Happiness....
Is finding after very many years two new Georgette Heyers that I'd never read before (Cousin Kate - very Gothic and the Quiet Gentleman). For those who read novels this is the equivalent of the Holy Grail - you hope and hope that you'll find a new one but it never happens. OF course it all ended in tears; I stayed up late reading the QG which meant I got 3.5 hours sleep before going to do the Morning Report (nb staying up late means midnight when you have to get up at 3.30am). Still for those who have never had a comfort author that you return to again and again then you can't imagine the joy this was.
When I was doing my MA I did an extended essay on Why Read Georgette Heyer or What Good Feminists can Learn from Historical Romance. Answer = a lot. My favourite story is that GH used to be fuelled on gin and Benzedrine while churning out a book a year to pay the tax bills and support her family ("Another bleeding romance" she remarked on finishing No 37, April Lady)
But my favourite quote has to be
“All the girls who read the filthiest books like yours” (Australian librarian to Georgette Heyer)
3 comments:
ah those memories of Venetia and Regency Buck...
Jilly Cooper was always my comfort author - so does that make you more highbrow..?
xxx
Hah, I identify with this so exactly. I have read all Heyer's novels except the unavailable 'Great Roxhythe', mostly more years ago than I really care to remember, and I have an occasional but recurrent dream in which I find one I've never heard of. Funnily enough my daughter also has this dream... but apparently 'The Great Roxhythe' is lurking somewhere in the Bodleian and she's read it. Not really up to scratch, she says, but I still yearn to find it.
You can get it on Amazon for a mere £76.28...but I think I may have to go to the Bodleian instead as a poor academic. I can however thoroughly recommend flicking through Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective by Mary Fahnestock Thomas if you ever come across that in a library. Lots of stuff you want to skip but some gems like the AS Byatt essay that are well worth reading.....
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