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Article: How I Fell in Love With Georgette Heyer

How I Fell in Love With Georgette Heyer - JaneAusten.co.uk
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How I Fell in Love With Georgette Heyer

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I stumbled upon Georgette Heyer during a golden time of my life after college graduation when I had three precious free months before I began school again. Bursting with youthful energy, I didn’t know what to do with my time. And so I hit the books, but this time for pleasure. In those days, I could gobble up a book a day if I was so inclined, and I sped through Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Rebecca. Father and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev, one of my favorite authors, and Pride and Prejudice (for the second time in my life). That last novel with its sparkling wit and clear view of village life seemed like a breath of fresh air after the heightened emotions of the Victorian authors.

To me, Mr. Bennet was the image of my father, whose wry statements always made me pause before I could figure out if he was making sport of me, himself, or some other unwitting target. Mrs. Bennet reminded me of my crazy Dutch grandmothers – both of whom were slightly hysterical and VERY demanding. I read Pride and Prejudice twice that summer (and began a tradition of reading it every summer for the next twenty years). Greedily I reached for more Jane Austen novels until there were none left. I railed against the illness that carried Jane off before she could produce enough novels to assuage my addiction. Where to turn? The library, of course. I looked up Regency novels and found … Clare Darcy? Ok, I thought. I’ll give her a try and picked up a copy of Victoire, a most logical choice given my given name, and read the book in one long sitting.

How to state it nicely: Clare Darcy is to Jane Austen what a sputtering candle is to the sun at high noon. My quest was not over. My apartment roommie, also a Janeite, discovered the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser. She loved them. But budding little feminist me wanted books written by humorous females, not a man with no interest in the goings on of small town families and their courtship rituals, and silly clergy, and strong heroines who were able to learn a thing or two. And so I continued my search.

One day I found a Barbara Cartland novel. Tossing aside her cheesy book about a 16-year-old-heroine with a heart-shaped face, I wondered if I could charge her for wasting my precious life. I continued my search. And there it was. On the bottom shelf at the library. Arabella. It was a pathetic excuse of a book – dog-eared, blemished, and torn partially in the spine. I read the front cover – Arabella by Georgette Heyer – then sat on the floor and began to read. Witty words leapt from the pages. I laughed with delight. Before long I checked out the book and proceeded to read it in one long sitting. My roommie, who had started her new job two weeks after college, came home from work to find me engrossed. “I found a new author,” I said, telling her she could read the book when I was done. I gave it to her that night.

We were both instantly hooked on Georgette Heyer. I returned to the library and checked out all the Georgette Heyers I could find. My roommie and I fell in love with Arabella, but we became die-hard fans when we encountered Venetia, The Grand Sophie, Sylvester, and Frederica. By summer’s end we had read ALL the GHs we could lay our hands on, even the mysteries and histories. (Thankfully, Georgette was prolific.) My roommie and I were two young and hopeless romantics. We loved the glittering, detailed descriptions of the characters, the clothes they wore from expensive shops, and the houses, towns, and cities they inhabited. We learned about Regency London and the manners and mores of the Ton. Georgette Heyer characters spoke in cant, and thus we affected British accents and used cant-speech at every opportunity.

Our boyfriends, while a bit mystified, played along, even debating which weapon was more effective in a fight – the epee or the sword. But then life intruded and my intense love affair with Georgette Heyer had to take a back seat. I returned to school and began to read academic books again. I left my obsession behind, except for my yearly date with Pride and Prejudice.

Flash forward a number of decades when Sourcebooks began to republish Georgette Heyer novels. Once more I began to read them regularly, only this time I reviewed them as well.  I discovered that my tastes had changed and that I was more attracted to other novels like The Reluctant Widow and The Convenient Marriage. I never reread Arabella, for I did not want to revisit my first love only to discover that she had flaws. I savor my memory of first discovering Georgette Heyer and thank Sourcebooks for the opportunity to relive that Golden Summer. I keep about 10 GH books on my Nook and Kindle (yes, I have both) so I am not ever very far from one of my favorite authors. If you are intrigued, all of GH s novels are available at Sourcebook’s Discover a New Love Website .

georgette heyer


Vic Sanborn oversees two blogs: Jane Austen’s World and Jane Austen Today. Before 2006 she merely adored Jane Austen and read Pride and Prejudice faithfully every year. These days, she is immersed in reading and writing about the author’s life and the Regency era. Co-founder of her local (and very small) book group, Janeites on the James, she began her blogs as a way to share her research on the Regency era for her novel, which sits unpublished on a dusty shelf. In her working life, Vic provides resources and professional development for teachers and administrators of Virginia’s adult education and literacy programs. This article was written for Jane Austen’s World and is used here with permission. 

2 comments

Ho letto il primo libro nel 1971 la ragazza chiamata carità , poi di seguito tutti quelli che uscivano con cadenza annuale, sono a 24.
Ultimamente ho trovato l’erede misterioso, è completamente diverso da tutti i precedenti , non rispecchia per niente il suo stile, i personaggi sono incolori, come se l’avesse scritto un’altra persona, noioso e banale. Non c’è nulla della heyer, sto facendo fatica a finirlo. Non è suo.

Daniela

I discovered Arabela when I was in HS. I worked as a Paige in a library and read every book the library had by the author. The head Liberian’s mother was also a Georgette Heyer admirer which is probably why our library had so many of her novels. My obsession led to the novels of Barbara Cartland once I had run out of novels by Georgette Heyer in our library. But Barbara Cartland, although described as writing in the tradition of Georgette Heyer, did not satisfy me. I kept looking and then read Pride and Prejudice —- so much superior to any I had read before her that I stopped looking and continue to relish and reread over and over all of the works of Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice and Emma being my favorites. It was Georgette Heyer that introduced me to Jane Austen and I am so grateful!!
One of my favorite novels by Georgette Heyer is The masquerades, which you do not mention. In it a brother and sister switch gender roles in order to hide their identities. At one point in the novel the sister, posing as a man, fights a duel! In fact I have not read that novel since I was an undergrad in college and I mean to reread it now, in the very near future!!
Thanks for bringing up Georgette Heyer!!
I really enjoyed your blog!

Renee Turner

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