Fabulous Promotion: Sourcebooks B&N Heyer Receipt Promotion

This September, Sourcebooks is exclusively releasing The Foundling by Georgette Heyer in Barnes & Nobles stores Nationwide!!

Sourcebooks is holding a fabulous receipt promotion! Send them your receipt/proof of purchase of The Foundling from your local Barnes & Noble to our office or a scanned receipt in an email to: danielle.jackson@sourcebooks.com

and you’ll be entered to win a $200 Barnes & Noble gift card! Receipts must be dated between September 1 – September 31, 2009, and can be from an in-store or online purchase. Any questions please contact danielle.jackson@sourcebooks.com.

Sourcebooks is so excited about the warm embrace everyone has given the Georgette Heyer reissues! Good luck!

Send your Barnes & Noble The Foundling receipts to:
Sourcebooks, Inc.
c/o Publicity
PO Box 4410
Naperville, IL 60567

Join Sourcebook's Georgette Heyer mailing list!: http://www.sourcebooks.com/spotlight/georgette-heyer.html

In Honor of The Grand Sophy, The Biggest, Best, Grandest, Most Astonishing Book GiveAway from Source Books!

In honor of the reissue of The Grand Sophy, one of Georgette Heyer’s best and most beloved regency romance novels, Source Books will be giving away a full set of the Georgette Heyer books that have come out this spring. One LUCKY winner will receive the complete set. In addition, five copies of The Grand Sophy will also be given away to five runner up winners. Yes, you read this correctly. You have five chances of winning a Georgette Heyer novel and one chance to win a complete set of some of the most enjoyable Regency romances ever written.

The GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a set of 10 books, or one copy each of Georgette Heyer’s:

• The Convenient Marriage
• The Corinthian
• Cousin Kate
• The Grand Sophy
• The Nonesuch
• The Talisman Ring
• My Lord John
• Behold, Here's Poison (Mystery)
• The Unfinished Clue (Mystery)
• Why Shoot a Butler? (Mystery)

Please click on the titles of the books to read the reviews of the Regency romances on Jane Austen’s World.


If you live in the United States or Canada, all you need to do is to leave a comment on the following topics: For Georgette Heyer fans, we’d like to know which is your favorite GH novel and why. For those who have never read a Georgette Heyer book before, please let us know why you would like to start reading one.

This fabulous contest will be open until July 31st. Meanwhile, look for Laurel Ann’s review soon on Austenprose, and for posts related to The Grand Sophy throughout the month in Jane Austen’s World. Remember, only people who live in the U.S. or Canada will be eligible to participate in this giveaway.

The Conqueror: A Review of a Georgette Heyer Historical Novel

Inquiring readers, Hillary Major kindly agreed to read and review Georgette Heyer's historical novel, The Conqueror. Written when Ms. Heyer was still in her twenties, this novel takes William from birth through the Battle of Hastings, the event that made him a British king. This is Ms. Major's second review for us (thank you, Hillary, for your excellent insights). Her first Heyer review on the Royal Escape can be found at this link.

With the story of William the Conqueror, Georgette Heyer tackles history on a grand scale and, in doing so, she provides her readers with a larger-than-life hero. While (atypically) Heyer does not provide specific references for The Conqueror, it is clear that this thoroughly-researched novel draws from a gamut of historical sources, including The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the details of the Bayeaux Tapestry, contemporary and near-contemporary accounts, and modern analyses. In his own time, William was already a legend, and Heyer chooses to incorporate these legends into her account. Thus, we first meet William on the day of his birth, his mother, a burgher’s daughter, having dreamed of a great tree stretching from Normandy across the Channel to England. When visited by his nobleman father, newborn William stretches out his hands to grasp his sword.

Alongside the myth, however, Heyer presents a William who owes much of his success to practical and military innovations, including quick troop mobilisation and trained archers. She emphasizes the struggles he faces as a bastard son in a hierarchical medieval society, including repeated assassination attempts from his own courtiers. William’s dreams (whether you describe them as nationalist, imperialist, or simply ambitious) are big, but he is able to accomplish them with careful strategy, execution, and, yes, a certain ruthlessness.

If any aspect of the novel strains the reader’s credulity, it is the haughty heroine rather than the singular hero. Heyer may be anachronistic in giving Lady Matilda the freedom to choose or reject William’s proposal though, as a widow who has already done her familial duty and a favorite of her indulgent father, Matilda enjoys considerably more latitude than her female contemporaries. Even if Matilda’s ability to chart her own nuptial course, unswayed by mere political concerns (such as William’s station or his direct petition to the Pope), is accepted, her obsession with William’s violent potential ultimately comes across as silly:

She lifted her arm and observed a bruise like a shadow on the flesh. Her fingers touched it. Jesu, the man knew not his own strength! She shook her head at it, frowned in an assumption of anger, but ended by thinking no worse of him for his rough handling. If she kindled him to a blaze and was herself scorched she would not blame him for that. His fingers had crushed her soft flesh so that she had to stifle a cry of pain. She knew herself at his mercy, and could not be sure that he dealt in so gentle a virtue. Yet she could be calm before his brute strength; what fear she nursed she kept for the intangible power he held over her. It crept up to set her shivering in the fastness of her chamber, and stalked beside her even when he was furthest away. If she was already both wife and widow she had still borne a virgin heart until Normandy strode up her father’s audience-hall, and bent his hard stare upon her."

Fortunately, The Conqueror at its heart is more of a buddy story than a romance, for the novel also tells the story of fictional Raoul de Harcourt, an idealistic young nobleman who believes William will bring stability and social justice to Normandy. As Raoul faithfully accompanies William in a series of adventures that leads ever-closer to a climactic account of the Battle of Hastings, we observe magnanimity and deliberate cruelty, political blackmail coupled with a reverence for the feudal codes of fealty, apparently devout prayer followed by wily manipulations of clergy, and friendship at war with ambition. It is through the lens of Raoul’s (fairly modern) sensibilities that we readers view William, a device that allows us to come to our own conclusions regarding William’s motivations and merits and encourages us to take a stance on some intricate and messy ethical issues. Even in its most unlikely depictions, The Conqueror delivers an enjoyable read, but in its best moments, it challenges us to examine our own allegiances in a time that may be just as volatile and uncertain as Heyer’s eleventh century.

• Read our other review of The Conqueror here
• Order the book
• Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux
• Battle of Hastings

These Georgette Heyer books, available this holiday season, will be reviewed on this blog and Jane Austen's World through mid-December: Cotillion, Simon the Coldheart, The Reluctant Widow, Faro's Daughter, and The Conqueror. See our reviews in the sidebar.

The Spanish Bride: A Georgette Heyer Historical Novel

Inquiring readers, this Georgette Heyer novel was reviewed by my co-founder of Janeites on the James, Miss Anne. She will be the first person to admit that she is addicted to reading Ms. Heyer's novels before she nods off to sleep. In fact, Miss Anne's collection of Georgette Heyer's novels is more extensive than my own. (And that is saying something.) Here, then, is her review of one of Georgette Heyer's most acclaimed historical novels, The Spanish Bride, recently reissued by SourceBooks.

Few Romance novelists of any era would set an Author’s Note citing the main works of reference she used in researching the book, beginning with the autobiography of the romantic hero of the novel and including diarists whom we will meet in the pages, as well as Wellington’s Dispatches. And possibly no other Romance novelist would start her story – a highly romantic one, at that – with a lengthy and accurate portrayal of the siege and fall of Badajos, one of the most difficult battles of the arduous Peninsular campaign, where Wellington made his mark.

But Georgette Heyer was never the typical Romance writer. And this book, which is called a novel and marketed as a romance, is far closer to biography than fiction. The characters were real. Their own words, transposed into a coherent whole, tell the almost fantastic story of the 14 year old young woman of high birth, Juana Los Dolores de Leon, whose family home had been destroyed by the looters, and whose sister, the only one left of the family, turned to her acquaintances in the British Army, Lord Wellington and several of his aides, for her protection. As it turned out, when they came to the British camp, she met young Captain Harry Smith, a Brigade-Major in Wellington’s army. They married two days later, with Wellington in attendance, and within two more days, were on the march.

The Spanish Bride takes us through the rest of the war in Spain and into France, when Napoleon resigned and was sent to Elba. It continues with Harry Smith’s trip to America where he took part in the War of 1812 – showing clearly its place as a part of the Napoleonic Wars – and then, as the finale, some of the skirmishes of the Battle of Waterloo. The book ends there, but the Smiths lived a long and interesting life, in South Africa and India. Harry ended his career as a Major-General, and was knighted for his actions in India. Juana went with him wherever he was, and made friends everywhere; Ladysmith, in South Africa, is named in her honor. Georgette Heyer came across Harry’s autobiography while she was researching another book and was fascinated with the romantic story of the couple’s meeting, marriage, and life together. Her telling of their story in The Spanish Bride has not been one of her more popular books; in truth it is more a military campaign than a romance. But the love story of Harry and Juana Smith is fascinating.

We see Harry and his fellow officers through their own words. Juana is very much seen through their eyes. Convent-reared and frighteningly young, she tumbled into the life of the Army and carried herself as a brave soldier:

If Harry had doubted Juana’s ability to keep up with the division or to bear with equanimity the fatigue of long marches, and the discomfort of primitive lodgings, his doubts were very soon put to rest. She was a born campaigner. She rode her Portuguese horse in the rear of the column…when Harry went ahead, and never a murmur of complaint was heard to pass her lips. Unused to riding, she was, during those first days, so stiff and cramped when she was lifted down from her saddle that sometimes her legs would not bear her, and she would have fallen had no arm been there to support her. But there was always an arm…She had a genius for making friends and this quality in her, coupled with the romantic circumstances of her marriage (the story of which was, in a very short time, known to everyone in the division), made her an interesting figure. The men’s imaginations were fired before ever they saw her; when they became familiar with her friendly smile, and saw how her gallant, erect little figure never sagged in the saddle, they took her to their hearts and were even pleased when she rode with the column, a thing not generally popular with infantry regiments.

This is not to say that they did not quarrel – both had fiery tempers – but they were also soul mates. As long as Harry told her, or rather, ordered her, she would do it. She feared for his life in any of the battles, and for good reason, but she recognized – convent upbringing was to her advantage here – that his duties and responsibilities came first.

After Toulouse, Captain Smith was recommended for duty in America, and for the only time in their marriage, he left her behind. Juana’s sojourn in London was lonely, but as she did not speak English, she did not wish to go to his family until she and they could converse. When Harry brought dispatches for the Prince Regent from the war in America, his promotion to Major came through, and he took her to his home, where all of the Smiths were enchanted with her. She stayed with his family when he returned to America; Smith was at the Battle of New Orleans, indeed, carried the surrender papers to Jackson and was mentioned in dispatches for his outstanding work, before returning to England, just in time to hurry to Belgium. They arrived there as the epic final battle was beginning; the final scene is of Juana desperately searching for her husband through the grisly fields of that bloody battle.

Heyer’s easy prose makes the sometimes confusing military campaigns interesting. The casual interspersing of comments from the diarists keep the pace quick and interest high. She is well known for her interest in the Peninsular campaign – indeed, she made all of her most interesting fictional heroes veterans of the war. She had a well-documented desire to be more than a romance writer, and this is one of the books where she sought to expand her scope.

But most readers of the romance novel are more interested in drawing room intrigue than military tactics, no matter how interestingly depicted, and will not share her interest in the extended battles and the privations of camp life. And that is too bad. The extended Napoleonic wars brought about considerable change in the fashions and mores of the western world, and Heyer shows this throughout her books. Nowhere else and at no other time could a gently-reared high-born woman follow the drum and stay with her husband, the only person is the world she had. Janeites will catch a glimpse of their favorite Anne Elliott Wentworth, accompanying her husband on his ship in this story. And those who wish a more extensive look at the English staying in Brussels and the famous victory will want to read Heyer’s book on that subject, An Infamous Army. There’s more Heyer romance in that book, but the battle is so well drawn that students of military history study it. It was Heyer’s personal tragedy that she was not able to leave the romance novel behind, but it was an advantage for the rest of us to be able to read her sparkling prose on what can be a very dry topic.

This is Georgette Heyer with more meat than froth. I give it four and a half Regency fans.

Georgette Heyer's sketch of Regency uniforms from one of her notebooks.

More links about the topic:

• The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith
• The Spanish Bride Website

Images: Book cover, Juana Maria Smith, 1815 (from Wikimedia Commons), and Lieut. General Sir Harry Smith, from The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge

An Infamous Army Book Contest: Another Opportunity to Win a Georgette Heyer Novel

What joy! Just as one book giveaway is over, another one has begun! On May 23rd NPR announced its summer book recommendations, and on June 20th it highlighted Georgette Heyer's An Infamous Army, which comes highly recommended by Nancy Pearl, the “rock star librarian” and book commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition. She will make an announcement about her choices some time this week.

An Infamous Army is a novel of Wellington, Waterloo, love and war. In the summer of 1815, with Napoleon Bonaparte marching down from the north, Brussels is a whirlwind of parties, balls and soirees. In the swirling social scene surrounding the Duke of Wellington and his noble aides de camp, no one attracts more attention than the beautiful, outrageous young widow Lady Barbara Childe. On their first meeting, dashing Colonel Charles Audley proposes to her, but even their betrothal doesn't calm her wild behavior. Finally, with the Battle of Waterloo raging just miles away, civilians fleeing and the wounded pouring back into the town, Lady Barbara discovers where her heart really lies, and like a true noblewoman, she rises to the occasion, and to the demands of love, life and war...

The Battle of Waterloo in all its glorious and horrifying detail then becomes the center around which the book's characters orbit. Definitely a romance for the historically minded reader, there is no fluff here. As the conflict rages, Lady Barbara helps to nurse the wounded men who wander back into the city, learning much about life, death, and love in the process. No magical happy endings occur, just the contentment of two people who have grown into their love for one another. - Library Journal

The Contest Rules are Simple
In honor of the novel's inclusion on Nancy Pearl's list, Source Books is giving away two free Georgette Heyer books! If you did not win one last month, now is your opportunity to try for another one. If you would like a copy of An Infamous Army or Faro's Daughter, please recommend a summer book for others to read. That's all you have to do! Contest ends on July 14th, midnight, EST. As always, I will draw your names randomly out of a hat.

More links:

• Jane Austen's World review of a Royal Escape, another Heyer historical novel.

• Margaret Drabble, a huge Georgette Heyer fan, discusses the author in this BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour podcast. Click here to listen.

Posted by Ms. Place

False Colours: A Sparkling Heyer Regency Novel

It was past two o’clock when the job-chaise turned into Hill Street; and, as the watchman wending his way round Berkeley Square monotonously announced, a fine night. A full moon rode in the cloudless sky, dimming the street-lamps: even, as the solitary traveller had noticed, in Pall Mall, where gaslighting had replaced the oil-burners. Linkmen, carriages, and light streaming from an open door on the east side of Berkeley Square indicated that not all the members of the ton had left London; but at the end of June the Season was drawing to a close; and it did not surprise the traveller to find Hill Street deserted. It would not have surprised him if the knocker had been removed from the door of a certain house on the north side of the street, but when the chaise drew up a swift scrutiny reassured him: the Earl of Denville’s town residence had not yet been abandoned for the summer months. - Opening lines of False Colours

What do you get when you fill a book with romance, comedy, missing twin, mistaken identity, beautiful but spendthrift mother, Napoleonic history, dashing and diplomatic hero and sensible heroine? Why, Georgette Heyer's False Colours, of course.

The Honourable Christopher Kit Fancot returns to London on leave from the diplomatic service to find that his twin brother Evelyn has disappeared and his extravagant mother's debts have mounted alarmingly. The Fancot family's fortunes are riding on Evelyn s marriage to the self-possessed Cressy Stavely, and her formidable grandmother's approval of the match. If Evelyn fails to meet the Dowager Lady Stavely in a few days as planned, the betrothal could be off. When the incorrigible Lady Fancot persuades Kit to impersonate his twin (just for one night, she promises) the masquerade sets off a tangled sequence of events that engage Kit's heart far more deeply than he'd ever anticipated with his brother s fiancee who might know much more about what's going on than she cares to reveal...

In this book, one of Georgette Heyer's best loved novels, the author combines her extensive knowledge of history with her talent for spinning a witty romantic tale. Heyer's eye for detail, character development, and talent for moving a story along is masterful:

He then turned towards her companion, smiling at her, and carrying the hand she extended to him to his lips. He thought that that was probably what Evelyn, a practised flirt, would do; but even as he lightly kissed the hand he was assailed by a fresh problem: how the devil ought he to address the girl? Did Evelyn call her Cressy, or was he still on formal terms with her? He had had as yet no opportunity to take more than a brief look at her, but he had received the impression that she was a little stiff: possibly shy, certainly reserved. Not a beauty, but a goodlooking girl, gray-eyed and brown-haired, and with a shapely figure. Well enough but quite unremarkable, and not at all the sort of female likely to appeal to Evelyn. At this moment, and just as he released Miss Stavely's hand, one of the assembled company, and elderly spinster who had been observing him with avid curiosity, confided to a stout matron in the over-loud voice of the deaf: 'Very handsome! That I must own!" Startled, and far from gratified, Kit looked up, involuntarily meeting Miss Stavely's eyes. They held a look of twinkling appreciation; and he thought suddenly that she was more taking than he had at first supposed.

Georgette wrote False Colours in 1963, at a time when she was developing a relationship with a new publisher. The author seldom missed a detail. When she received the first draft for the False Colours blurb, her response was instant and decisive:

. . . and I did not say that I was especially fond of False Colours! What I may well have said was that I don't think it stinks as much as The Nonesuch. It is not my favourite - The Unknown Ajax and Venetia are the best of my later works. My style is really a mixture of Johnson and Austen - what I rely on is a certain gift for the farcical. Talk about my humour if you must talk about me at all!. . .I don't know about my historical feeling: I'd prefer a timely word about my exact detail! . . . I did warn you that I was hell-to-deal-with, didn't I?. . .I know it's useless to talk about technique in these degenerate days - but no less a technician than Noel Coward reads me because he says my technique is so good. I'm proud of that." (The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Jane Aiken Hodge, P. 152-153)

SourceBooks is rereleasing a select number of Georgette Heyer novels this season, starting with False Colours in March, and ending with Royal Escape in June (review coming soon). For sheer fun and entertainment, I highly recommend this novel and give it my highest rating of three regency fans.


Learn more about Georgette Heyer in these links:

• Heyer List: False Colours
  

• My review of Lady of Quality
  

• A Georgette Heyer Database

Posted by Ms. Place

Heyer Contest is Over

Thank you for your comments! The winners are Laura for Lady of Quality, and Jeanette for False Colours! Please send your mailing address to janeaustensworld@gmail.com.

Oh, What Fun! A New Contest

Contest is Over! Win a new Georgette Heyer book from Sourcebooks by simply leaving a comment on this post. We'll draw the winner on June 14th. You can win in two ways:

If you are already a Georgette Heyer fan, let us know who your favorite Heyer heroine is and why. You'll have a chance to win a copy of False Colours.

If you have never read one of Georgette's regency novels, tell us what you know about her and why you would like to start reading one of her novels. You'll have a chance to win a copy of a Lady of Quality.

We'll announce a winner from both categories on Father's Day!!

About:

False Colours
A missing twin
Something is very wrong, and the Honourable Christopher “Kit” Fancot can sense it. Kit returns to London on leave from the diplomatic service to find that his twin brother Evelyn has disappeared and his extravagant mother’s debts have mounted alarmingly.
A fortune in the balance
When the incorrigible Lady Fancot persuades her son to impersonate his twin (just for one night, she promises) the masquerade sets off a tangled sequence of events that engage Kit’s heart far more deeply than he’d ever anticipated with his brother’s fiancée—who might know much more about what’s going on than she cares to reveal...

Lady of Quality
Miss Annis Wychwood, at twenty-nine, has long been on the shelf, but this bothers her not at all. She is rich and still beautiful and she enjoys living independently in Bath, except for the tiresome female cousin, who her very proper brother insists must live with her.

When Annis offers sanctuary to the very young runaway heiress Miss Lucilla Carleton, no one at all thinks this is a good idea. With the exception of Miss Carleton’s overbearing guardian, Mr. Oliver Carleton, whose reputation as the rudest man in London precedes him. Outrageous as he is, the charming Annis ends up finding him absolutely irresistible.

Posted by Vic, Ms. Place

Jane Austen Jealous of Georgette Heyer? Never!

My Jane Austen action doll is acting mighty jealous these days. SourceBooks is reissuing Georgette Heyer classics during the following months, and all six, including other books about and by Georgette, are crowding Jane's books off one of my Austen research shelves.

False Colours (March 2008) When Christopher “Kit” Fancot is asked by his financially desperate mother to masquerade as his missing twin brother, Evelyn—Kit never expects to fall in love with Evelyn’s betrothed, Cressy Stavely! In order to save his family’s reputation, Kit agrees, and goes to meet “his” fiancée’s matriarch grandmother. Little does he know—Cressy might know more than she lets on!

Friday’s Child (April 2008) After being denied by the incomparable Miss Milbourne, Lord Sherrington decides to marry the next woman he sees…That lucky lady happens to be Miss Hero Wantage—penniless and hopelessly romantic. Can the two work through a marriage of convenience, or is there an attraction there neither expected? Lord Sherrington’s beautiful young bride finds herself in the middle of a world she only dreamed of, with the man she’s spent most of her life admiring.

The Spanish Bride (April 2008) Based on a true story of cross-continental love during the Napoleonic Wars, Heyer rakes her readers on a journey following Jauna Smith, young wife of Brigade-Major Harry Smith as she travels with the Duke of Wellington’s forces. Jauna effortlessly charms the troops and their wives all the while teasing and pleasing her straight-laced new husband. Heyer’s research skills shine in her descriptions of life as a traveling military wife!

A Lady of Quality (May 2008) Independent and beautiful Annis Wychwood enjoys her rich and single life in Bath, until runaway heiress Lucilla Carleton comes to Annis for refuge, and possibly a little direction in her young life. With an overbearing guardian in Oliver Carleton, Lucilla disrupts Annis’ comfortable existence—but brings her a little bit of warmth to her heart by way of romance!

Black Sheep (June 2008) Almost a spinster, Abigail Wendover is in the midst of a family scandal when her young niece is smitten with a known fortune hunter. Trying to help her fragile sister keep the peace, Abbie finds an ally in Miles Calvery—black sheep of his estranged family, and uncle of her niece’s pursuer. Both of them consider themselves ineligible for love—but will their feelings find otherwise?

Royal Escape (June 2008) One of her most famous historical tales, Georgette Heyer tells the story of Charles II as he travels to France after the defeat of the Catholic King. Hiding in the English Countryside as a peasant for almost 6 weeks, “Bonnie Prince Charlie” befriends two young women, who aid him in his escape as an exiled King.

Never fear, Jane Austen. Your books and biographies about your life are still my favorite night time reading (Can you find Ms. Place?) ...
... and a ton of new books about you, your life, and era are double parked just above my computer.

Click here for JAT's other post about Georgette.

However, to be fair to Ms. Heyer's scintillating and sparkling take on the Regency world, we will be reviewing her new reissues and will keep you posted! Stay tuned for a Janeite's thoughts about Friday's Child, and a history buff's take on Royal Escape. Coming to this blog soon.

Posted by Ms. Place