Heyer's masterpiece on the Regency period tied into a grand trilogy.
Three classic tales of love, intrigue and adventure, featuring the notorious Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon, and his outrageous heirs: -These Old Shades -Devil's Cub -An Infamous Army
Georgette Heyer was a prolific historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth.
In 1925 she married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. Rougier later became a barrister and he often provided basic plot outlines for her thrillers. Beginning in 1932, Heyer released one romance novel and one thriller each year.
Heyer was an intensely private person who remained a best selling author all her life without the aid of publicity. She made no appearances, never gave an interview and only answered fan letters herself if they made an interesting historical point. She wrote one novel using the pseudonym Stella Martin.
Her Georgian and Regencies romances were inspired by Jane Austen. While some critics thought her novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset.
Heyer remains a popular and much-loved author, known for essentially establishing the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance.
First of all the frustration of not being able to locate the novel The Devil's Cub as a single book on Goodreads is unpleasant. Secondly, I read The Devil's Cub because I wanted to read the trilogy, since I already possess a copy of An Infamous Army, and could not find a copy of These Old Shades. Finally I found a hard copy of The Devil's Cub. There, that's the background!
Georgette Heyer is considered the grandmother of the Regency Romance novel genre. I have read many of her books and have enjoyed all of them to varying degrees. She was a wonderful researcher in the details of this Georgian period. In many of her novels she describes activities I've never found in other novels. Especially she has illuminated in detail the transportation at that time, the difference carriages, the value of a horse, the style of riding and driving and the conditions of the roads. Her characters show who they are by how they ride and drive. It's great stuff.
For those of us who like this sort of thing, The Devil's Cub is totally delicious, rambunctiously theatrical, packed with outlandish characters and full of heart in that Jane Austen style where character is recognized over beauty. The story has its share of scenes where our heroine gets to display sense over sensibility, our hero recognizes this and the reader is thrilled to participate. Add to this that the hero himself is a master of affectation (as is his father -- the Devil referred to in the title-- whom we learn much more about in These Old Shades) as a cover for his actual practical, no-nonsense character. This is one of her best works and has spurred me on to read These Old Shades (purchased as an iBook, it's come to this!).
These Old Shades was my first look into the world of Georgette Heyer. The language was unfamiliar but I soon learned and in so doing found a lifetime of enjoyment. I return periodically to Heyer's world. The Alistair family never fails to delight!
Georgette Heyer wrote little mysteries and raucous comedies of manners in the 1930s. I've occasionally heard of her but this the first I've read. The topics are crazily out of date and the relationships completely inappropriate but the writing is well done and amusing. Call it reverse time travel and a break from our world.