Georgette Heyer Fans discussion
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What is your least favorite Heyer novel?
My least favourite the one I rarely reread is My Cousin Kate. It is a darker story apparently written at a difficult time in Heyers life and is not as sparkly as her usual books.
I also did not enjoy Cousin Kate - the book is really more of a Gothic horror story than a romance.
Ilze wrote: "I also did not enjoy Cousin Kate - the book is really more of a Gothic horror story than a romance."I'm glad I saw this thread. After seeing that Cousin Kate is more gothic then romance, it makes me want to read it. LOL - one man's trash is another man's treasure!
Cousin Kate is unusual; I can't think of another Heyer like it in tone or plot. Its vividness comes from descriptions of the off-centeredness of its secondary characters. Cousin Kate herself is a model of good sense, resourcefulness and sanity. Thanks goodness that although the setting is Gothic, she is not!
I did not like Arabella at all.In my opinion the story wasn't great, when you compare it to the other books.
I haven't read it yet. I am on charity Girl.
Karlyne wrote: "Cousin Kate is unusual; I can't think of another Heyer like it in tone or plot. Its vividness comes from descriptions of the off-centeredness of its secondary characters. Cousin Kate herself is a ..."Beautifully said. But not many agree to this. They find Kate Gothic.seriously what does it mean?.
For a good definition of Gothic fiction, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_f.... Cousin Kate matches this definition very well.
Ilze wrote: "For a good definition of Gothic fiction, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_f.... Cousin Kate matches this definition very well."But I don't get the feeling that Cousin Kate is meant to fill us with terror (the main ingredient for a Gothic). Maybe I'm just lacking in sensibility, but I felt more empathy than terror. I never doubted in the least that Kate would find her way out of the mess without running into monks, ghosts or creaking chains. I do have to admit, though, that the egomaniac character (don't want to spoil the story by naming names), fills me with something very close to horror!
I just finished and really didn't like Penhallow. I also HATE Regency Buck. Judith and Worth both really annoy me.
Aarti wrote: "I just finished and really didn't like Penhallow. I also HATE Regency Buck. Judith and Worth both really annoy me."I couldn't put up with Judith at all. The book was very good.
I felt Judith was extremely annoying as well although she improves in An Infamous Army.
Claire wrote: "I felt Judith was extremely annoying as well although she improves in An Infamous Army."I agree.
Faro's Daughter - which I'll admit I picked up because it had a character named Adrian in it. It's been a while since I read it, but it just didn't grab me at all.
Adrienne wrote: "Faro's Daughter - which I'll admit I picked up because it had a character named Adrian in it. It's been a while since I read it, but it just didn't grab me at all."Out of the four I've Heyer's I've read, Faro's Daughter was also my least favorite to date.
However, I've got quite a few left to read.
:)
This is easy - Cousin Kate! It's the only one of her romances that I've never re-read since I first bought it in 1984.
My least favorite novel should be The Cotillion. It was the second Georgette Heyer book for me and was so boring, I still regret reading it. I was crestfallen that my journey through Heyer's wonderland had come to an end.
Oh Kiki - Sprig muslin I found fun, Faro;s daughter I enjoyed and These Old shades has fond memories attached. Shows that difference we have as people how we like different ones of her books, and dislike different ones. I really wonder if where we are things happen that make us prefer one over the other.
Cousin Kate, by FAR has been my least favorite Heyer novel. And the only other one's that just plain bored me to tears were False Colours and The Foundling. Everything else I have found relatively entertaining or completely lovely.
Well, I mostly enjoyed False Colours - there are some great scenes in it, even though the mother is annoying. But otherwise I agree with Amanda about The Foundling and Cousin Kate.
I find it incomprehensible that anyone could not fall for dear Kit and sweet Gilly, but then, I happen to like nice men. ;D
Gilly is VERY sweet...but I admit BOTH times I picked it up...it was so slow I gave up and skipped to the end. False Colours I gave up half way through...all of her other books have kept me captivated. I've read all but a handful of them.
Another one of my least favourite would be Spanish Bride
My least favorite is The Tollgate. I didn't like that the heroine was such a SAP!!
Well, most of the heroines have nothing to recommend them.It's Regency and not modern world.;)
I don't remember the heroine of the Tollgate being a sap (I also don't remember her name; I'm sure it'll come to me in the middle of the night). I remember her as being caught off guard by falling in love rather instantly, and as being caught by circumstances but I found her a pretty strong character. What did you find sappy about her, Elizabeth?
I really liked the tollgate.The heroine is Helen or Nell and she was a lot less sappy than the girl Gareth marries in Sprig Muslin. She really is passive and does not deserve Gareth at all.
Aha! Helen Stornaway! And the Giant was Jack -- was that really his name?!
I had forgotten about that one,its not great, avoid The Conquerer, Simon the Coldheart, My Lord John and stick to the regency novels especially Venetia, Fredericia, Arabella, and if you are disappointed then GH is not for you.
Michy wrote: "I am only on my fourth Georgette Heyer, but so far the one I've liked the least is the one I'm reading now. :( The Spanish Bride. It's as dull and boring as a bowl of dry cornflakes.... I'm onl..."I agree. It was with great difficulty i finished the book.
Claire wrote: "I had forgotten about that one,its not great, avoid The Conquerer, Simon the Coldheart, My Lord John and stick to the regency novels especially Venetia, Fredericia, Arabella, and if you are disappo..."You forgot Devil's Cub
Claire wrote: "I had forgotten about that one,its not great, avoid The Conquerer, Simon the Coldheart, My Lord John and stick to the regency novels especially Venetia, Fredericia, Arabella, and if you are disappo..."Don't forget my favorite, The Grand Sophy!
I didn't enjoy some of her earlier works- the language was often hard work. For instance Powder and Patch, The Masqueraders and The Black Moth- I think she hit her stride in "These Old Shades".
Well, after 5 successful Heyer's under my belt, I found my personal dud:The Convenient Marriage
Horry (yes, the heroine's name is Horry - short for Horacia) is quite possibly the most stupid Heyer heroine ever. She's immature, silly, vapid and she stutters (which isn't necessarily a bad thing),
e-except t-that H-Heyer f-forces y-you t-to r-read h-her s-stuttering s-sentences e-every t-time s-she o-opens h-her m-mouth...get the picture?
Dreadful book. I couldn't finish it.
I couldn't even finish These Old Shades, the male lead was such a horrible person. And the "heroine" loving and defending him just made me think she was a bad person, too. There is loving someone who has flaws, and then there is being crazy!
Hannah wrote: "Well, after 5 successful Heyer's under my belt, I found my personal dud:The Convenient Marriage
Horry (yes, the heroine's name is Horry - short for H..."
I agree! I have no idea why the MUCH older male lead thinks she's wife material!
"Friday's Child" - The heroine's name is endearingly called Hero, nicknamed Kitten by her absolute JERK of a husband (whose name is Sherry - snicker). She has a case of hero worship (sorry!)of a childhood friend. He turns out to make her life hell.Towards the end he abandons her & whores it up in London. She meets a nice stable guy who loves her & in the end the jerk comes back to make up to her. Guess who she ends up with? Not one I'll EVER re-read.
I'm a bit shocked ( not quite to the point of a fainting couch you understand, but still...) of all the things and characters people don't like about various Heyers . I'm in the not-liking category re the historicals myself, My Lord John being my least favourite by far, mostly because of the seriously tedious -though no doubt perfectly accurate- use of mediaeval dialect. Just too much to plough through.But, dear hearts. Nell Stornaway a sap!!??? Horatia Winwood vapid??!! Cotillion and Arabella boring ??? ... well, I may have to have recourse to a vinaigrette after all. Forgive me for suggesting it, but it seems to me there is a smidge of judging these heroines etc as if they were contemporary .
I agree with Barbara. I cannot read the historicals (Spanish Bride, Lord John, Infamous Army etc.). I too cannot understand how Nell Stornaway can be described as a sap! The whole point of The Tollgate is that she is NOT a sap but is too strong and forthright for the period, yet John is strong enough to love that in her. And I don't recognise that precis of Friday's Child...I'm not keen on The Convenient Marriage, but I think that's because I don't like "the big misunderstanding due to lack of communication" as a theme. Cousin Kate is a bit too gothic for me too, and the romance in it is almost an after-thought.
I have only read about 5 Heyers but so far my least favorite is Charity Girl.
Hi Hj, I know what you mean by getting cross with the 'misunderstanding due to lack of communication' thing. But I think maybe it was fair enough that Horry didn't really know what and how to say the words that would have made Rule aware of her feelings vis a vis him AND also about Lady Thing who she had been told he was still sleeping with . She was only 17 and had been brought up strictly and ignorantly as was the fashion.Rule was staggered, I think, to find himself in love with her and didn't quite how to handle such a novel situation . I love the bit where her maid comes into the bedroom when he is with Horry and he goes hastily away with " all the embarrassment of a man found making love to his own wife at ten o'clock in the morning" , or something like that.
I do think Cindy above has a point when she asks what WAS he thinking - that she would be a 'good wife'? I guess he was , he thought she would do as well as any other well bred and well brought up girl of her class and type and was amusing into the bargain. But he should have known that, well bred and brought up or not, she was only 17 and clearly of an affectionate and loving nature. And he didn't expect to fall in love himself, and with his own young wife.
Barbara wrote: "I'm a bit shocked ( not quite to the point of a fainting couch you understand, but still...) of all the things and characters people don't like about various Heyers . I'm in the not-liking category re the historicals."I've never managed to get past a few pages of the historicals, so I don't think about them. But thinking about them now, they would have to be right up there among my un-favorites.
I'd like to expand a little on something Barbara wrote.I think we DO judge these stories sometimes as if they are contemporary. I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that in Regency times marrying your first cousin was not only done, but in some cases expected. Now you only hear that in red neck jokes.
Age is also a problem with me. Horry was only 17 & wasn't her husband in his late 30's? I've read in some novels where young teenage girls are married off to men old enough to be their grandfathers.
I really like "The Grand Sophy" by the way. It's just hard to "forget" that they're first cousins when it's mentioned SO often in the story.
Cindy wrote: "I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that in Regency times marrying your first cousin was not only done, but in some cases expected"This has never bothered me in any of Heyer's books. By the time I read my first one, I'd read enough novels actually written during the 19th century where nobody blinked an eye at the idea of cousins marrying, so I was used to the idea. But I do remember being very surprised the first time, when I was a child and watching "The Importance of Being Ernest" with my parents, at the part where Gwendolyn and Jack are found to be first cousins and they still plan to marry. My mother explained to me that it was OK at the time the play was written.
And maybe it doesn't bother me because I read so much fantasy and science fiction, and I'm used to immersing myself in another world (the past is another world) and other ways of thinking.
It's still reasonably OK to marry a cousin in the UK or Australia. Not that many do, but it's not a shocking thing, just a bit odd.I was intrigued to read in Wiki that it is on the way up in the UK, largely due to immigration/arranged marriages among the Pakistani community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_m...
I suppose their reasons are the same-but-different if that makes sense, ie people marry their cousins because that largely ensures they are of the right caste/class/group/SES level etc.
Not that Regency marriages had the issue of family immigration , of course !
I have a real soft spot for Simon the Coldheart because it was the first Heyer I read. Well, the first one I finished. The first one I read was Charity Girl and I still don't much like it. The ones I never re-read are The Conqueror and My Lord John. I enjoyed Royal Escape more than I expected to.
Powder and Patch hands down. Heroine grates on my nerves. I didn't much care for hero.The only Heyer book I've read that I have disliked.
Animalia wrote: "Powder and Patch hands down. Heroine grates on my nerves. I didn't much care for hero.The only Heyer book I've read that I have disliked."
Amen! IMO, Powder and Patch is HORRIBLE.
Georgette Heyer Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
Post Captain (other topics)The Convenient Marriage (other topics)
The Reluctant Widow (other topics)
Detection Unlimited (other topics)
Simon the Coldheart (other topics)
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So far, the only Heyer book, that I've read, that I didn't enjoy was Devil's Cub. I know it's such a big fav among the masses, but it fell flat, for me.