Re: Georgette Heyer

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
William Denton  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>JayJay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>: I know there are a lot of critics out there that say they are too light
>: for serious readers to even think about, I am a serious reader and 
>: still go back to them periodically.
>
>Too light!  With all that history and period detail (not to mention
>slang), some of them can be pretty dense--but still marvellously written.  
>I didn't like BATH TANGLE, nor one of the contemporary mysteries I tried,
>but I've really liked everything else by her that I've read.  DEVIL'S CUB
>is probably my favourite, and I'm on the lookout for AN INFAMOUS ARMY.
>
>Some people in rec.arts.sf.written were saying that Heyer is popular with
>SF readers, which is how I first came to read her.  Reading her Regency 
>books, for example, is a bit like going to another world, with its own 
>language and customs and behaviour.  There was some discussion here the 
>other day about Neal Stephenson, the SF writer whose new book QUICKSILVER 
>is historical fiction, and I'm tying the two together by reading ROYAL 
>ESCAPE, Heyer's book about Charles II, who is a character is QuICKSILVER.

An Infamous Army should be available on abebooks.com.  I think I found a 
PB copy in the local Salvation Army store a few years ago.  And snapped 
it up immediately.  8-)

I'm a long time SF reader and agree about the Regency books.

There are a few Heyer novels that I haven't been able to get into, and 
some are better than others.  But IMHO, her books will be read and 
enjoyed long after her critics are dead and forgotten. 

A couple of years ago I found a biography of GH -- The private world of 
Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge.  (Hodge writes a pretty fair novel, 
too.)  One of the things I best remember was a thank-you letter written 
by a woman who'd been a prisoner someplace in Eastern Europe.  She'd read 
Friday's Child shortly before her arrest and kept her cell mates' spirits 
up by narrating it from memory at night.  Very touching.

Paul Hollander    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behold the tortoise: he makes no progress unless he sticks his neck out.