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March 14, 2004
Author: Creator of Regency romance
AT a time when sex, crime, horror and terrorist plots are the stuff which bestsellers are made of, it is a wonder that an author of romance and old world norms is going through the umpteenth reprint of her books. Still adorning the bookshelves all around the world are the enchanting novels of Georgette Heyer, the writer who should be credited for creating the genre of Regency romance.
Her writing achievements are remarkable to the extent of creating envy in most authors. During a career that extended over 50 years in which 50 books were published, Georgette Heyer established herself as a household name from the age of nineteen when she wrote her first novel, The Black Moth (1921), to amuse her convalescing brother. The book was accepted by the very first agent it was sent to and the publisher who was first offered the rights to its manuscript, immediately took it up. The title, like her other subsequent ones, continues to be in print.
Despite belonging to a genre which might classify as ‘light reading’, Heyer’s books cannot be brushed aside by that casual comment. Nor can her skill as a writer be, in any way, termed ordinary. What Georgette Heyer created through her novels was a world where romance, grandeur, gallantry and upper crust behaviour merged with realism so uniquely, that it turned each character, situation and emotion into a reflection of the reader’s own life. Though critics have commended her as, ‘the next best thing to Jane Austen’, her own literary standing is sometimes denied her.
Besides the overwhelming fan following — almost bordering on a cult — comprising those who have read, and continue to read, her novels over and over again, there is the snobbish intellectual clique which looks down on her work as romantic frivolity. They refrain from according her novels an elevated genre and sneer when her work is referred to as ‘historical’. But her prowess of sketching a perfect historical backdrop — researched to the last detail of cloth and sword — can in no way be undermined despite the sneering critics who only represent that faction which believes that a great writer is one who will go into prolonged monologue in complicated diction on a subject which only a ‘small minority’ can relate to!
It is true that she was inspired by Jane Austen, but her dialogues have a flavour that are quite her own. They sparkle with intelligent humour, and her plots and characters are so intricately woven as to keep the reader hooked till the end. And whereas Austen had the advantage of contemporary facts at hand, Heyer’s work included deep research of an era past.
Among the different periods Heyer wrote about, the Georgian and Regency were the most successful. Now classified as historical novels, the meticulous details prove how hard she worked for the background of her eighteenth-century and Regency novels, as well as for the more serious, historical ones, like My Lord John, The Conqueror and Simon the Coldheart.
Aside from a few settings in France, all her early books have a London setting. Here, the old London sights vividly come to life as the lords and ladies waltz at Almack’s and ride in Hyde Park at the Fashionable Hour. The make believe ambience captivates when honour duels are fought. The world of Dukes, Earls and Lords; of carriages and phaetons they sported and of the muslin, crepe and mantillas that ladies wore or even the fobs, patches, cravats and coats that the men fashioned, was never so enchantingly sketched as Heyer had the artless knack to do. The Prince Regent’s opulence or the Princess Caroline’s dalliances too have continually been a source of ‘mirth’ for the readers. The most ridiculous of situations are so cleverly drafted that in between tears of laughter one might just discover one’s own trait to be as ridiculous.
While eccentricities of the peers of the realm are greatly mocked the thin line between what is ‘done’ and ‘not done’ is always emphasized. Between her covers, gossiping in front of the servants is never done. Young ladies never leave the house unattended by a maid or a male escort. For women to travel to the street where the male ‘apartments’ are situated is also definitely not done. Laughing too loudly and acting familiar with the men is only for the ‘fast’ women whereas men must never ever swear in front of the ladies.
As for ‘puffing off self consequence’, it is very bad form, as is rattling off a lot of who’s who names while conversing with acquaintances — only the bourgeoisie do that! In fact, most of the ill bred and vulgar behaviour is ascribed to that dubious class comprising the ‘Cits’ (city dwellers/tradesmen). Each time I ‘re-read’ one of these books — for the seventh or eighth time — the stark resemblance of our elite norms to all that is ‘bourgeoisie’, is almost jarring. One wishes to turn back the time just to reclaim those norms which our societies have long forgotten in the wake of liberalization.
Heyer’s brilliance lay in her dialogues and the way she put across the customs as well as the hypocrisies of the time:
Amazing too are her sketches of people who though belong to a time well past, somehow reflect characters out of our lives. Besides London, she also knew the Sussex countryside well and in many of her books has described these scenic suburbs as almost all members of the peerage rusticated to their country seats till the ‘London season’ began.
Being an intensely private person, not much is known about Georgette Heyer’s personal and private life. Considering she stayed well away from the public eye, it is quite a feat that she still gained an awe-inspiring ‘bestseller’ status as there were no interviews and publicity gimmicks to ‘launch’ her books. After her first success with The Black Moth came four novels of contemporary setting about women during the period after the First World War. They won her acclaim but Heyer preferred not to follow that lead and barring their reprint, she ventured wholeheartedly into the world of romance and mystery. After her marriage at 23 to Ronald Rougier, she retained her maiden and pen name of Georgette Heyer.
A detailed biography titled The Private World of Georgette Heyer has been written by Jane Aiken Hodge (around 1984), in which the biographer writes; “She never talked about her background and early years, giving only the barest facts of her life. After her death, A.S. Byatt, the critic and novelist, wrote an invaluable long memorial piece for the Sunday Times, based on interviews with her husband, her friend Carola Oman and her two good publisher friends, A.S. Frere of Heinemann and Max Reinhardt of The Bodley Head. This is the only source for much of the information about her early life, about which she herself never talked. Her own invariable answer, when asked about her private life, was to refer the questioner back to her books. “You will find me”, she said, “in my work.”
Everyone who knew her loved or respected her. She may have been a private person socially, almost a recluse, but on paper she was a compulsive communicator. And she wrote, her son says, just as she talked. Her letters to her publishers are full of sidelights on her own life and pungent comments on the world at large. They confirm, in short, her friends’ unanimous description of her as shy on the surface, but a formidable, positive person underneath, with strong views and a great sense of style.
If one studies her novels in the chronological order of print, it will be noticed that as years aged so did the protagonists of her books. The development is quite defined as the earlier books are more spirited with heroes almost always incorrigible rakes — hard of drink and into the ‘muslin company’ but always adhering to the norms of aristocratic profligacy — and heroines full of derring-do, bent upon a romantic adventure to the extent of running away from home by tying sheets and escaping out the window (Corinthian)!
These then progress towards her middle year books which are lighter comedies where domestic troubles and a sense of the ridiculous is more enhanced — The Grand Sophy; Cotillion; Bath Tangle; Sprig Muslin, to name a few. I confess that, Cotillion, where the hero is actually painted as a daft to begin with, was my favourite. Amazing was the character sketch of its hero, Freddy, The Honourable Frederick Standen, the Pink of Ton, always arrayed in raiment cut from the most exclusive tailors; sporting tasselled Hessian boots which mark him in the Metropolis as a veritable Tulip or Bond Street Beau. In short, a regular Dash! His ‘understanding’ is ‘moderate’ and his countenance though amiable is rather vague! But who, in the end, in his simplicity turns out to be not the goon but a man of pure practical sense, ever chivalrous — without spoiling the fold of his neckcloth — ready to rescue a damsel in distress. Heyer is perhaps at her ‘drollest’ here and her characterization — almost sublime.
In her later years her lead characters too become sober with the emphasis shifting from the dominating hero to the interesting and worldly-wise heroine. Even though her books, from the very beginning, made large sales, her critics kept on censuring her work as non-serious. But it seems outsiders were not her only critics, in her own words (as penned by Hodge in her biography) Heyer comments on Friday’s Child (1943); “I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense, but it’s questionably good escapist literature and I think I should rather like to read it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter, or recovering from flu. Its period detail is good; my husband says it’s witty — and without going to these lengths, I will say that it is very good fun.”
All of her 51 titles have been translated into ten languages — not to mention the pirated versions. When she died, at 71, in 1974, all her titles were in print — in fact, the re-prints still continue and it is said that she now has more titles in print than she did when she died.
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