Happy Birthday, Georgette Heyer!

Georgette Heyer was born in Wimbledon 107 years ago today! In her long life she graced us with over 50 novels. To celebrate, we'd like to direct you to several sites:

Austenprose has reviewed Richard Armitage reading one of my favorite Georgette Heyer books for Naxos Audio Books, Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle. Click here to read Laurel Ann's review.

Our recent reviews of The Grand Sophy sit in these links.

• Austenprose
• Jane Austen's World

Georgette Heyer is tweeting her 1922 short story, A Proposal to Cicely at this twitter account. To read the story so far, click here.

Georgette's first book, The Black Moth, is offered as a free ebook by Girlebooks. Click here.

Sourcebooks has reissued a spate of Georgette Heyer books in the past two years. Click here to order them.

Two of my favorite Georgette Heyer sites are:

• Georgette Heyer.com
• The World of Georgette Heyer

All of Jane Austen's World reviews of Georgette Heyer novels (about 13) can be found at this link.

Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World

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