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Beautiful Books: Sourcebooks’ Reissues of Georgette Heyer

June 29, 2011 by Renee Claire

This is part of a series on Beautiful Books; see the full series here.

Georgette Heyer Sourcebooks Reprints

Background: Georgette Heyer (pronounced “Hare”) published her first book, The Black Moth, at age 19, and published 57 novels in as many years. She wrote contemporary mysteries and historical novels, but is most famous for her Georgian and Regency romances. She essentially invented the Regency romance subgenre. Her fans include Noel Coward, Stephen Fry, Dorothy L. Sayers, and most name romance writers, including Mary Balogh, Nora Roberts, & Catherine Coulter. 

With guilty pleasure reads, the guilt often outstrips the pleasure. So when witty Erin McKean of A Dress A Day (who used to edit the Oxford American Dictionary & now writes novels) named her favorite bath-tub reads, I made note. Her list included books by Georgette Heyer, Donald E. Westlake, and Angela Thirkell; since I’m a romance reader (yes, one of them), Heyer was the obvious first choice.

I started with Heyer’s The Grand Sophy, and that was it. I was hooked. Heyer uses enough exclamation points to give Elmore Leonard indigestion. She goes through adverbs like water and often uses speech tags other than “said.” She breaks a lot of rules, and yet, at its best, her work is frothy, ridiculous magic.

What makes her stand out, aside from her period knowledge, is her wit. A sample quote from Frederica (part of a conversation between the hero Lord Alverstoke & his sister):

“Do you mean to tell me that Mr. Trevor read my letter?” demanded Lady Buxted indignantly. “Your secretary?”
“I employ him to read my letters,” explained his lordship.
“Not those written by your nearest and dearest!”
“Oh, no, not them!” he agreed.”

Georgette Heyer Sourcebooks Reprints (2)

Most readers like her romances best, then her mysteries, and finally her historical fiction, although individual books vary dramatically in quality. Keep in mind that her romance books are more often romps than romances, and there are no sex scenes. Her language is also denser than modern genre readers are used to, and she piles on the period slang. I like slang (e.g., “make a cake of oneself,” “doing it far too brown”), and there are Heyer websites to help you decipher it all, but if you’d rather not, try her mysteries instead.

Finally, as mentioned, her work can be uneven. Goodreads ratings and reviews are very helpful in weeding out the bad novels from the good; I’d personally start someone off with The Grand Sophy, Cotillion, Frederica, or Black Sheep (romances) or Behold, Here’s Poison, The Unfinished Clue, or They Found Him Dead (mysteries).

Back to the ostensible reason for this post, however: the exquisite Heyer reprints by Sourcebooks. They are highly collectible and a joy to read. Each book features jewel-like coloring, bright endpapers, and high-quality white paper. They are also distinguished by brilliant and period-appropriate cover & spine images, carefully selected from private art collections (though some covers were taken from Arrow editions, Heyer’s UK publisher). For the full scoop on the reprints, check out this interview with Sourcebooks’ Dawn Pope at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and check out Sourcebooks’ website. The best online prices as of this posting were at Amazon & Walmart, though I’d recommend trying her work at the library first.

Filed Under: Beautiful Books, Books

Beautiful Books: The Bloomsbury Group

May 11, 2011 by Renee Claire

This is part of a series on Beautiful Books; see the full series here.

Bloomsbury Group Books

The Bloomsbury Group is self-described as “a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers.” Judging by the blank website, the idea did not take off & has presumably been abandoned. That said, I love the covers & book descriptions of the existing titles, which are still in print.

The series includes Let’s Kill Uncle, about orphan & heir Barnaby Gaunt, who realizes he must kill his murderous uncle before his uncle kills him; and a recent purchase, Miss Hargreaves, wherein a letter to an imaginary octogenarian goes awry when the fictional woman turns up–real, in the flesh–on the letter writer’s doorstep.

Other notable books include Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by D.E. Stevenson, author of the Miss Buncle books, and Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta books (Henrietta’s War & the sequel Henrietta Sees It Through). I’ll leave you with the description of Henrietta’s War, which epitomizes the quirky coziness of the line:

Spirited Henrietta wishes she was the kind of doctor’s wife who knew exactly how to deal with the daily upheavals of war. But then, everyone in her close-knit Devonshire village seems to find different ways to cope: there’s the indomitable Lady B, who writes to Hitler every night to tell him precisely what she thinks of him; the terrifyingly efficient Mrs Savernack, who relishes the opportunity to sit on umpteen committees and boss everyone around; flighty, flirtatious Faith who is utterly preoccupied with the latest hats and flashing her shapely legs; and then there’s Charles, Henrietta’s hard-working husband who manages to sleep through a bomb landing in their neighbour’s garden.

See the full list at Amazon.

Filed Under: Beautiful Books, Books

The Beautiful Books Series

May 10, 2011 by Renee Claire

Beautiful Books Series IntroAt right: Persephone’s Mariana, Bloomsbury Group’s Let’s Kill Uncle, NYRB’s A High Wind in Jamaica.

When I shop for books, I’m normally more interested in bargains than beauty (give me a yellowed $1 paperback over a pristine $25 hardcover any day). However, some books are special. Certain books are so beautifully designed, and the content within so unusual, that they are precious objects, functional artwork, like Van Cleef & Arpels earrings or gold filigree fountain pens.

Here, then, is a series honoring those books and their publishers. I will divide the series into three parts:

Links added as posts go up.

FORGOTTEN CLASSICS

  • Persephone Books
  • The Bloomsbury Group
  • The New York Review of Books Classics & Children’s Collection
  • Penguin’s Great Food series
  • Sourcebooks reissues of Georgette Heyer’s work
  • Virago Modern Classics (website link)
  • Melville House’s Neversink Library (website link)

BOOKS IN TRANSLATION

  • Europa Editions
  • Vertical Press
  • The New York Review of Books Classics

POPULAR CLASSICS

  • Coralie Bickford Smith’s work
  • Penguin’s Great Ideas series
  • Folio Collection
  • Annotated Classics
  • Jillian Tamaki’s work

What have I forgotten?

Filed Under: Beautiful Books, Books

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