From the desk of Laura A. Wallace:
Pistols for Two is a collection of eleven short stories first published in 1960. Throughout her writing career, Heyer published her novels in serial form in various periodicals and published short stories in them as well. This is the only collection published as a book; otherwise, her short stories exist only in old copies of the various magazines. In researching her biography of Heyer, Jennifer Kloester tracked down bibliographic information on as many stories as she could find, and lists them in an appendix, but she states that there are probably more still undiscovered. This corrects a general and long-held impression that Heyer only wrote a few short stories, and that nearly all of them were included in Pistols for Two. But Heyer did choose the stories in this collection herself, so she must have considered them among her best.
These stories are delightful microcosms of Heyer’s work. They all feature the deft characterizations that Heyer always provides: she excels in summarizing a character in a few brief sentences. What is lacking, of course, is the layering that provides depth in a full-length novel. Each also necessarily features a very compressed timeline of action, often covering only a few scenes and a few hours, and since they mostly are love stories, several of them feature love at first sight. In short, their only real defects are the limitations of the short story form itself. For this reason, I strongly recommend the reader to resist the urge to gobble them up all at once: space them out instead, with something else in between to leaven them.
One particularly delightful aspect of these stories for the Heyer aficionado is the recognition that comes here and there. Heyer uses some names that appear in her novels, but, more importantly, there are identifiable germs of ideas, characters, and relationships that are developed later more fully in the novels. For example, in “A Clandestine Affair,” Lord Iver appears to be a prototype of Ivo Rotherham in Bath Tangle, and if that novel’s heroine Serena’s prototype does not appear, the broken engagement does. (Note, however, that in publication dates, Bath Tangle precedes the short story by five years.) More than one damsel is clearly related to Amanda, Eustacie, and Leonie; and more than one gentleman resembles Sir Waldo Hawkridge, the Duke of Avon, the Marquis of Alverstoke, or even the Earl of Worth. “Pistols for Two” includes a set of young gentlemen who must surely be the original sketches for the young set in The Nonesuch making cakes of themselves over Tiffany Wield. Discovering these embryonic (or sometimes revisited) characters and situations almost feel as if Heyer is sharing a special treat with her readers.
In “A Husband for Fanny,” however, Heyer visits a theme which I can’t remember in any of her novels, and wish she had. (Details omitted to avoid spoilers.) And in another story, there is a macabre twist that is all the more surprising for being surely unique in Heyer’s oeuvre. So in addition to the familiar characters and situations, there are a few stories that show Heyer exploring ideas that she never developed into novels and thus stand alone in her work.
Please avoid spoilers in your comments as these stories are new to many people, especially since the collection has been somewhat hard to find until being republished this month by Sourcebooks.
This concludes my last review of the Georgette Heyer re-issues by Sourcebooks for Austenprose. I hope that promoting these books has brought many readers to Heyer for the first time. She continues to give me joy, and I remain grateful for her life and her work. I’m also grateful to Laurel Ann for providing me with this opportunity to share Georgette Heyer with you.
5 out of 5 Stars
BOOK INFORMATION
- Pistols for Two, by Georgette Heyer
- Sourcebooks Casablanca; Reprint edition (February 7, 2012)
- Trade paperback & eBook (256) pages
- ISBN: 978-1402256981
- Genre: Regency Romance, Historical Romance
ADDITIONAL INFO | ADD TO GOODREADS
We received a review copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Austenprose is an Amazon affiliate. Cover image courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca © 2012; text Laura A. Wallace © 2012, austenprose.com. Updated 9 March 2022.
When a reviewer tells you to parcel out your reading of a book, you know it’s a treasure!
Thank you for the wonderful review. I need to get this book now! It would be wonderful for bedtime reading.
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Laura: I’m gratified you liked Pistols For Two as much as I did. I happened on a very ancient copy of this book in our well-stocked local library. Being a sucker for a good short story, I devoured them with relish. A very perceptive and thoughtful review….
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Your review encapsulates the joys of these short story gems! I just received and read my Sourcebooks copy. I used to enjoy reading short stories so much when I was young. If you get a chance to read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories — mostly written for women’s and general interest magazines — they are similarly charming little gems. I can imagine Heyer knocking off these stories in an afternoon — her creative juices seem to always have been available to her. I hope others of her short stories are collected in future volumes!
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I am so glad to see these gems back in publication. I had to order a copy from the UK a couple of years ago. I always like to think of this collection as a good Heyer “sampler.” It’s also a good starting point for anyone new to Georgette Heyer as the stories give the reader really excellent examples of her writing style and subject matter.
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Hi Beth, these Heyer short stories are indeed a great introduction to her style, historical detail and humor. I hope you will check them out. I adore GH.
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Thank you for your comments! I’m apparently one of the lucky ones, as I’ve had a copy of PFT since my first introduction to Heyer, so they’re not new to me. The stories are delightful.
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A big round applause to Laura for reviewing so many Georgette Heyer novels for us. We have been so fortunate to have a Heyer expert to guide us.
Thanks again Laura.
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I read Georgette HEYER from an early age in the Uk and inspired to have alove of all things Regency –I am now organising a Regency fsetival in Horncastle this May and thoroughly enjoying it
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Another treasure to add to my reading list! Terrific review.
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I can’t wait to give this a read – thanks for the tip!
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I noticed the similarities too with her novels and it became almost a game to guess which ones though I never looked hard enough to see which came first. It has been so long since I read these that you’ve inspired me to go back and re-read them.
Thanks for the review!
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Thank you for adding Georgette Heyer to a blog about Jane Austen since I always thought the two should be read together. I’ve loved Heyer since I was in high school and even her “vintage” mysteries are worth a look. She’s a wonderful writer. As a side note, I always pronounced her last name as “Higher” (I’m American) but apparently here in the UK it’s pronounced “Hair”. Guess they should know!
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What a nice comment –we used to call her HAY-ER if you see what I mean we would say HAY and ERRRRR Regards from the uk Regency Festival
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From memory, in Jennifer Kloester’s biography of Heyer, Kloester says it used to be pronounced Higher, but during the war, GH’s family decided it sounded too German, so they changed the pronunciation to Hair. :-)
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I’d like to express my thanks for Laura’s fabulous GH reviews, which have been a pleasure to read.
Pistols for Two is the essence of Heyer’s Regency writing distilled into eleven charming little vignettes – I absolutely love them! And I agree they make an excellent introduction to her work for new readers :)
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