Friday, March 07, 2008

Heyer We Go Again

My father (who, on one memorable occasion, did dye his hair, to hilarious effect) was, as I might have remarked before, a man of simple tastes - but they were often also markedly contradictory. One of his two favourite novelists - the two he would read and reread endlessly - was Nevil Shute, a more than competent writer who celebrated the kind of quiet male virtues that are now quite out of fashion (though, in more exalted and subtle forms, they are central to Shirley Hazzard's work). His other favourite was, by way of contrast, Georgette Heyer, a 'woman's writer' if ever there was one. I thought she too, with her sub-Austen Regency romances, had been long forgotten - but no: the current Book At Bedtime on Radio 4 is her Arabella. It seems there's a bit of a Heyer revival going on - and we really shouldn't be surprised. With Austen mania at fever pitch, it's bound to spill over into sub-Austen, pseudo-Austen, post-Austen, meta-Austen and the rest, simply to meet demand. Heyer's efficient - and notably well researched - romances may lack all that makes Jane Austen great, but they have found their moment. Again.

5 comments:

  1. Thus far I have managed to avoid Georgette Heyer, but I did succumb a couple of years ago to Patrick O'Brien, whose style owes more than a little to Austen. Actually, I found his books completely delightful, having resisted them for years on the grounds that there was far too much talk of mizzentops, stuns'ls, deck-swabbing and the like. Will Heyer prove to be a disappointment? Amazon here I come.

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  2. Ah, Shute, I remember his novel No Highway and an airliner called the Rutland Reindeer, a fine craft with metal fatigue.

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  3. If you are in to "Golden Age" detective stories (Dame Agatha etc) GH wrote about 10 of the best and all are in print.

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  4. I have heard very good things about Georgette Heyer, and having reread all of Austen's (meagre) canon several times, I'm ready for a near substitute. I loved those Aubrey/Maturin novels, too, Sophie, and I can highly recommend Forrester's Horatio Hornblower series, on which O'Brian also draws (in addition, as you've noted, to the Austen).

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  5. Can't do Hornblower, I'm afraid, Susan. I've tried but I just don't get the same buzz. It's not as complete, somehow.

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