Favorites: Georgette Heyer

Sometimes in the book-snobbish world in which I work, I try to pretend that I don't love Georgette Heyer as much as I do. I mean, after all, she mostly wrote romances. How stultifying and non-intellectual! And the romance part I can't deny, probably 3/4 of her books are romances, with a few mysteries and a few non-fiction histories of Britain's royal family thrown in for good measure. But the thing is, they're good romances! No heaving bosoms or throbbing manhoods or any of the other cliches of the modern bodice-ripper genre, these are much more Jane Austen-esque.

They are true to their era, so much so that some people have a hard time reading them because Heyer uses so much 18th and 19th century slang. Her historical accuracy means that the characters follow the strict rules of propriety that held sway among the members of the ton in the Georgian era so you don't have to worry about what I term "awkward bits", and that as a bonus after reading several of her books you will know all of the answers on the "Georgian Era" category in Jeopardy! I also like how casually Heyer throws French words around in several of the books, apparently writing under the assumption that of course her readers will understand French.

Heyer's books are characterized by a plethora of minor characters who are hilariously annoying, main characters who are witty and erudite, and a convoluted plot that generally ends with two people getting happily married. There are a couple of exceptions to this: in one book the "True Love" marries someone else, and he settles for next-best, and a few of the mysteries and historical books don't have a love story, but generally speaking the books follow a predictable, but still delightful pattern.

This is a list I wrote a couple of years ago on amazon.com, which attempts to sum up my favorite Heyers. The Grand Sophy and False Colours are probably what I would call my two favorites, but it's really difficult for me to narrow it down. Every year I re-read two or three of her books though, and then once I've read them again they usually temporarily shoot up to the top in my estimation for a few weeks.

Speaking of re-reading old favorite Heyers however, brings me to my exciting Heyer news. There is one, and only one, of her historical novels that I have never read. Heyer tried to suppress The Great Roxhythe in the later years of her career, because she was dissatisfied with it. As a result, this Charles II era novel is veeeery expensive online. Two years ago the cheapest one I could find was $250. But luckily a lot of Heyer's books are being reprinted right now, and a relatively cheap hardback edition can now be found for less than $40, hurrah!

So The Great Roxhythe arrived in the mail yesterday, and I greedily opened the package and read the first chapter. And then I had to put the book down because I want to savor it. After all, it's been 14 years since the last 'new' Heyer for me, and this is the last new one ever! Unless she starts publishing from the grave, but since that seems unlikely I'm going to read this slowly. At least that's what I'm telling myself, but I have this Friday off of work, and somehow I'm suspicious that I may end up devouring it all. But either way, I'll let you know how it was.