Georgette Heyer ...Reviews please

[Sorceress]

I am inclined to read Historic Romance these days.
Kindly give reviews on Georgette Heyer's works.
Which novel of her's would be good to start with?

[Nightshade]

There are a few books in there that ought to be read in order namley
the black moth ( or is that Catherine cookson, Im sure thats a cookson book? )
These old shades and Devils club and Infamous Army are a series, and the blck moth isnt techniocally part of the series but I seem to rember that it is first book she wrote and supposedly te backstory mentioned in these old shades is the storyline of black moth.
But I have heard that you can read any of them in any order, you do realise though that she wrote a a number of thriller type things... mainly these
Inspector Hannasyde
Death in the Stocks (1935)
aka Merely Murder
Behold, Here's Poison (1936)
They Found Him Dead (1937)
A Blunt Instrument (1938)

Inspector Hemingway
No Wind of Blame (1939)
Envious Casca (1941)
Duplicate Death (1951)
Detection Unlimited (1953)
anyway happy reading

[Sorceress]

Thank you

Does The Grand Sophy come under any series?

[wessexgirl]

Hi. I used to read Georgette Heyer a lot when I was younger, but I didn't think her books were in a series. I read them in any order, so they must have been written as stand-alone books. Perhaps characters are mentioned from other books, I cant remember, but I do recall that they were fun. She has a lovely knack of capturing the language and the dialogue of the time, and is probably underestimated as a novelist, by being seen as a bit of frothy fun.

[Sorceress]

Frothy fun? I never knew...
I'll look out for funny lines..

[Annamariah]

I just randomly picked up two books by Georgette Heyer a week ago when I visited a library, I had never even heard of her before. I read These Old Shades and Devil's Cub, and I liked them both, though the latter one was better. I'm definitely going to read more of her books, if I just can find them here.

[Karl Rommel]

She has a lovely knack of capturing the language and the dialogue of the time,

Really?

I listened to the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Arabella in March and it did not sound very Regency to me.

I am only interested in it because Stephen Fry finds her an agreeable read. I am still not too sure why.

[wessexgirl]

Really?

I listened to the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Arabella in March and it did not sound very Regency to me.

I am only interested in it because Stephen Fry finds her an agreeable read. I am still not too sure why.

I didn't hear that, but from what I can remember, she uses a lot of dialogue in her books, and a lot of the idioms of the period. The R4 prog. was obviously dramatised, and perhaps they altered things so that it didn't sound archaic to todays listeners. I just remember her books being an enjoyable romp, with feisty heiresses and wards, and stern guardians who were inevitably men of the world, often in the Darcy mode, and they were shot through with the language of the period. She did her research well, and I learned a lot about the society of the time when I read them.

[Nightshade]

arabella? isnt that the odd one with he prostitue called leaky peg?
Look Grand sophy has a grand amazon review but IMO isnt really that good at all, go for one with a strong subplott... ummm like the reluctant widow, or what was the other one with the murders could be the nonsuch, but Im slightly confused... the quiet gentleman I think I thought was another good one.

[Karl Rommel]

Plot for Arabella:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabella_(novel)

The enjoyment is in Heyer's use of language and Arabella seems as good as any place to begin a journey of discovery. The BBC adaptation can no longer be heard sadly.

[Sorceress]

Okay, I'll start off with Arabella.