Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
From the desk of Laura A. Wallace: Jane Aiken Hodge’s 1984 biography of Georgette Heyer, reissued this month by Sourcebooks, was until very recently the only one available. Published ten years after Heyer’s death, it describes her life primarily from her letters to her publisher. An intensely private person, Heyer eschewed publicity, never giving an... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laura A. Wallace: One of the things about Georgette Heyer is that the question “which of her books is your favorite?” tends to invoke a response corresponding to: “whichever one I am reading now.” Every time I reread one of her novels, I am always amazed at how fresh it is,... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laura A. Wallace: “To own the truth,” replied Miss Morville candidly, “I can perceive nothing romantic in a headless spectre. I should think it a very disagreeable sight, and if I did fancy I saw such a thing I should take one of Dr. James’s powders immediately!” Thus Drusilla Morville sadly... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laura Wallace: "I know! She was the delightful creature who cut up her brother, and cast the pieces in her papa’s way, wasn’t she? I daresay perfectly amiable when one came to know her." —Venetia on Medea. Venetia is about soul mates. Two people who, despite completely dissimilar life experiences, recognize... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laura A. Wallace: Our hero is 28, wealthy, with vast estates and dependents, and head of his house, having come into his inheritance at a young age. He was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit; but to be fair, he is no more villainous than... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: As the month-long Celebrating Georgette Heyer event draws to a close, we can look back through the thirty-four reviews of Heyer’s romance novels and see a common thread through each and every one. Her heroes are epitomes, nonpareils, and nonesuches. In the Regency romance genre, they are a... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Elizabeth Hanbury: Lady of Quality was Georgette Heyer’s last book before her death in July 1974. She suffered chronic ill-health in her later years and fractured her leg in a fall in January 1972. Despite this, she began work on another book and by April had sent the outline to her... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Dana Huff: Georgette Heyer’s novel Charity Girl, originally published in 1970, is the story of Ashley Carrington, Viscount Desford’s entanglement with Charity “Cherry” Steane. Desford’s father wishes Desford, who is approaching thirty, had married family friend Henrietta Silverdale, known affectionately as Hetta, but Desford and Hetta insist, rather too much, that... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Chris:Â Kate Malvern just lost her job as governess and is staying with her old nurse Sarah until she gets a new situation. Sarah doesn't like the idea of her Kate, whose father was a gentleman despite being a soldier and a gambler, hiring herself out to anyone who asks. Kate... Continue Reading →
Guest review by Katherine of November’s Autumn Twenty-eight-year-old Abigail Wendover arrives home in Bath after having helped one of her sisters. The poor dear; all was an uproar at her home; all three children had the measles, the nurse fell down the back-stairs and broke her leg, and she's due to have her fourth child... Continue Reading →
Guest review by Nicole Bonia of Linus’s Blanket Lord Alverstoke is a stylish and wealthy bachelor – bored with his sisters, their families, and their perpetual ploys to get him to fund their already lavish lifestyles. Cynical to the core, he is skeptical when he meets Frederica, the charming head of the orphaned Merrivale clan.... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Georgette Heyer had the fortunate knack of selecting catchy titles for her novels that were a perfect match to what would unfold inside: The Convenient Marriage, The Unknown Ajax, Bath Tangle, Devil’s Cub, Sprig Muslin, The Nonesuch, and on and on. Each title is short, evocative and intriguing.... Continue Reading →
