Georgette Heyer

I am alway so excited when I discover a new (to me) author, especially if she has written a lot of books.  Right now I am happily in the midst of a Georgette Heyer craze.  I had actually heard about her several years ago from two friends in my bunco group who knew that I was a Jane Austen fanatic and kept encouraging me that if I liked her, I would also enjoy Georgette Heyer.

For whatever reason (probably that I was in my Jane Austen fever and nothing could compare at that point in my life), I tried one of her books and it just did not hold my interest. Thankfully, now that the aforesaid fever has cooled, I decided to try Georgette Heyer again, and I am so glad I did.  She is not the genius that Jane Austen was (obviously), but it was unfair to hold her to that standard, even though she mostly wrote in the same genre.  Georgette Heyer's Regency romances are charming and delightful.  If you are looking for a fun, clean read, pick up one of these books.  When I first heard of Georgette Heyer from my friends, most of her book were out of print.  Thankfully, they are now being re-issued in nice (trade??) paperback editions.  The ones I have read so far are the following:

1. The Black Moth, These Old Shades, Devil's Cub  These are a sort of trilogy.  The Black Moth was the first novel Georgette Heyer wrote, when she was a teenager.  Later she wrote these next two, although she changed the names of some of the characters.  When I figured out who was who, I made a list so that when I was reading #2 and #3, I could remember what certain characters where called in #1.  I even wrote the list in the front of book #2 so that when I lent the books out, future readers could just look at the code and not have to figure it out for themselves.

2. The Reluctant Widow

3. Cotillion

4. The Convenient Marriage (I didn't like this heroine at first, but she grew up and grew on me).

5. The Quiet Gentleman (My favorite so far...loved this one).

6. Powder and Patch (Again, not my favorite heroine).

I read somewhere that Georgette Heyer usually has one of two different types of heroines:  the very young, inexperienced girl, or the mature woman who is almost "on the shelf"...nearly an old maid.  I admit that I much prefer the older heroine who has come into herself.  Maybe this preference is because Persuasion is one of my two all-time favorites (who does not love Anne Elliot?), but I tend to find some of the younger heroines to be immature and selfish.  This being said, I want to emphasize that I like all the stories, even if a particular heroine annoys me a little.

I will update this list as I read more Georgette Heyer.

7. The Foundling (I did something that I hardly ever do with this book...I skipped ahead to the end.  At first I thought there were two possible heroines and I wanted to make sure she turned out to be the one I liked better).

8. Arabella (I am just now finishing this one...have about 2-3 pages left.  Such a tender, sweet story.  Actually had a young, naive heroine that I really enjoyed).