He is aware of his duties, but after his beloved twin brother’s death, he has retreated behind a wall of coldness, penetrated only by his love for his mother. The hero, Sylvester, is a proud man but unfailingly polite, although he doesn’t realize it comes across negatively to others. The storyline is one that has become familiar with use over the years-a young lady runs away to avoid an unwanted marriage she’s pursued by the prospective groom who has decided it’s time to wed they’re all stranded by bad weather or accident at an out-of-the way place and in due course, each realizes the other is exactly what he and she wants in a spouse. Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle includes some of those memorable characters, among other things. As we now try to do, she used language and speech patterns to establish a character immediately, so that a reader can identify the speaker even without dialogue tags (although custom of the time called for them more frequently than now and often accompanied by descriptive adverbs). She has an ability to create memorable characters. Her writing is clever, she’s terrific at portraying the vagaries of human nature, and her delightful humor is often subtle-sometimes missed if the reader isn’t paying attention.
I don’t even mind the seamless moving from point of view to point of view in the same scene. However, when I read Heyer, or Austen, or even Dickens, I’m perfectly willing to settle in for the leisurely unfolding of story we no longer practice. In romance writing today, we avoid authorial insertion, dialogue tags with their descriptive adverbs, and extensive ‘telling.’ Each followed the general ‘way of writing’ of her time. Just as we’re forgiving of Jane Austen’s style so unlike ours today, we can be forgiving of Heyer’s more narrative approach.
I’ve been a fan of Heyer’s since the first book of hers I read. It’s a shame, too, because she was a meticulous researcher, a top-notch world-builder, and a fabulous wordsmith. As an author of historical romance she, like Rodney Dangerfield, got "no respect." Unfortunately, critics of her time felt much the same. "She could have been an excellent historical novelist," he said, "if…" I said, "Georgette Heyer." The Jesuit professor-a brilliant, slightly rebellious intellectual-sat back in his chair, his eyes twinkling. When my turn came, I decided to be perfectly honest. One of my college English Lit teachers once asked our small class what author we were reading at the time.
0 kommentar(er)
