Unabashed readers

[romantical]

There was a recent report about what books people lie about reading. There followed an article about what books people are embarrassed to admit to reading. Several authors were listed recurrently. But the interesting part was when several people named Georgette Heyer and said they were not embarrassed to name her. That indicates that she is one of the few respected romance writers. Who else would you not be embarrassed to name? Who else do you read but would be embarrassed to name?

[RegLit]

Oh, I like a lot of Regency romances and I'd probably not show those covers to people around me unless it was someone I was intimately associated with. However, older Regency authors seem to sound much more credible. That's probably why Georgette Heyer has so many fans willing to defend their tastes in her books. Similarly, I probably wouldn't be embarrassed to show others I was reading a Baroness d'Orczy novel or even Jeffrey Farnol.

[romantical]

Who's Jeffrey Farnol? I don't think I've known any males write Regency romances, except those who lived in the era. And those are definitely not the type I was thinking of.

[RegLit]

Actually, I spelled his name wrong. It should have been Jeffery Farnol. He actually created the "Regency" romance genre with Georgette Heyer. His novels date from the first half of the 20th century. Though not all of the romances were Regency - some were Georgian and even later - they were historical. In language, style, characterisation, he was much like Heyer. The main difference is that his setting is more provincial. Though he has aristocratic characters, much of the plot takes place outside of polite society's realm. It is more 'earthy'. It gets difficult at times to understand the colloquialisms and he seems to enjoy writing 'low' speech. But they are fun. It's like reading a Regency from a male perspective, which means you get into the mind of the man, not the woman; and the actions all revolve around the man, with the woman being in mind more often than in the story.

[romantical]

Interesting. I'll have to check them out. Are they difficult to find? And I'll have to read "The Scarlet Pimpernel". I've heard of it but I've never read it.

[RegLit]

I really don't know if Farnol's books are difficult to find. I found my collection at a couple of book sales, one in the US and one in the UK. I'd advise you look in the library booksales or used book stores. You'd find them under the vintage novels section more likely than with regency paperbacks. Alternatively, there's always the internet, with eBay and Abebooks.

[Kathryn Kane]

(03-17-2009 12:48 PM)romantical Wrote:  ... And I'll have to read "The Scarlet Pimpernel". I've heard of it but I've never read it.

There is a whole series of Scarlet Pimpernel novels. In fact, they were part of Georgette Heyer's inspiration for her first book, The Black Moth. They are all set around the time of the French Revolution and are a little melodramatic, but fun, full of great derring-do.

The novels are all out of print, which means they are a bit hard to find in hard copy. But they are all also out of copyright, so they are in the public domain. You can find electronic copies of all the books at Blakeney Manor as well as other stories by the Baroness. You can also find electronic copies of several of the books at Project Gutenberg and Bibiomania.

There is a good background article on the whole Scarlet Pimpernel phenomena at Wikipedia. Well worth the read.

My favorite on-screen Scarlet Pimpernels were David Niven and Anthony Andrews. Though Leslie Howard was not to be sneezed at.

You are in for a treat when you start reading this series.