Twelve Gifts of Christmas

Inquiring readers, During this month of holiday celebrations, Laurel Ann and I will be offering the Twelve Gifts of Christmas. Some of the gifts will be giveaways, others will be free offerings online, and still others will be great gift ideas for you to give to others. None are expensive, but every gift will have a special relationship to this blog, us, or Jane Austen. Continuing with the Georgette Heyer theme which we started several weeks ago, here is

Gift Number One:

The Black Moth, A Romance of the 18th Century, by Georgette Heyer

The Black Moth, Georgette Heyer's first book, was published in 1921. Although it is not one of her best efforts, an allowance must be made, for she created the story when she was just seventeen years of age. According to Jay Dixon, web author of An Appreciation of Georgette Heyer, Georgette first told the story to her brother Boris when she accompanied him on a convalescent holiday at Hastings. She "started telling him an historical adventure tale [set in the Georgian era] to relieve his (and presumably her) boredom. Her father encouraged her to write it down and, when completed, sent it to the literary agent Leonard P. Moore, an acquaintance of his. Moore promptly sold it to Constable in England and Houghton Mifflin in the USA." Just recently the copyright expired in the U.S., and thus The Black Moth is available for free as an e-text and as a podcast recording. If you have already read the book, you might want to join the online discussion forum: These Old Boards.

• The Black Moth E-Text from A Celebration of Women Writers
  

• Forgotten Classics: Podcasts of The Black Moth, including historical information and Black Moth show notes

• Librivox recordings of The Black Moth to download to your Ipod.
  

• Fabulous U.K. book covers of her very early works

• These Old Boards: A Georgette Heyer Discussion Forum

Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World and Laurel Ann, Austenprose