Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Having already written my "sci-fi television this weekend" post, I can now fill in the various ways I managed to fill the rest of my time this weekend, so as not to actually have to work on my dissertation until today.

I have to confess that I completely blew off Saturday morning and the early part of the afternoon by re-reading a couple of Georgette Heyer novels that I impulsively dug out of my collection earlier in the week (I'd started with THE TOLL GATE and THE QUIET GENTLEMAN early in the week, both of which were much better than I'd remembered, and then finished THE UNKNOWN AJAX and THE RELUCTANT WIDOW on Saturday, being two more of the relatively few Heyer novels I hadn't liked well enough as a teenager to re-read, and so they were actually a pleasant surprise to read now, some 25 years later -- even apart from the thrill of finding echoes of the dynamic between young Miles Vorkosigan and his grandfather Piotr between the pages of THE UNKNOWN AJAX, yet another reminder of Lois McMaster Bujold's fondness for Heyer).

( cooking up something for Sunday, at the last minute )

I apparently did such a thorough job at the publishing house last week, that they hadn't yet accumulated any more work for me to do this week, so I was able to spend all day today working at home, getting things organized and prepared for my class tonight, and working on the latest revisions to my dissertation stuff. Lucky for me that they didn't need me to work today, or I'd have been sorely pressed to come up with any kind of an orderly, accessible introduction to the gospel of Matthew tonight.

Tomorrow, I work all day on my dissertation . . . or wash dishes. Or maybe both. We'll see.

I just searched for all Georgette Heyer titles on Amazon.com, for a lark (and to make sure I'm not missing any), and came across this volume, published in 2001:

Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective (Paperback) by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas
544 pages, Prinnyworld Press (March 1, 2001)

Book Description:
Fully indexed collection of articles on the popular author's works, addressing such subjects as "'What Fun!' Detection as Diversion"; "Georgette Heyer and the Uses of Regency"; "Cross-Dressing in Wartime: Georgette Heyer's THE CORINTHIAN in its 1940 Context"; "Gendering Places: Georgette Heyer's Cultural Topography," to name only a few.

From the Inside Flap:
Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) wrote 56 best-selling novels over the course of a career that spanned over 50 years, yet she remains one of the most overlooked authors of the 20th century. Mary Fahnestock-Thomas seeks to rectify the error with this unique compilation. At once a scholarly work and a labor of love, this remarkable collection includes:
* 3 short stories and 3 essays written by Georgette Heyer which have never been published in the U.S.
* Over 200 book reviews dating from 1921 to 1989
* 35 articles and excerpts addressing various aspects of Heyer's work
* 12 movie and theater reviews of productions based on Heyer's novels
* And much more!

Has anyone read this, and if so, would you recommend it to a fellow Heyer fan and academic for perusal and/or purchase?

I'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. ( Read more... )

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?

I just caught up with missmurchison's answers to the "dork" meme from last night, and I have to confess that

1) I, too, own nearly every book ever written by Georgette Heyer, and would not dream of surrendering any of them -- even the duplicate copies, and even the attempt-at-contract-busting mystery novel Penhallow. ( Read more... )

2) I do not own a toga, but I do own some medieval garb ( Read more... )

3) I, too, am seriously tempted to spend the MERE $27 required to pre-order and ship (free) the complete first season of Remington Steele on DVD ( Read more... )

4) I've seen all the Dr. Who episodes starring Tom Baker (numerous times) through Sylvester McCoy (once was enough) and I even kind of enjoyed that lame made-for-TV movie from the late 90's in which Eric Roberts became the Master, though I know others hated it. And yes, I have crocheted MANY colorful 6-foot scarves in my time, for friends and family.

However, what I'd really like to be able to get hold of on DVD is every episode of The Scarecrow and Mrs. King.( Read more... )

5) I haven't had much practice with spreadsheets, but I'm incredibly addicted to buying up back issues of puzzle magazines (only the Logic Problems and Math & Logic Problems are worth the effort, since those are the puzzles I always do first) and keeping a stack of them in "the littlest room in the house." ( Read more... ) I just love figuring out the only possible answer that fits and knowing that I've solved the puzzle -- unlike in my academic life, where questions of human relationships and faith and Biblical interpretation are NEVER answered with one right answer that means you'll never have to think about this problem again.

If anyone needs more than five reasons why I might rightfully be considered a dork, I have at least a dozen more popping into my head right now. But most of those are really embarrassing (unlike the examples above!), so maybe I'll just stop right here.