I first remember reading Georgette Heyer when I was 11. I think my mother put a copy of The Talisman Ring in my Christmas stocking that year. Even though that particular book is not my all time favourite, I went on to read all her historical novels though I have never read any of the detective stories.
It must be about 15 years since I last read a Georgette Heyer and I have been prompted to look at her books by this book - Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester. It does only deal with the Regency novels - which excludes some of my favourites - These Old Shades, Devil's Cub, Powder and Patch and The Convenient Marriage - but it is still interesting. It is social history and gives more background information about the fashionable world in which Heyer set her Regency novels.
I'm going to start reading the detective stories this time and perhaps work my way through the rest of her work - including the 'modern' novels she herself suppressed and which are available now if you look for them hard enough. I've just been reading extracts on www.georgetteheyer.com and it made me remember how good they are. Yes they are escapist literature - but they are very quality escapism which no one else has really matched since. Elisabeth Aston comes close in her Jane Austen sequels but apart from her I haven't read anyone who matches up to Heyer's brand of humour and humanity.
2 comments:
Georgette is excellent; very lively and humorous with a clever way with words. I have loved her books ever since I was a teenager and regularly reread them. Haven't quite got through all the detective novels - something to look forward to.
I agree with you and had forgotten how good they are having not read any for years.
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