Quickly, quickly -

[kyburg]

One more for the 50 Book Challenge:

6. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer.

"Single handedly created the Regency Romances as we know them today." End papers on the author by other romance writers making a living writing this stuff as we know it. Hoorah.

This one was written in the early thirties, and having other books written in this period in my library (I grew up in Hemet, I inherit libraries. Yes, I have, will and shall. It's my destiny. *slaps self*), the style and vocabulary was only a little more difficult to get used than, say, Shakespeare. Past that, the plot was meaty enough, albeit simple, and the characters well-drawn enough to spark interest aside from the way you knew a romance novel was going to end. This one has the additional filip of having cross-dressing be a central theme - which was a plus.

Looking forward to the next one -

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Georgette Heyer is my comfort author. I adore her stuff immensely. Some are better than others, of course, but many are gems. She also wrote some mysteries, if you like those.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I've this, I've no doubt - having read one of the books now. However, when selling the book to me? It's not a selling point that everyone JUST LOVES HER TO DEATH!!!1, okay? Stupid marketing tricks. Hates them, I does.

What I really liked about this one? Cross-dressing and nobody fell over in a swoon over teh gay. That was refreshing.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the marketing hype is a bit much. Having read them from childhood in my mom's beat-up old vintage paperback copies to find out why Mom would giggle hysterically at a book she'd read ten times already, I just look past the hype.

Sadly, there isn't a ton of cross-dressing in most of the others, although The Corinthian features a girl masquerading as a boy, and These Old Shades has - well, I wondered why (five years ago before the reprints came around again) it was going for THAT MUCH on Ebay - then I found one and said "dang!" a lot. Girl dressed as boy becomes Milord's page sort of thing, with slight and elegant hints of master-slave sorts of things - modern eyes (or smutty ones) can't help but see it.