Georgette Heyer's Regency World (36 page)

Reading about the Regency and Where Next?

Aiken Hodge, Jane,
Passion and Principle: The Loves and Lives of Regency Women,
John Murray, London, 1996.

Aiken Hodge, Jane,
The Private World of Georgette Heyer,
Heinemann, London, 1984.

Austen Jane,
Jane Austen’s Selected Letters,
Vivien Jones (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.

Austen, Jane,
My Dear Cassandra
, Penelope Hughes-Hallett (ed.), Collins & Brown, London, 1991.

Bovill, E. W.,
English Country Life 1780–1830
, Oxford University Press, London, 1962.

Burgess, Anthony,
Coaching Days of England,
Paul Elek, London, 1966.

Burnett, T. A. J.,
The Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy: the Life and Times of Scrope Berdmore Davies,
Murray, London, 1981.

Burton, Elizabeth,
The Georgians at Home
, Arrow Books, London, 1973.

Cecil, David,
A Portrait of Jane Austen,
Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1980.

Cunnington, C. Willett and Phillis,
Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century
, Faber and Faber, London, 1973.

David, Saul,
Prince of Pleasure
, Abacus, London, 1999.

Egan, Pierce,
Life in London,
John Camden Hotten, London, 1821.

Ford, John,
Prizefighting: The Age of Regency Boximania
, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971.

Fullerton, Susannah,
Jane Austen and Crime
, Jane Austen Society of Australia, Sydney, 2004.

Girouard, Mark,
Life in the English Country House, A Social and Architectural History
, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1979.

Gronow, Captain,
Selections from the Reminiscences of Captain Gronow
, Nicholas Bentley, ed., The Folio Society, London, 1977.

Hibbert, Christopher,
George IV: Prince of Wales
, Readers Union, Newton Abbott, 1972.

Hibbert, Christopher,
George IV: Regent and King
, Allen Lane, London, 1975.

Hughes, Kristine,
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England from 1811 to 1901
, Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1998.

Jago, Lucy,
Regency House Party
, Time Warner Books, London, 2004.

Laudermilk, Sharon and Teresa L. Hamlin,
The Regency Companion
, Garland Publishing, New York, 1989.

Laver, James,
The Age of Illusion
, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1972.

Laver, James,
Costumes Through the Ages
, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963.

Margetson, Stella,
Regency London
, Cassell & Company, London, 1971.

Palmer, Alan,
The Life and Times of George IV
, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1972.

Plumb, J. H.,
Georgian Delights
, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1980.

Pool, Daniel,
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
, Touchstone Books, New York, 1993.

Porter, Roy and Dorothy,
Patient’s Progress: Doctors and Doctoring in Eighteenth-century England
, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989.

Priestley, J. B.,
The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency
, Heinemann, London, 1969.

Quennell, Marjorie and C. H. B.,
A History of Everyday Things in England Volume III: 1733–1851
, B. T. Batsford, London, 1961.

Reid, J. C.,
Bucks and Bruisers: Pierce Egan and Regency England
, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971.

Roberts, Henry D.,
A History of the Royal Pavilion Brighton
, Country Life Limited, London, 1939.

Rutherford, Jessica M. F.,
The Royal Pavilion: The Palace of George IV
, Brighton Arts and Leisure Services, 1995.

Sheppard, Francis,
London 1808–1870: The Infernal Wen
, Secker & Warburg, London, 1971.

Sitwell, Osbert and Margaret Barton,
Brighton
, Faber and Faber, London, 1935.

Stuart, Dorothy Margaret,
Regency Roundabout
, Macmillan, London, 1943.

Summerson, John,
Georgian London
, Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1988.

Thompson, F. M. L.,
English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century
, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963.

Walrond, Sallie,
Looking at Carriages
, J. A. Allen, London, 1957.

Watkin, David,
The Royal Interiors of Regency England: From Watercolours First Published by W. H. Pyne in 1817–1820,
Dent, London, 1984.

Watkins, Susan,
Jane Austen’s Town and Country Style
, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990.

White, Reginald James,
Life in Regency England,
Putnam, New York, 1963.

Wilson, Harriette,
Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs,
Century Publishing Co., London, 1985.

Where Next?

Sally Houghton’s excellent Georgette Heyer website: www.georgetteheyer.com

The Georgian Index: www.georgianindex.net

The Republic of Pemberley: www.pemberley.com

Jessamyn’s Regency Pages: www.songsmyth.com

Cathy Decker’s Regency page has a host of great links: hal.ucr.edu/~cathy/reg.html

The Heyer list: www.heyerlist.org

The Regency Collection: www.homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley /Regency.html

Georgette Heyer’s Regency Novels

Regency Buck
(1935)

It is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first encounter Julian St John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he is also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, quite by chance, their legal guardian…

An Infamous Army
(1937)

In 1815, beneath the aegis of the Army of Occupation, Brussels is the gayest town in Europe. And the widow Lady Barbara Childe, renowned for being as outrageous as she is beautiful, is at the centre of all that is fashionable and light-hearted. When she meets Charles Audley, the elegant and handsome aide-de-camp to the great Duke of Wellington himself, her
joie de vivre
knows no bounds—until the eve of the fateful Battle of Waterloo…

The Spanish Bride
(1940)

Shot-proof, fever-proof and a veteran campaigner at the age of twenty-five, Brigade-Major Harry Smith is reputed to be the luckiest man in Lord Wellington’s army. Yet at the siege of Badajos, his friends foretell the ruin of his career. When Harry meets the defenceless Juana, a fiery passion consumes him. Under the banner of honour and with the selfsame ardour he so frequently displays in battle, he dives headlong into marriage. In his beautiful child bride he finds a kindred spirit, and a temper to match. But for Juana, a long year of war must follow.

The Corinthian
(1940)

The only question which hangs over the life of Sir Richard Wyndham, notable whip, dandy and Corinthian, is one of marriage. On the eve of making the most momentous decision of his life, he is on his way home, a little the worse for drink, when he chances upon a beautiful young fugitive climbing out of a window by means of knotted sheets—and so finds a perfect opportunity for his own escape.

Friday’s Child
(1944)

Rejected by Miss Milborne, the Incomparable, for his unsteadiness of character, wild Lord Sheringham flies back to London in a rage, bent on avenging Fate. Vowing to marry the first woman to cross his way, who should he see but Hero Wantage, the young and charmingly unsophisticated girl who has loved him since childhood…

The Reluctant Widow
(1946)

Stepping into the wrong carriage in a Sussex village, Elinor Rochdale is swept up in a thrilling and dangerous adventure. Overnight the would-be governess becomes mistress of a ruined estate and partner in a secret conspiracy to save a family’s name. By midnight she is a bride, by dawn a widow.

The Foundling
(1948)

The shy young Duke of Sale has never known his parents; instead, His Grace Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware (Gilly for short) has endured twenty-four years of rigorous mollycoddling from his uncle and valet. But his natural diffidence conceals a rebellious spirit. So when Gilly hears of Belinda, the beautiful foundling who appears to be blackmailing his cousin, he absconds with glee. Only he has no sooner entered his new and dangerous world than he is plunged into a frenzy of intrigue, kidnap and adventure.

Arabella
(1949)

An enchanting debutante and the eldest daughter of an impoverished country parson, Arabella embarks on her first London season. Armed with beauty, virtue and a benevolent godmother (as well as a notoriously impetuous temper) she quickly runs afoul of Robert Beaumaris, the most eligible Nonpareil of the day. When he accuses her of being yet another pretty female after his wealth, Arabella allows herself to be provoked—into a deceitful charade that might have quite unexpected consequences…

The Grand Sophy
(1950)

When the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on diplomatic business, he leaves his only daughter Sophy with his sister’s family, the Ombersleys, in Berkeley Square. Upon her arrival, Sophy is bemused to see her cousins in a sad tangle. The heartless and tyrannical Charles is betrothed to a pedantic bluestocking almost as tiresome as himself; Cecilia is besotted with a beautiful but feather-brained poet; and Hubert has fallen foul of a moneylender. It looks as though the grand Sophy has arrived just in time to sort them out, but she hasn’t reckoned with Charles, the Ombersley heir, who has only one thought—to marry her off and rid the family of her meddlesome ways…

The Quiet Gentleman
(1951)

When Gervase Frant, Seventh Earl of St Erth, returns at last from Waterloo to his family seat at Stanyon, he enjoys a less than welcome homecoming. Only Theo, a cousin even quieter than himself, is there to greet him—and when he meets his stepmother and young half-brother he detects open disappointment that he survived the wars. The dangers of the Lincolnshire countryside could never be more unexpected…

Cotillion
(1953)

The three great-nephews of cantankerous Mr Penicuik know better than to ignore his summons, especially when it concerns the bestowal of his fortune. The wily old gentleman has hatched an outrageous plan for his adopted daughter’s future and his own amusement: his fortune will be Kitty’s dowry. But while the beaus are scrambling for her hand, Kitty counters with her own inventive, if daring, scheme: a sham engagement that should help keep wedlock at bay…

The Toll-Gate
(1954)

Captain John Staple’s exploits in the Peninsula had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack amongst his fellows in the Dragoon Guards. Now home from Waterloo, life in peacetime is rather dull for the huge, adventure-loving Captain. But when he finds himself lost and benighted at an unmanned toll-house in the Pennines, his soldiering days suddenly pale away beside an adventure—and romance—of a lifetime.

Bath Tangle
(1955)

The Earl of Spenborough had always been noted for his eccentricity. Leaving a widow younger than his own daughter Serena was one thing, but leaving his fortune to the trusteeship of the Marquis of Rotherham—the one man the same daughter had jilted—was quite another. In a tangle of marriage and manners the like of which even Regency Bath has rarely seen, Lady Serena finds herself involved with her lovely young stepmother, Lord Rotherham and her own childhood sweetheart.

Sprig Muslin
(1956)

Finding so young and pretty a girl as Amanda wandering unattended, Sir Gareth Ludlow knows it is his duty as a man of honour to restore her to her family. But it is to prove no easy task for the Corinthian. His captive in
Sprig Muslin
has more than her rapturous good looks and bandboxes to aid her—she is also possessed of a runaway imagination…

April Lady
(1957)

When the new Lady Cardross begins to fill her days with fashion and frivolity, the Earl has to wonder whether she did really only marry him for his money, as his family so helpfully suggests. And now Nell doesn’t dare tell him the truth. What with the concern over his wife’s heart and pocket, sorting out her brother’s scrapes and trying to prevent his own half-sister from eloping, it is no wonder that the much-tried Earl almost misses the opportunity to smooth the path of true love in his marriage…

Sylvester
(1957)

Endowed with rank, wealth and elegance, Sylvester, Duke of Salford, has decided to travel to Wiltshire to discover if the Hon. Phoebe Marlow will meet his exacting requirements for a bride. If he doesn’t expect to meet a tongue-tied stripling in need of both manners and conduct, he is even more intrigued when his visit causes Phoebe to flee her home. They meet again on the road to London, where her carriage has come to grief in the snow. Yet Phoebe, already caught in one imbroglio, now knows she could soon be well deep in another…

Venetia
(1958)

In all her twenty-five years, lovely Venetia Lanyon has never been further than Harrogate, nor enjoyed the attentions of any but her two wearisomely persistent suitors. Then, in one extraordinary encounter, she meets a neighbour she knows only by reputation—the infamous Lord Damerel—and before she realises it, she finds herself egging on a libertine whose way of life has scandalised the North Riding for years.

The Unknown Ajax
(1959)

Miles from anywhere, Darracott Place is presided over by irascible and short-tempered Lord Darracott. The recent drowning of his eldest son has done nothing to improve his temper, for now he must send for the unknown offspring of the uncle whom the family are never permitted to mention. None of the beleaguered family are prepared for the arrival of the weaver’s brat and heir apparent.

Pistols for Two
(1960)

Affairs of honour between bucks and blades, rakes and rascals; affairs of the heart between heirs and orphans, beauties and bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades and duels at dawn: all the gallantry, villainy and elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in this book of eleven short stories of the Regency.

A Civil Contract
(1961)

Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton and a hero at Salamanca, returns from the Peninsular War to find his family on the brink of ruin and the broad acres of his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. It is Lord Oversley, father of Adam’s first love, who tactfully introduces him to Mr Jonathan Chawleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth with no social ambitions for himself, but with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his one and only daughter.

The Nonesuch
(1962)

Sir Waldo Hawkridge—wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as ‘the Nonesuch’ for his athletic prowess—believes he is past the age of falling love. But when he comes north to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom Hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications.

False Colours
(1963)

The Honourable Christopher Fancot, on leave from the diplomatic service in the summer of 1817, is startled to find his entrancing but incorrigibly extravagant mother on the brink of financial and social ruin, and more than alarmed to find that his twin brother has disappeared without trace. The unfortunate Kit is forced into an outrageous masquerade by the tangled affairs of his wayward family—his rigid uncle, Lord Brumby, the surprisingly wily Sir Bonamy Ripple, the formidable old Lady Stavely and Evelyn’s betrothed, Cressy—but in the face of Evelyn’s continued absence, Kit’s ingenuity is stretched to the limit.

Frederica
(1965)

Rich, handsome, darling of the
ton
, the hope of ambitious mothers and the despair of his sisters, the Marquis of Alverstoke sees no reason to put himself out for anyone. Until a distant connection, ignorant of his selfishness, applies to him for help. Plunged headlong into one drama after another by the large and irrepressible Merriville family, Alverstoke is surprised to find himself far from bored. The lovely Charis may be as hen-witted as she is beautiful but Jessamy is an interesting boy and Felix an engaging scamp. And, most intriguing of all, their strong-minded sister Frederica, who seems more concerned with her family’s welfare than his own distinguished attentions…

Black Sheep
(1966)

Charming and wise in the ways of the world, Bath society belle Miss Abigail Wendover has tried hard to detach her spirited niece Fanny from a plausible fortune-hunter. Her valiant efforts on behalf of her relative become vastly more complicated with the arrival of Miles Calverleigh. The black sheep of his family, a cynical, outrageous devil-may-care with a scandalous past—that would be a connection more shocking even than Fanny’s unwise liaison with his nephew! But Abby, adept at managing her sweet, silly sister Selina, her lively niece and the host of her admirers among Bath’s circumscribed society, has less success in controlling her own unruly heart.

Cousin Kate
(1968)

Kate Malvern, rescued from penury by her aunt Minerva, hardly knows what to expect at Staplewood—the grand household is so very different from a life spent following the drum in the Peninsular campaign. But surely, other households are more homelike? Kate’s uncle lives in one wing, handsome, moody cousin Torquil in another; though the guests are few, even family dinners are formal. And, when Kate begins to suspect the shocking reason for Minerva’s generosity, she has no one to confide in but cousin Philip, who appears to have taken an instant dislike to her…

Charity Girl
(1970)

When Fate and a chivalrous impulse combine to saddle Viscount Desford with a friendless, homeless waif named Cherry Steane, to whom else should he turn in such a scrape but his old childhood playmate, Henrietta Silverdale? For all they refused to oblige their parents by marrying, they have always been the best of friends. But as Desford pursues Cherry’s lickpenny grandfather and reprobate father around unfashionable watering places and the seedier fringes of society, Hetta is forced to wonder whether he might not, at last, have fallen in love. Without the timely intervention of his scapegrace brother Simon, and Hetta’s worthy suitor Gary Nethercott, Desford is in danger of making a rare bumblebroth of his affairs.

Lady of Quality
(1972)

Independent and spirited, Miss Annis Wychwood gives little thought to finding herself a suitable husband, thus dashing the dreams of many hopeful suitors. When she becomes embroiled in the affairs of the runaway heiress Lucilla, however, she encounters the beautiful fugitive’s guardian—as rakish and uncivil a rogue as she has ever met. Although chafing a bit at the restrictions of Regency society in Bath, Annis does have to admit that Oliver Carleton, at least, is never boring.