Happy New Year!
Jan. 3rd, 2011 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
insanenekoI haven't been online much lately as I've been reading reading reading. Mostly I've been continuing to read Georgette Heyer as the books have become available. A lot of the copies have been early editions (sometimes even first American editions) which have charming covers that actually relate to the content of the books! I took pics of the covers of the books I'm mentioning in this post...
Frederica reminded me a bit of The Grand Sophy in that the titular character is a managing female concerned with a family with children. I like Frederica better, though, because I think Frederica, the book and the character, seem more realistic. Sophy is just to magically good at knowing what's good for everyone and getting things done. Frederica deals with what's been dealt her and doesn't always succeed. I could feel for Frederica. I also liked the guy she falls for, as well as her two youngest brothers. Some of her other siblings? Not so much. But I can see such a bright and happy future for the characters I do like, so it's all good. XD;
Alverstoke trying to propose to Frederica and not going through because she's distracted by that restorative pork jelly!
Alverstoke being forced to ask for Frederica's hand by his sister and his secretary...Love the "you can't expect me to be blind!" line.
Alverstoke being evil to his really annoying sister Louisa by putting on the ball to launch her daughter only to really launch Frederica and Charis. And totally enjoying it. He was such a dick in the beginning, so it was nice seeing him change and learn to care for other people.
The things the Merrivilles do and how they suck Alverstoke into their problems! Frederica and the dog in the park, Jessamy and that...contraption he crashes in the street, Felix and the balloon.
I wanted to spork Charis and Harry. WTF causing so much trouble while Frederica is still dealing with Felix? Endymion is too stoopid for me to care about, and while Charis isn't smart she should know Frederica has a lot on her hands! And Harry...Ugh. No wonder Frederica runs everything.
I adored Sylvester; or The Wicked Uncle. It featured a truly plain heroine and a lot of genuine conflict between the heroine and hero. They really rip into each other at times, instead of the more controlled banter in many other Heyer novels. The girl is Phoebe, a plain girl who'd had a very unremarkable first London season but had managed to write an amusing novel based on the various people she'd met during her season. The guy is Sylvester, the Duke of Salford, very rich, very consequential, very eligible. He wants a wife and goes about looking for one. He looks into Phoebe because she's his godmother's granddaughter. She wants nothing to do with him as she'd had a bad impression of him from her season and had made him into the villain of her soon-to-be-published novel (mostly due to his eyebrows). When he visits her home, she thinks he's going to ask for her hand and runs away with her childhood friend (and almost brother) Tom. Thanks to an accident they end up holed up in an inn, which Sylvester also chances upon. He helps them out, even helping Phoebe get to London to her grandmother's house. Sylvester is offended that she'd run away from him (and not running away with her "true love" as initially supposed) and decides to make her fall for him. In London he pays her a lot of attention. They seem to be getting along pretty well, but the publication of her book messes things up royally. There's a kidnapping by the two most worthless people ever and an intervention by an awesome mother before things are sorted out.
Lines I adore:
Not a speech worthy of a man who made love charmingly, but Sylvester had never before tried to make love to a lady seething with rage and contempt.
He paused, and then said, as though the words were wrung out of him: "O God, Mama, I've made such a mull of it! What am I to do?"
I love the utterly and totally botched proposal, especially since Sylvester usually is so suave. Sylvester gets slammed so much in this book, but that whole proposal debacle must've been so humbling. He has to ask for his mom for help! And she gives it to him!
I also love:
...Phoebe heaved a sigh of relief, and offered a further palliative. "I didn't mean that wicked thing I said to you!"
Which one, my precious!" enquired Sylvester, relapsing into idiocy.
What is so awesome about this exchange:
A)Truly saccharine and idiotic
B) Which one? I love how she's said so many wicked things to him that he has to ask her!
I loved Tom SO MUCH. He's a super nice guy, so practical and dependable. I can totally see him as an awesome husband and father some day. I loved how he told Sylvester how things would be if Sylvester decided to take Edmund back by himself.
Edmund's mother was tiresome. God, what an awful woman. Her new husband Sir Nugent was also tiresome, but also hilarious. I loved how Edmund labeled him a "Bad Man" and the soul wrenching shout he gave when he lost the tassels on his boots.
Frederica reminded me a bit of The Grand Sophy in that the titular character is a managing female concerned with a family with children. I like Frederica better, though, because I think Frederica, the book and the character, seem more realistic. Sophy is just to magically good at knowing what's good for everyone and getting things done. Frederica deals with what's been dealt her and doesn't always succeed. I could feel for Frederica. I also liked the guy she falls for, as well as her two youngest brothers. Some of her other siblings? Not so much. But I can see such a bright and happy future for the characters I do like, so it's all good. XD;
Alverstoke trying to propose to Frederica and not going through because she's distracted by that restorative pork jelly!
Alverstoke being forced to ask for Frederica's hand by his sister and his secretary...Love the "you can't expect me to be blind!" line.
Alverstoke being evil to his really annoying sister Louisa by putting on the ball to launch her daughter only to really launch Frederica and Charis. And totally enjoying it. He was such a dick in the beginning, so it was nice seeing him change and learn to care for other people.
The things the Merrivilles do and how they suck Alverstoke into their problems! Frederica and the dog in the park, Jessamy and that...contraption he crashes in the street, Felix and the balloon.
I wanted to spork Charis and Harry. WTF causing so much trouble while Frederica is still dealing with Felix? Endymion is too stoopid for me to care about, and while Charis isn't smart she should know Frederica has a lot on her hands! And Harry...Ugh. No wonder Frederica runs everything.
I adored Sylvester; or The Wicked Uncle. It featured a truly plain heroine and a lot of genuine conflict between the heroine and hero. They really rip into each other at times, instead of the more controlled banter in many other Heyer novels. The girl is Phoebe, a plain girl who'd had a very unremarkable first London season but had managed to write an amusing novel based on the various people she'd met during her season. The guy is Sylvester, the Duke of Salford, very rich, very consequential, very eligible. He wants a wife and goes about looking for one. He looks into Phoebe because she's his godmother's granddaughter. She wants nothing to do with him as she'd had a bad impression of him from her season and had made him into the villain of her soon-to-be-published novel (mostly due to his eyebrows). When he visits her home, she thinks he's going to ask for her hand and runs away with her childhood friend (and almost brother) Tom. Thanks to an accident they end up holed up in an inn, which Sylvester also chances upon. He helps them out, even helping Phoebe get to London to her grandmother's house. Sylvester is offended that she'd run away from him (and not running away with her "true love" as initially supposed) and decides to make her fall for him. In London he pays her a lot of attention. They seem to be getting along pretty well, but the publication of her book messes things up royally. There's a kidnapping by the two most worthless people ever and an intervention by an awesome mother before things are sorted out.
Lines I adore:
Not a speech worthy of a man who made love charmingly, but Sylvester had never before tried to make love to a lady seething with rage and contempt.
He paused, and then said, as though the words were wrung out of him: "O God, Mama, I've made such a mull of it! What am I to do?"
I love the utterly and totally botched proposal, especially since Sylvester usually is so suave. Sylvester gets slammed so much in this book, but that whole proposal debacle must've been so humbling. He has to ask for his mom for help! And she gives it to him!
I also love:
...Phoebe heaved a sigh of relief, and offered a further palliative. "I didn't mean that wicked thing I said to you!"
Which one, my precious!" enquired Sylvester, relapsing into idiocy.
What is so awesome about this exchange:
A)Truly saccharine and idiotic
B) Which one? I love how she's said so many wicked things to him that he has to ask her!
I loved Tom SO MUCH. He's a super nice guy, so practical and dependable. I can totally see him as an awesome husband and father some day. I loved how he told Sylvester how things would be if Sylvester decided to take Edmund back by himself.
Edmund's mother was tiresome. God, what an awful woman. Her new husband Sir Nugent was also tiresome, but also hilarious. I loved how Edmund labeled him a "Bad Man" and the soul wrenching shout he gave when he lost the tassels on his boots.
