncle (1957) - A terminally shy girl, after making a poor showing her first Season, writes a roman a clef; hi-jinx ensue. Fun and humanwise both.
- Venetia (1958) - Highspirited yet innocent virgin meets a rake. Rather sweet, actually, in a believable way.
- The Unknown Ajax (1959) - Marries Heyer's two country locations, Yorkshire and Sussex, in a single plot, using a hero with a deplorable sense of humor; the hushed-up scandal is, for once, not murder. Quite possibly my favorite.
- The Nonesuch (1962) - A young, gently-born governess is put in charge of a stunningly beautiful egotist; hi-jinx ensue. (description corrected)
- False Colours (1963) - When a young lord goes missing just before being introduced to his in-laws-to-be, his twin takes his place; hi-jinx ensue.
- Frederica (1965) - An older sister gets a distant relative to help find a brilliant match for her beautiful (if silly) younger sister; hi-jinx ensue, including an inadvertant hot-air baloon ride. (description corrected)
- Charity Girl (1970) - A scrapegrace nobleman runs into an orphan running away from her aunt's house; hi-jinx don't ensue, mostly because in this late novel Heyer no longer sparkles. The plot retreads much of The Foundling, with a romance that's even more perfunctory.
Of course, after so much light and bright and sparkling, this journal want some shade -- it wants a post of solemn specious nonsense about writing epic poetry.
---L.
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no subject
Date: 7 February 2005 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 February 2005 06:35 pm (UTC)It's amazing what just three words can do.
---L.
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Date: 7 February 2005 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 February 2005 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 February 2005 09:31 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 7 February 2005 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 February 2005 10:07 pm (UTC)---L.
A small correction
Date: 8 February 2005 03:46 am (UTC)Re: A small correction
Date: 8 February 2005 02:30 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 8 February 2005 03:10 pm (UTC)I add that I find everyone in Regency Buck entirely predictable and dull until they show up in An Infamous Army, except the Earl of Worth who is almost completely two-dimensional. He's a Classic Heyer Hero I, the brooding Bronte type, who she never manages to animate.
I also add that I am inordinately fond of the Avon family.
no subject
Date: 8 February 2005 03:39 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 12 February 2005 06:43 pm (UTC)---L.
Regency Buck
Date: 16 February 2005 04:21 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 8 February 2005 07:38 am (UTC)Thanks to you I've been rereading Heyers during my holiday this week. When I ran out, I moved to reread Jo Beverly novels, which have much more realism so they are sort of a cross between a Heyer and a Violet Winspear (Harlequins - old style). Some are better than others, of course, but her Rogues series can be fun.
no subject
Date: 8 February 2005 02:28 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 12 February 2005 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 February 2005 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 February 2005 12:55 am (UTC)Oh.
---L.
Masqueraders
Date: 15 February 2005 12:58 am (UTC)What has plausibility to do with it?
Re: Masqueraders
Date: 15 February 2005 01:21 am (UTC)Re: Masqueraders
Date: 15 February 2005 02:22 pm (UTC)---L.
Happy Year of the Rooster, Larry!
Date: 8 February 2005 03:57 pm (UTC)Kung hey fat choi.
Re: Happy Year of the Rooster, Larry!
Date: 8 February 2005 06:12 pm (UTC)I was realizing yesterday that this is the first CNY in a couple years without our Sometimes Roommate. She cooks up a mean New Years' feast, and I find myself missing that. But she, alas, is spending a couple months bumming around Cambodia and Thailand, having finished her contract in Darfur.
---L.
It's been a great long while...
Date: 8 February 2005 04:51 pm (UTC)Anon.
Re: It's been a great long while...
Date: 8 February 2005 06:17 pm (UTC)(Alternates for being Arabella and The Unknown Ajax, respectively.)
---L.
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Date: 9 February 2005 08:21 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 10 February 2005 02:27 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 12 February 2005 05:16 pm (UTC)Frederica (one of the best, imo) is about Frederica bringing her gorgeous sister to town to find her a suitable spouse--and her younger brothers as well, calling on Hero Mark I as their "guardian", much hi-jinx ensuing, esp. with the brothers.
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Date: 12 February 2005 06:38 pm (UTC)---L, most embarrassed.
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Date: 12 February 2005 05:18 pm (UTC)That, in fact, sparked the single fan letter that Heyer treasured, acto Hodge's bio--the letter from the political prisoner who, cooped up in a cell with other women for some years, kept their sanity and passed the time by telling and retelling Friday's Child over and over.
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Date: 12 February 2005 06:39 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 12 February 2005 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 February 2005 06:46 pm (UTC)