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revdorothyl at 08:18pm on 10/07/2005 under regency romance
revdorothyl at 08:18pm on 10/07/2005 under regency romanceI've been having so much fun discussing Georgette Heyer novels (and being reminded that I have more "favorites" among her books than can be listed at one sitting), that I thought I'd send up a test balloon and see if there might be anyone else among my LJ friends who harbors a secret fondness for the romance novels of Elsie Lee.
If you've never heard of her, she wrote mostly "modern" gothics (with the twist that her 1960's-era heroines kicked butt and took names and outsmarted all the villains and tended to save themselves before the heroes got a chance to), as well as some 'straight' romance and historical gothics, and a few delightfully Heyer-ish Regencies in the 1960's and 70's. Her modern romances and gothics are somewhat dated, of course, but that's part of the fun -- realizing that somebody had the good sense and chutzpah to write such capable and indomitable heroines in a genre and period that specialized in "plucky" heroines who were terrorized and in need of rescuing. Her heroines often had a wicked sense of humor and a talent for mayhem that made them the "Emma Peel"'s of the Gothic genre.
I haven't been able to find anything of hers written after The Nabob's Widow in 1976, so I expect she died soon thereafter, but I can't vouch for that.
I happened to find a hard-cover copy of Nabob's Widow in a remainder/discount pile at the college bookstore in 1980 or so, read it that same night, and was delighted to find the nearest thing to Georgette Heyer I'd yet encountered (I'd yet to stumble upon Norma Lee Clark or any of the more recent/current Regency authors I've enjoyed: Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney, Marjorie Farrell, Charlotte Louise Dolan, and especially Carla Kelly).
It was never easy to find any Elsie Lee books (generally only one or two in a public library, and mostly none in the used bookstores), so I finally got desperate enough to read her non-Regency works in the late 1980's (a big concession for me, even in my mid-twenties) and was even more thorougly hooked.
I admit, the first time I read The Passions of Medora Graeme (a non-Gothic 1960's romance novel) as a recent seminary graduate I was slightly shocked by all the S-E-X among unmarried persons, but now it's almost become a "comfort" re-read, with a spare copy kept on my bedroom bookshelf. The Curse of Carranca was the first Gothic of hers that I found and purchased in a used bookstore, and so it's perhaps the one I've re-read most (I've always loved the fact that the heroine is taller tham me, and that she uses her extra size and pet cat to good advantage to foil the villains and put the fear of God into them!).
Season of Evil is probably my least favorite of all the Gothics, since the heroine comes closest to being an actual victim, initially (though she doesn't take it for very long berore she starts to fight back, and Spy at the Villa Miranda shares that flaw, but at least does so in more exotic locales), and I'm not much tempted to re-read the other non-Gothic, non-historical romances (The Diplomatic Lover, Star of Danger, and Roommates, in no particular order), but I do enjoy re-reading most of her Gothics every few years, and I ADORE all five of her Regencies that I've been able to find.
So, just in case there are others out there who share this guilty passion, the Elsie Lee Regencies I have are An Eligible Connection, A Prior Betrothal, Second Season, The Wicked Guardian (which has a few more 'gothic' elements, but no more than you'd find in Heyer's These Old Shades or many other Georgian or Regency romances), and of course The Nabob's Widow.
The Gothics of hers that I own include (in no particular order) Barrow Sinister, Silence is Golden, The Curse of Carranca, Sinister Abbey, The Spy at the Villa Miranda, Wingarden (that's the one in which the heroine gets to foil the local KKK, as I recall), The Governess (though the ancient paperback copy I have of that one has her writing under the name "Elsie Cromwell" -- but the novel itself is notable for depicting a Lebanon that was still the Riviera of the Near East, where I had grown up thinking of Beirut as a bombed-out war zone), Mistress of Mount Fair, Ivorstone Manor, Satan's Coast, Clouds Over Vellanti, The Drifting Sands, Mansion of Golden Windows and Dark Moon, Lost Lady (in which it's a neo-Nazi plan to build a new Reich that the heroine has to throw a monkeywrench into).
Anyone else read any of these and willing to admit to it?
If you've never heard of her, she wrote mostly "modern" gothics (with the twist that her 1960's-era heroines kicked butt and took names and outsmarted all the villains and tended to save themselves before the heroes got a chance to), as well as some 'straight' romance and historical gothics, and a few delightfully Heyer-ish Regencies in the 1960's and 70's. Her modern romances and gothics are somewhat dated, of course, but that's part of the fun -- realizing that somebody had the good sense and chutzpah to write such capable and indomitable heroines in a genre and period that specialized in "plucky" heroines who were terrorized and in need of rescuing. Her heroines often had a wicked sense of humor and a talent for mayhem that made them the "Emma Peel"'s of the Gothic genre.
I haven't been able to find anything of hers written after The Nabob's Widow in 1976, so I expect she died soon thereafter, but I can't vouch for that.
I happened to find a hard-cover copy of Nabob's Widow in a remainder/discount pile at the college bookstore in 1980 or so, read it that same night, and was delighted to find the nearest thing to Georgette Heyer I'd yet encountered (I'd yet to stumble upon Norma Lee Clark or any of the more recent/current Regency authors I've enjoyed: Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney, Marjorie Farrell, Charlotte Louise Dolan, and especially Carla Kelly).
It was never easy to find any Elsie Lee books (generally only one or two in a public library, and mostly none in the used bookstores), so I finally got desperate enough to read her non-Regency works in the late 1980's (a big concession for me, even in my mid-twenties) and was even more thorougly hooked.
I admit, the first time I read The Passions of Medora Graeme (a non-Gothic 1960's romance novel) as a recent seminary graduate I was slightly shocked by all the S-E-X among unmarried persons, but now it's almost become a "comfort" re-read, with a spare copy kept on my bedroom bookshelf. The Curse of Carranca was the first Gothic of hers that I found and purchased in a used bookstore, and so it's perhaps the one I've re-read most (I've always loved the fact that the heroine is taller tham me, and that she uses her extra size and pet cat to good advantage to foil the villains and put the fear of God into them!).
Season of Evil is probably my least favorite of all the Gothics, since the heroine comes closest to being an actual victim, initially (though she doesn't take it for very long berore she starts to fight back, and Spy at the Villa Miranda shares that flaw, but at least does so in more exotic locales), and I'm not much tempted to re-read the other non-Gothic, non-historical romances (The Diplomatic Lover, Star of Danger, and Roommates, in no particular order), but I do enjoy re-reading most of her Gothics every few years, and I ADORE all five of her Regencies that I've been able to find.
So, just in case there are others out there who share this guilty passion, the Elsie Lee Regencies I have are An Eligible Connection, A Prior Betrothal, Second Season, The Wicked Guardian (which has a few more 'gothic' elements, but no more than you'd find in Heyer's These Old Shades or many other Georgian or Regency romances), and of course The Nabob's Widow.
The Gothics of hers that I own include (in no particular order) Barrow Sinister, Silence is Golden, The Curse of Carranca, Sinister Abbey, The Spy at the Villa Miranda, Wingarden (that's the one in which the heroine gets to foil the local KKK, as I recall), The Governess (though the ancient paperback copy I have of that one has her writing under the name "Elsie Cromwell" -- but the novel itself is notable for depicting a Lebanon that was still the Riviera of the Near East, where I had grown up thinking of Beirut as a bombed-out war zone), Mistress of Mount Fair, Ivorstone Manor, Satan's Coast, Clouds Over Vellanti, The Drifting Sands, Mansion of Golden Windows and Dark Moon, Lost Lady (in which it's a neo-Nazi plan to build a new Reich that the heroine has to throw a monkeywrench into).
Anyone else read any of these and willing to admit to it?
(no subject)
(no subject)
I think you'll find Elsie Lee's Regencies very Heyer-ish, in characters and sensibility, and will get a kick out of them.
Other non-Heyer Regencies that I tend to re-read more than once or twice include quite a few by Charlotte Louise Dolan (especially Fallen Angel, which is unusual enough in its pairing and has so many elements of the least-respected or most-unlikely person saving the day and winning out in the end for me to utterly adore it), a couple by Norma Lee Clark (Fanny and The Marriage Mart are my favorites for re-reading, but Lady Jane -- though way dark for my taste -- was also rather remarkable, in its way and for its day), at least one by Mary Jo Putney (The Rake and the Reformer), and all the earlier Regencies by Carla Kelly (including Miss Billings Treads the Boards, Libby's London Merchant, and especially Marian's Christmas Wish -- Kelly's more recent works are well worth reading, also, but contain some "darker" elements in the heros' or heroines' pasts that make them less "cozy" to re-read for escapism).
If you haven't encountered some of these, they're well worth checking out in the library or used bookstores, too.
(no subject)
Thanks so much for all the authors; making a list to check when I volunteer at the library tonight.
(no subject)
(no subject)
The modern Gothics are "dated" in many respects, but all the more remarkable for having strong women heroes in that day and age.
Elsie Lee
Re: Elsie Lee
Re: Elsie Lee