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Georgette Heyer's Regency World Part 1. Introduction to Chapter 7
Oh wow! What a wonderful thing to have. I read it when it first came out and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to going over it again with Heyer fans.
Started it last night, when my main read for June, The Overstory, seemed too challenging for my tired brain.
Very cool! I’m reading the ebook on scribd, this is my first read.
I have the ebook and it is my first time reading.
Jackie wrote: "I have the ebook and it is my first time reading."My first read too. I bought the paperback last year and I’ve been tempted to start it a few times, but thought I’d wait for the group read!
The mail delivery came through for me, so I now have this paperback edition:
I'm in the middle of a library book, but should be able to dip into this by tomorrow or the day after.
I have it on my keeper shelf for reference and will be dipping in here and there. It's a useful book to have on hand while reading Regency novels.
I should be able to start today.
I will open it back up tonight. After seeing how quickly I went through the first chapter, I am going to try to slow down, pace myself
I'm trying to do only one chapter at a time--the author does cram in a lot of info into each chapter.I've just finished Chapter 3--"A Man's World"--which was very interesting.
Barb in Maryland wrote: "I'm trying to do only one chapter at a time--the author does cram in a lot of info into each chapter.I've just finished Chapter 3--"A Man's World"--which was very interesting."
Me, too! Yes, best to take a chapter at a time - we are all probably familiar with a lot of the info from our Regency reads, but it is a lot of info all in one bite!
I always wanted to know what a haha was - for some reason I thought it was a fence or gate."This was a ditch or escarpment, designed to be invisible from the house, with a vertical wall on the inner side and a shallow slope on the park side designed to keep out wandering livestock."
I can totally understand not wanting wayward livestock wandering around your land.
Finishing up chapter 2, and still really enjoying the book. I don't often remember seeing a "Groom of the Chambers" although the book mentions one in The Foundling. Were there more?
Can you imagine how special a pineapple would have been in Regency England? Fruit is so underappreciated nowadays.
I feel like there's a Groom of the Chambers in Sylvester, but am not certain--those kinds of details tend to store only in my short-term memory.I've finished chapter 5 and enjoying it a lot but I do feel it's a bit repetitive, and I wish there were footnotes. Would love to know the sources of some of her more blanket claims!
I have started.Finished the first chapter. Love the line drawings, which are copies of earlier drawings.
Examples are used from GH's novels. So far anyway no major plot points from these novels are mentioned.
The facts about society rankings are interesting, but this isn't the sort of book I can read quickly.
There is a minor spoiler about False Colours at the end of chapter 5.
I am in the chapter about men, and glad to hear discussed what all the words mean: "Bucks, Beaus and Dandies". I feel like I had the best grasp of those words she used in her titles Corinthian and Nonesuch, but there are so many more. Looking forward to the chapter on women!
So interesting about the Housekeeper needing to know first aid! When reading some regency books, you either hear about the housekeeper or the lady's maid going in to help out, or being called when there is a problem.
That piqued my interest and made me think, too! While characters in the novels are forever calling on the services of a physician, surgeon, or apothecary, they don't call for those services on behalf of the servants. So probably the housekeeper (or housewife, in households that didn't have a housekeeper) did a lot of their care using folk remedies. Probably more effective than some of the elaborate formulations of physicians who did their training by reading Galen and other classical authors!
Hoping to start tomorrow. Was finishing a book that I was totally hooked on.
I started today. Got a bit of bad news this evening and can't concentrate on it tonight. So I may be a bit later joining in.
So sorry to hear this, Teresa! Hoping for the best for you.
Chapter 2.Nothing like a discussion of chamber pots & privys to take the glamour out of Regency life!
Interesting learning how the households were run.
Chapter 3 Felt like I already knew most of this.
You know, I can never get enough of indoor hot and cold running water. It is one of my fave things in the world!
Abigail wrote: "So sorry to hear this, Teresa! Hoping for the best for you."Thanks Abigail. I appreciate it.
Critterbee❇ wrote: ... a haha ... "This was a ditch or escarpment, designed to be invisible from the house, with a vertical wall on the inner side and a shallow slope on the park side designed to keep out wandering livestock..."The point is that a haha fences off a house's gardens from the park without interrupting the view with a line of fence or a wall. Uninterrupted rural views from a country house were very fashionable. Capability Brown (1716–1783) had really influential approaches to landscape and landscaping which involved creating such views, using hahas, sunken roads, water, trees (and sometimes moving whole villages out of sight).
Chapter 4 - I found the chapter about the women more interesting, especially the potted biographies of the Almacks patronesses.
Yes, that was useful! And I was impressed with the extent to which Heyer chose one patroness or another in a story based on their personality and whom they might know, not just randomly using a name.
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Chapter 2.Nothing like a discussion of chamber pots & privys to take the glamour out of Regency life!
Interesting learning how the households were run.
Chapter 3 Felt like I already knew most o..."
So true! Primitive plumbing sure takes away the glamorous shine...but I did find the household info interesting. And I agree, sounds like housekeepers had to be sort of a “Jill of all trades.”
Critterbee❇ wrote: "You know, I can never get enough of indoor hot and cold running water. It is one of my fave things in the world!"Makes you truly grateful, doesn’t it?
Teresa wrote: "I started today. Got a bit of bad news this evening and can't concentrate on it tonight. So I may be a bit later joining in."Take care, Teresa, hope all is well.
Charlotte wrote: "Critterbee❇ wrote: ... a haha ... "This was a ditch or escarpment, designed to be invisible from the house, with a vertical wall on the inner side and a shallow slope on the park side designed to k..."I remember reading that somewhere, about moving a whole village - yikes!
Dipped in again today. There sure is a lot of information in it. I'm still on Chapter 1. The description of the aristocracy had my head spinning!!!!!!
Teresa wrote: "Dipped in again today. There sure is a lot of information in it. I'm still on Chapter 1. The description of the aristocracy had my head spinning!!!!!!"There is a lot of info. I think it will be a slow read for many of us.
Chapter 5. I did write down a couple of brief notes. On page 103 there is an explanation of the term crim. con which puzzled a few of us when we came across it in the novel (Cotillion?) It is criminal conversations.
Pg 107 The reason for Kitty learning the quadrille aren't right - are they?
Pg 109 I was interested that the theatres were licensed - so they effectively had a duopoly.
I'm starting to agree with Abigail that some sourcing would be nice.
I must have skipped right over the False Colours spoiler!
The False Colours spoiler wasn't a huge thing--it just gave away who ends up with whom, which is probably pretty clear early on in the arc of the story.
Abigail wrote: "The False Colours spoiler wasn't a huge thing--it just gave away who ends up with whom, which is probably pretty clear early on in the arc of the story."I know these stories so well I probably do miss seeing this stuff. :)
I’m just the opposite, I know the stories so little, because I’ve read many of them only once or twice, that I forget which characters go with which titles - except a few really stand out, like Hugo from Ajax, or Jenny and her father from Civil Contract, or Freddy from Cotillion, or Gilly from Foundling. Don’t know why, maybe because the stories are a bit unusual.
That's still a good number you've remembered Susan. I've read some of them many times and sometimes I have to really think about who they're talking about.
Chapter 1 is super useful for anyone wanting to write a period piece. I should have given this book to my parents to read before we watched Belgravia. The story would have made more sense to them if they understood the class structure.
Teresa wrote: "That's still a good number you've remembered Susan. I've read some of them many times and sometimes I have to really think about who they're talking about."Thanks, I’m trying, but so many of the romances are similar, they just run together- I enjoy them all, but I just don’t remember individual characters!
Susan in NC wrote: "Teresa wrote: "That's still a good number you've remembered Susan. I've read some of them many times and sometimes I have to really think about who they're talking about."Thanks, I’m trying, but ..."
That must mean every reread is a nice surprise! 😊
Ch 6. Lots of interesting background detail. Reinforces how much of a man's world Regency times were.
Ch 7 I found this interesting
The practice of medicine was still largely unregulated when the Regency began, & anyone could try his or her hand in almost any area except midwifery which was more strictly controlled.
Anyone know why this is? Maybe midwives being mostly female the male regulators didn't trust them?
Mod
"Pg 107 The reason for Kitty learning the quadrille aren't right - are they?..."
No, and it's one of several annoying mistakes about the novels themselves which are really inexcusable. Meg can't possibly have been teaching Kitty to dance to improve her marriage prospects, because as far as she's concerned, Kitty's engaged already. That's a major plot point.
Jenny wrote: "I was surprised to see the spelling 'beaus' (rather than 'beaux')..."
I've had a (quick) look online & both plurals are mentioned & I can't find a source that says which is used in a particular country.
My copy of this book is printed in the UK, but Jen is Australian, & I think like Kiwis they would write beaus.
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Teresa wrote: "That's still a good number you've remembered Susan. I've read some of them many times and sometimes I have to really think about who they're talking about."Than..."
I do enjoy every read, pretty much, that’s why spoilers don’t really bother me - I don’t remember a lot, anyway!
You’re farther ahead, I’m only in chapter 5, but I don’t know why midwifery was different. I just read a book about quack cures throughout the history of medicine, so I knew there wasn’t a great deal of regulation, and a lot of quackery about, and superstitious and outdated beliefs and practices.
Mod
Look at Arabella's father: he's not well-off, but when the money is forthcoming, his daughter rates a presentation at court and vouchers for Almack's, and is described as 'unquestionably a lady', none of which would have happened if the family had been deemed middle-class. Patience Chartley's parents, too, (The Nonesuch) feel that (view spoiler).
And look at Jane Austen's clergyman heroes - are Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey) and Edward Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility) middle-class? Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park) certainly isn't, and his family (headed by a baronet) are on regular dining terms with the parson, Dr Grant, and his family.
I think it depended on what class the clergyman was born into and what his family were, rather than his social status depending on his clerical rank.
Jenny wrote: "Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote:"No, and it's one of several annoying mistakes about the novels themselves which are..."
Yes - it's grating - a sign that Jen was relying on her recollection of the book rather than checking.
Mod
Yes, that was one of the things I was glad to know more about. I was surprised to read how young they were! I had wondered how it came about that two of them had obviously foreign names.
I have read the term levee often, but never knew it was an all-male type of presentation/introduction into society. ALways thought it was a party at a palace :)I am noticing that April Lady is mentioned a lot, and A Civil Contract (which makes sense because it features class difference)
let's see if I can copy/paste this definition of levee (the last one is kind of funny) : noun
noun: levee; plural noun: levees
ARCHAIC•NORTH AMERICAN
a formal reception of visitors or guests.
"the great stop on the Washington social circuit was the diplomat's levee"
HISTORICAL
an afternoon assembly for men held by the British monarch or their representative.
"he was presented at one of Prince Albert's levees in 1850"
ARCHAIC
a reception of visitors just after rising from bed.
Georgette Heyer Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England (other topics)Jane Austen And Her Times, 1775-1817 (other topics)
A Civil Contract (other topics)
Ross Poldark / Demelza / Jeremy Poldark (other topics)
Demelza (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Lesley-Anne McLeod (other topics)Jennifer Kloester (other topics)
I'm just going to set up two threads for this non fiction book by Jennifer Kloester I haven't read this book, but browsing the index shows there may be very minor spoilers for some of GH's Regency Books.
I acquired this book a few years ago when I won almost all of GH's novels in an auction.
When I went to the GH Conference in Sydney a few years back, I took my copy with me & Jen Kloester autographed it for me.