Go Ahead, Win Some Heyer!

An Infamous ArmyUnquestionably powerful librarian Nancy Pearl (I mean, dude, she has her own Action Figure!) has a new article up at NPR of her recommendations for carry-on books that make traveling and waiting a marvelous escape. Says Pearl, “You want a book — either fiction or nonfiction — that’s complex enough to smother your annoyance when the guy in the row ahead reclines his seat into your lap, but not so intellectually challenging that it demands a dictionary.” Oh, hell to the yes, ma’am.

And ho, there, what awesome sauce through yonder linkage breaks? It is the Heyer, and she is on the list! Heyer’s An Infamous Army is among the books recommended as perfect for carry-on reading, to which I say, “Carry on, Ms. Pearl, for verily thou art rocking my socks.”

But wait, there’s more! We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge! Sourcebooks, which has reissued many of Heyer’s books with absolutely scrumptiously opulent covers (if they were pastries they’d be moist cupcakes with four inches of perfect icing), is offering 10 books to Smart Bitch readers.

We have three copies of An Infamous Army, plus one each of Friday’s Child, Cotillion, Royal Escape, False Colours, Lady of Quality, Black Sheep, and Faro’s Daughter. Ten books for ten winners!

So leave a comment, and tell us your favorite Heyer scene, character, or just book in general. I’m not eligible, but I will say with no fear that I can reread over and over the scene in Devil’s Cub where

Kate

Mary (sorry!) begins to sniffle in front of Vidal, and he realizes due to her graceless snurfle she’s not at all like her silly sister, oh, no no no.

I’ll pick 10 winners at random, and you’ll get yourself some Heyer if you win. You have 24 hours. Carry on!

ETA: Heyer, Heyer everwhere! GalleyCat is hosting a GalleyLOLCat contest, wherein the winner gets some Heyer, too. Bitchery reader Mandy’s cat is in the running: seems Tiny likes Julia Quinn. Tiny, says I, has good taste.

Comments are Closed

  1. Strategerie says:

    And there I was, thinking I was just so special…

    Yes, I’m one of those who’s never read Heyer, either. As a matter of fact, I’ll be reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time this summer, too. (And I call myself a romance author?)

    Just like everyone else, I’d love to win, too. I promise I’ll not only be thrilled, I’ll actually read the book!
    -S

  2. Kalen Hughes says:

    I’m a HUGE Heyer fan. I spent a tidy fortune ordering all the Arrow reprints from England (my god, the shipping *shudder* the shipping).

    Many of my favs have already been mentioned, but I’ll stand up for An Infamous Army as well. God I LOVE that book. The heroine is fab (Lady Babs, what a creature!), the hero is to die for, and the book is linked to my favorite “series”: These Old Shades (Justin and Leonie), Devil’s Cub (Justin and Leonie’s son Vidal and Mary), Regency Buck (Worth and Judith), An Infamous Army (Vidal’s granddaughter and Worth’s brother).

    Plus, An Infamous Army has the most moving description of the Highland regiments marching out of Brussels ever written. I cry every time I read it.

  3. Amanda says:

    I was looking at the page that Suze linked to, but I have a question.  I’m assuming these are romance books, but I want to know if there’s sex in these or if it just never goes there.  I’m ok with either, but if there’s sex I want to know what kind.  It says she died in 1974 so I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a lot of forced seduction going on.  I’d appreciate the info.  Thanks!

    Catherine, there is no on-stage sex in Heyer. And DEFINITELY no forced seduction.

  4. Kalen Hughes says:

    I’m assuming these are romance books, but I want to know if there’s sex in these or if it just never goes there.  I’m ok with either, but if there’s sex I want to know what kind.

    No sex. Nothing beyond a kiss. And they’re considered “historical fiction” in England, though they do follow all the “rules” for an RWA def “romance”.

  5. Freyathorn says:

    I’ve re-read my Heyer paperbacks so often that I wear them, so they need replacing!

    I adore the Grand Sophy, and the vague romantic poet.  I love Frederica, who doesn’t mind if her younger brother blows up the attic.

    My favorite of the moment is Sprig Muslin, where the TSTL pretty young thing is rescued by the hero (repeatedly), shoots him, then learns to wring the neck of a chicken.  The denouement has 3 different sets of rescuers all converging on a rural inn, and getting into a traffic jam.

  6. hollygee says:

    Oh, too many scenes from the Fredericka [or The Unknown Ajax, The Grand Sophy, Sylvester] to say here, but maybe when Lord Alverstoke chides Fredericka that her mutt who caused the havoc among the cows in the park was a Tajikistani Hound rather than a Balukistani. Well, that just lost all sense of the joke, but I do enjoy the scene.

    Please pick me-me-me-me!

  7. Catherine says:

    Cool, thanks for answering my question guys.  I’ll definitely have to check her out even if I don’t win.  (I still want to win though, Pick Me!)

  8. Melissa says:

    Oooh, Heyer! She was my introduction to Regencies, when I read “The Grand Sophy”.  From her I discovered Clare Darcy and Barbara Cartland, and then the whole Signet regency line at my favorite used bookstore.  (Forgive me for liking Cartland so much.  I was young and didn’t know better.) 

    My all-time favorite scene is from Devil’s Cub, when Mary shoots Vidal.  But I also like the scene in The Grand Sophy where Sophy shoots Lord Chalbury, so he can’t fight Cousin Charles and ruin her plot to get him and Charles’s sister Cecilia back together.  I forget what he says to her, but her reply of “Good heavens, I am not missish!” always makes me laugh out loud.  Because it’s the understatement of the century.  🙂

  9. HeatherK says:

    Never read anything by her, so can’t give a favorite part. She sounds like a fun read, though, from the way you talk about the books.

  10. Rebecca J says:

    I love them all, but my favorite Heyers are two books: Devil’s Cub and The Grand Sophie.

    I wanted to be Sophie when I was a girl and I wanted to meet Vidal.

    Oh, I remember that I loved Sophia Challoner, Vidal’s love interest.

    And, I just learned from Wikipedia that there is a trilogy here:

    These Old Shades: Duke of Avon
    Devil’s Cub: Marquis of Vidal
    The Infamous Army: Lady Barbara Child (Vidal’s daughter)

    Sigh. I have several editions of La Heyer’s books in boxes and will probably go out and purchase those three again…

  11. JaneDrew says:

    Eeee! Eeee! Heyer reprints! *performs the Dance of Joy*

    This will make my Evil Scheme of acquiring all of her works SO much easier!

    First ran into her work while I was living in Munich for a year, and gleefully devoured it.  It’s incredibly hard to pick just one scene, so I think I will have to go with the scene in “Devil’s Cub” where Mary is recounting her Adventures Thus Far to the gentleman she meets at the inn. Not only because it’s such a treat to hear her perspective on what’s been going on, but since the reader knows more about the gentleman in question than Mary does, everything becomes twice as hysterically funny.

    Also, I love her mysteries (which I haven’t seen mentioned on the list yet). They’re set in contemporary (to her time) England, and always feature a romantic pairing, as well as brilliant characters, and quite interesting plots. And who could resist a book called, “Why Shoot a Butler?” ?

    JaneDrew

    Word: Policy58—it is my policy that if I can manage to purchase 58 Heyer books (multiple copies to give to others, natch), then I will!

  12. Silver James says:

    I have to admit that Regencies aren’t my thing and never have been, though I had to read Austin for a college class and enjoyed them. As I result, I’ve never read Heyer, either. I love Mary Stewart’s early works, which are likely ‘modern romantic suspense’ equivalents to Heyer’s writing style. (By modern, I mean fifties and sixties). So…stick my name in the hat and I’ll happily give Heyer a try. Perhaps I’ll even add some of her works to my Library List to check them out if I don’t win.

  13. Aly Army says:

    I love Heyer—as a kid, I haunted the bookstore for re-issues and have carted all of them from apartment to house to house for the past 20-ish years…. several of mine are tattered and almost cover-less from so much love.

    I love the “These Old Shades” trilogy—it carries the story from the French Court to England and then back to Brussels on the eve of Waterloo…. the characters are all delicious and she ages them rather gracefully.

    The Grand Sophy and Venetia are particular favorites—Sophy’s potential mother-in-law, the languid Spanish grand-dame is spectacular….

    and her unfinished treatment of John of Bedford in My Lord John—wow, I love that one…

    Her mysteries as well are delightful and as witty, erudite and ‘spot on’ as anything by Dorothy Sayers.

  14. Kaetchen says:

    My favorite quote? “A great many dramatic situations start with screaming.”

    No, wait, that was Barbarella.

    Okay, how about this one? “Oh, not at all, ma’am! I like being hit over the head with cudgels!”

    Kat

  15. Jane O says:

    I had an elderly aunt — she died a few years ago at the age of 101 — who thought there were few pleasures to equal a new eorgette Heyer. She, of course, read them when they were new and introduced me to them later. It’s nice to know a new generation i also enjoying them. I join the ranks of those who love the scene in Devil’s Cub where Mary shoots Vidal:

    Miss Challoner saw that he meant it, shut her eyes, and resolutely pulled the trigger. There was a deafening report and the Marquis went staggering back. He recovered in a moment. “It was loaded,” he said coolly.

    nearly 71? Not missing by much.

  16. Kalen Hughes says:

    The scene where Sophy sets her Mamaluke-trained horse into full flying dressage mode in Hyde Park is a fav of mine. And the daunting pigsfoot jelly in Frederica. The use of “stoopid” as an endearment in Venetia. And George. Wonderful, wild, out-of-his-mind-in-love George in Friday’s Child (and the possibly gay buddy in that circle of friends). The French girl who wants to know if her cousin would ride hell for leather to rescue her as she was taken to the guillotine in a tumbrel (and her obsession with the tumbrel and his utter disgust at her overly florid imaginings of her own impending death) in The Talisman Ring. The amazing black moment in Faro’s Daughter where she tells him she hates him and he replies that he thought he’d learned to love her. *squee* Rotherham shoving his beautiful hands into his pockets in Bath Tangle. Ulysses, the mongrel dog, sleeping with the hero’s glove in Arabella. The utter ridiculousness of Sir Nugent in Sylvester.

    Nearly every book has some really special, memorable bit that is simply unforgettable.

  17. Kalen Hughes says:

    And, I just learned from Wikipedia that there is a trilogy here:

    These Old Shades: Duke of Avon
    Devil’s Cub: Marquis of Vidal
    The Infamous Army: Lady Barbara Child (Vidal’s daughter)

    There are actually four related books. Regency Buck has cross over characters with An Infamous Army (and Lady Babs is Vidal’s GRANDDAUGHTER, not his daughter). The hero of An Infamous Army is the younger brother of the hero from Regency Buck, and the secondary romance from Regency Buck also gets entangled in An Infamous Army when the husband develops a crush on Lady Babs (who is, IMO, the template for the bad girl reformed).

  18. I love, love, love the parts in SYLVESTER where Phoebe is writing her book with her Sylvester-like villain.  I also like that Sylvester has a truly angstful event in his past, but it didn’t mold his entire character (as so often in modern romance).

    My favorite of the more serious ones is A CIVIL CONTRACT—I love all the class issues, as well as the way Jenny works so hard at the marriage, and how Adam gradually comes around.

  19. Chelle_St says:

    You know, Venetia may be my favourite heroine anywhere, ever. I am just vain enough to identify with her (I will SO end up with a Yardley if I’m not careful), while also eternally admiring the way she’s sane but in love. And I adore Damerel as well, foxed orgies and all, and the way Aubrey keep getting involved, bless him. Actually, Aubrey is brilliant in his bratty geekiness and vaguely sexy in a one-night stand kind of way. And most of all, I adore the dynamics between the three of them, with Nurse sitting guard like a vulture.

    The only other Heyer-book I’ve read was The Grand Sophy which, although it carries less personal significance for me, is also awesome. Its minor characters are varied and vivid, Sophy is the sexiest thing this side of Argentina, and the whole thing read like a colourful, enchanting collage of monkeys, pistols, bluestockings and annoying little siblings.

  20. Chanel19 says:

    Hanging my head in shame.  I made it through my teen years in the ‘70’s without ever reading a Heyer.  I was Victoria Holt girl.

    Pick me, out of sympathy for a lack of romantic knowledge.

    My word thing is labor86.  Appart from spelling labour wrong, I’m willing to admit that I’d read Heyer if I won, regardless of it being a labour of love or not.

  21. icedtea says:

    I loved the part in Devil’s Cub where Mary gets Vidal to drink her broth after he’s been shot.

  22. It’s so hard to pick just one (for overall story, I veer between “Arabella” and “Regency Buck” as my faves), but one of my very favorite Heyer scenes is towards the end of “Sprig Muslin”—it’s such sheer nonsense that I always have to stop and read it aloud to myself and then chortle manically over it. 

    Amanda, the horrible hoyden, has decided that she can bully her straightlaced beau into marrying her by pretending that she has been ruined by someone else. 

    ” ‘Well, Hildebrand must be the one to do it.  Hildebrand!  HILDEBRAND!’

    Hildebrand… his fingers writhing amongst his disordered locks as he wrestled with literary composition vouchsafed only an absent grunt.

    ‘Hildebrand, would you be so very obliging as to pretend to compromise me and then refuse to marry me?” said Amanda cajolingly.

    ‘No, can’t you see I’m busy!  Ask Uncle Gary!’ said Hildebrand.

    … ‘I think you are very uncivil and disobliging!’ said Amanda roundly.”

    Pure delightlful lunacy.

    On a related note, I read a completely different sort of Heyer this past weekend, one of her mystery novels, called “Penhallow”.  It’s a psychological exploration of the build-up to a murder in a very Agatha Christie-esque setting.  I highly recommend it to Christie and Sayers lovers!

  23. RStewie says:

    Oh, pick me!!  I’m also one of the deprived who has not read my own Heyer, and I can feel parts of me shrivelling from the lack. 

    Honestly, I’d never heard of her until this site.  But reading the favorite scenes, I’ve DEFINITELY been missing out.  Please help!

  24. Sara says:

    I’m fond of Sylvester, the wicked uncle, both the book and the character. Those eyebrows!

    A huge hooray to Nancy Pearl for including Robin McKinley’s Sunshine on the NPR list, as well. What a fab book!

  25. Robinjn says:

    I know I read at least several Georgette Heyer’s when I was young, but it’s been decades and they’re mostly lost to memory. I was wanting to renew my acquaintance, and I even checked one out at the library last night but would love to have a new edition!

  26. polly says:

    Sylvester, the conversation Sylvester and Sir Nugent had about the duck in a thunderstorm. And any bits of the novel Phoebe wrote, which are wonderful send-ups of gothic novels.

    Or the Convenient Marriage, when the heroine proposes to the hero. She’s young and spunky, and he’s ridiculously alpha, and yet it works, and cracks me up everytime.

    Really, almost anything by Heyer. Devil’s Cub is probably my favorite, but so many people have already cited bits of it.

  27. flip says:

    Cotillion is my favorite Georgette Heyer. ( I bought the most recent release for my 18 year old daughter)  But I also love Friday’s Child and the Devil’s Cub. I think that my favorite scene is when Vidal stabs Mary with his sword in his duel with her supposed husband.(This couple did a lot of violence to each other for a romance BEG)  His violent declaration that she belonged to me, made my teen heart swoon.

    Vidal, Vidal, he was the ultimate bad boy.

  28. My all time favorite is the scene where Mary and the mysterious older gentleman are having supper in The Devil’s Cub. 

    My second favorite is the scene where Deborah has Max tied up in the cellar in Faro’s Daughter.

    *Sigh*  So many years of good reading, over and over again!

  29. Aly Army says:

    Oh, one of the best parts has to be in The Grand Sophy when Sophy points out to her lovestruck cousin how completely inept her artistic swain, something along the lines of “romance is all well and good, but there’s something to be said for remembering to bring an umbrella….” Priceless!!!

    And who can forget the pathos in A Civil Contract—and how Heyer does so much with glances and gestures to convey the mood.

    I cannot wait to introduce these delightful heroines to my girls who will love them as much as I do!!

  30. Evelyn says:

    I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts and remembering all of the great Heyer books and lines.  I’ve read all of the Regencies and some of her mysteries but would love the new release!

    Here’s the thing about her books…no sex, little kissing, but clever clever dialogue that leads to the inevitable chemistry and romance.  And, even though her books were written in the first half of the 20th century, her heroines are never TSTL victims.  They may not always make the best decisions but you cheer for them in the end.  And her alpha males are flawed and drool-worthy!

    Here’s a site dedicated to all things Heyer:  http://www.georgette-heyer.com/

  31. jennyOH says:

    I have only read one Heyer, and I don’t remember the title or even the plotline, really, other than it involved a very independent young lady named Annis (or Anise?), and she had a sister-in-law named Amabel.  I remember thinking those were the coolest names ever, and whenever I think of this book it reminds me of my bestest friend from university, with whom I used to trade Mills & Boone and other romance novels back and forth. 

    security word law93 – it is the LAW that I win this book and improve my Heyerology!

  32. Marie44 says:

    So this is what it takes for me to come out of lurkdom and finally register/comment!  I will admit that I haven’t read any of Heyer’s books, but because of the recommendations from this sight several of her books (including Infamous Army) are now on my wishlist at Amazon.  Just before seeing this post, I read the excerpt from Infamous Army that NPR posted, and if I don’t win a copy here I’ll definitely have to go buy one.

  33. DS says:

    Venetia of course when she is trying to convince Lord Damarel that she would rather have him than respectability.

    Or any of the hilariously unpleasant family gatherings in any of her mysteries usually just before or after a murder.

    Or in Unknown Ajax the scene when Hugo finally makes it clear to his toplofty grandfather that his grandfather has no hold, financial or otherwise, on him.

    So very, very many good parts.

  34. Stephanie says:

    I’ve only read The Corinthian, so I’m nominating that for my ‘most awesome bit of Heyer’. 🙂 But I’d love to read more!

  35. Cressida says:

    I’m amazed no one has mentioned False Colours yet!  I adore Kit and Cressy, and the scene in which Cressy faces down the blackmailer and does other spoilertastic things is hilarious and completely upended my expectations for the narrative.

    I also really love Charles’s declaration of dislike in The Grand Sophy, not to mention the fact that she deals with proposals while wrangling ducks.  Absolutely brilliant.

  36. SonomaLass says:

    My favorite right now is Cotillion, because that’s what I just got from the library. I don’t have a favorite character or scene yet, because if I let myself start reading now, this will become YET ANOTHER day when I get nothing checked off of my summer “to do” list.

    All hail free books!!

  37. Oh, The Grand Sophy without a doubt. The whole durn book, in fact. Looooved that book. Also particularly loved The Corinthian.

    I’ve yet to read The Devil’s Cub, but I hear it’s the best.

  38. Cyranetta says:

    Yay for this thread! My definitely beaten-up Heyer collection would probably be on my save-in-case-of-disaster collection.

    I so appreciate seeing the individual scenes that others have listed, and I have to mention yet another from Devils’ Cub at the very end when they are all converging on the inn in France, and the innkeeper snootily inquires who all these strange English are, and Rupert says something about The Old Gentleman being Avon and Vidal being Avon when Leonie comes sweeping in, Rupert chortles something like, “She’s Avon too!” There’s no way I can do it justice without the book in front of me, but the timing of that scene is exquisite!

    The imageword for me was “special13”—it’s psychic, innit?

  39. sarah says:

    Oh! I love Heyer, although I have only read a few!

    My favorite Heyer scene has got to be in FARO’S DAUGHTER—love the “they hate each other but they really don’t” stories—when the heroine “kidnaps” the hero in her basement for a night, and he plays on her sympathy to get her to leave a candle to ward the rats away. She does, and when she checks up on him he’s used the candle to burn through his ropes, but her immediate concern isn’t that he’s free, but that he’s burned himself. She’s so worried about the injury he’s done to his hands that she lets him out of the cellar so she can tend to his wounds.

    Oh! And second favorite, in the same book, is when the heroine’s brother finds out she has a man locked in the cellar and goes down to apologize for his sister and to let him out. But the hero’s refuses to be “freed” because the heroine’s intention was to keep him locked up, and then he scolds the brother for not having the balls for sticking to her plan. HA!

  40. Kate says:

    Can I enter though I’ve never read any Heyer? It’s on my TBR, and this would kick-start me 🙂

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