Margaret C. Sullivan's Blog, page 3

Quotable

“The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing.” – Frances Bean Cobain

Very perceptive from a 22-year-old!

via Frances Bean Cobain on Life After Kurt’s Death: An Exclusive Q&A | Rolling Stone.

All of Heyer: Instead of the Thorn

Published 1923

“Theme handled with restraint, but not needed in small libraries.” – from a review in the Wisconsin Library Bulletin, May 1924 (ouch!)

Instead of the Thorn was Georgette Heyer’s first novel with a contemporary setting. Of course, she wrote it in 1922 or so, so that makes it a period piece for our purposes. In fact, it’s a year or two before the current season of Downton Abbey is set, though the characters are middle-class and the plot is darker in some ways. Not in the occasion...

A bit of housekeeping

I’m working on a final look for this blog, so I’ll be experimenting a bit here and there, and the appearance will change. Excuse our dust!

Plotting Lady Susan

With Love and Friendship currently filming, I’ve been thinking a lot about the plot of Lady Susan, upon which, of course, the film is based, and how it would work in the film medium. I stress I have no idea how Whit Stillman, who I believe has written the adaptation, has decided to adapt the original; I am working completely with the original as Austen wrote it.

In case you haven’t read this novella yet (and why not? It’s quite short and enjoyable, and free to read if you have an e-reader, tab...

All of Heyer: “A Proposal to Cicely”

Published in The Happy Magazine, September 4, 1922

Republished in Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas

As promised…”and now for something completely different!”

In her biography of Georgette Heyer, Jennifer Kloester writes that Heyer was extremely productive in the early 1920s. Along with her books, she was publishing short stories in magazines. These markets were common in the UK at that time and paid well, and Heyer was helping to support her family, so the extr...

All of Heyer: Powder and Patch

Published 1923 as The Transformation of Philip Jettan by Stella Martin

Republished in 1930 as Powder and Patch without the original final chapter

“Short on plot, it is full of light-hearted comedy, and surprising people like it.” – JaneAiken Hodge

Powder and Patch is not one of Heyer’s best-known or best-loved novels, though it’s very entertaining. It also had an interesting journey to publication–both times.

An early edition of the republished Powder and Patch

It is not known why Heyer publishe...

Spring is Coming

Football’s over, congratulations to the Patriots, blah blah blah, snow be hanged, fooey on groundhogs, PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT IN 17 DAYS!!!!

I totally stole this from the Phillies’ Facebook page, and I hope they don’t mind too much BECAUSE BASEBALL!

All of Heyer: The Great Roxhythe

Published: 1923

“It is probably the worst book Georgette Heyer ever wrote.” – Joan Aiken Hodge

Have you ever read a book and it was kind of awful, but you kept reading it because it had to get better? And then it never does?

Cover of the first edition

It pains me to say that about The Great Roxhythe. It pains me to say that about any of Georgette Heyer’s novels. She is a favorite, as the Marquis of Roxhythe himself was a favorite of Charles II, and one does not like to think ill of one’s favorite...

Research

Oooh. What could we be writing, mmmmm? ;-)

All of Heyer: A Note on Copyright

Greetings, Gentle Readers. A question about the copyright of Georgette Heyer’s bookscame up on Twitter, and I thought it worth dedicating a blog post to it. I hasten to add that I am not a lawyer, nor an expert on copyright. I am just putting together the information I know.

The Black Moth was published in 1921. My understanding of copyright is that any book published prior to 1923 is in the public domain. The text is available on Project Gutenberg, which lends credence to this idea. However,...