Word: heyer
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fans may feel comfortable together at their conventions, but their odd interests often separate them into small groups. One of the more unusual of these groups is made up of aficionados of Georgette Heyer, an author of 19th century novels of manners. This group held a formal dance at Boskone; another group, the Society for Creative Anachronism, regularly holds jousts and tourneys in full medieval battle dress. The conventions attract devotees of horror movies, computers, historical and military games, comic books, and even puns. For the latter, Boskone included a special pun competition...
Concerning your shameful Scrutiny article of January 15: I wouldn't object to (nor, God forbid, would I read) Georgette Heyer novels (if novel is the word I want) or to their prune-brained simpering advocates if dime-store penny-dreadfuls like The Grand Sophy were not crowding the few remaining REAL books right off the shelves. The basic equation: buy a Gothic and starve a poet; no there is not room for both. The blood is on your hands, Gay Seidman. Harris Collingwood...
...reader, sighing romantically, is left with enchanting scenes like this one from the end of The Grand Sophy, one of Heyer's best...
...course, Sophy had just manipulated everyone else in the novel (for their own benefit) into matches she had dreamed up, and had set Mr. Rivenhall's life completely on end, but you can see why those of us who read Heyer prefer to keep it a secret...
Nevertheless, when Heyer died last year, BBC announced it on the international evening news. You can find her books in backwoods stores throughout the Empire, and they are beginning to infiltrate bookstores here, too. Her romances follow the best tradition of the comedy of manners, with not too much substance, and plenty of wit. Like Jane Austen, she has enough of an eye for the slightly ridiculous to keep you laughing, but she never requires the mental gymnastics of serious literature. No one is ever murdered, no one hurt--you simply ramble along in a world of idiosyncrasies and foibles...