This is the beginning of a series of blogs on my favorite authors. I am an eclectic reader whose favorite generes are Fantasy, SF, Historical, Regency and Science.
Out of these my favorite guilty pleasure is Heyer. She was born in early last century in UK and had quite life until she was 18 or so, when her younger brother fell ill. To pass his time, she concocted a romance with lots of fight set in late Georgian era. She sent a manuscript of that story("Black Moth") to a publisher and a publishing phenomenon was born.
In a career spanning more than three decades, she published more than 40 regencies for which she was popular. I loved her style of language in almost all the books. She is very good in irony and sarcasm (fav are Sylvester, These old shades and Regency buck). There are a good collection of snippets of her works at her website.
I like her books for her ability to craft silly but fun conversations between the characters. Also her historical novels about medieval England are also good for her use of authentic language.
The major issue with her writing is lack of originality (almost all of her books are written using the same few templates) so it feels like reading the same book again and again with different colors. This was essentially because in later years, due to her husband's profligacy she was forced to write more and more books which obviously have an impact on the quality and originality. so pick the best books of the different template and read only them :)
The second issue with her is that she idolizes English and English Aristocracy. The facts during that time and the facts that she presents in books like "Infamous Army" are not even close. British army did as much looting and pillaging in Spanish peninsula as the French did.
for me she was the reason I rediscovered Regency novels by contemporary authors.
my favorite reads:
Arabella
Regency Buck
Sylvester
Frederica
These Old Shades
My Lord John
Labels: Heyer, Regency
