Join, or die
21 Mar
So I’m on a historical fiction binge apparently—paused in the middle of The Baroque Cycle (I have like 4 other books waiting for me untouched before I go out and buy The System of the World, as much as I’ve loved it so far), and I’ve just finished this really, really cool historical romance, Georgette Heyer’sAn Infamous Army. (Another Xmas gift, but the last of them—I was saving it for a reason but that’s another story for another time. From Neuroscientist Reenie!)
I’ve never read a lot of romance (except Austen, obviously), but I think I should start. My friend Megan once told me back in our college days that it was like cleansing the literary palate to prepare you for the next main course, and I think that’s accurate in general. But when it comes to this specific romance novel, it’s a little heavier than that because she, pretty much action-for-action, describes the battle of Waterloo. Like… the whole thing. The plot is twisted up around the preparations for battle in Brussels, though they don’t know when or where it’ll be, the Duke of Wellington’s habits and “family”, and this love story between a Colonel on his staff and this crazy “bad girl” type. Which, seeing as most of what I know of Regency comes from Jane Austen, is pretty amazing to me.
And it’s stupid engaging. It’s so weird to have a book I can relax with in the bathtub during a soak that isn’t totally insipid and pointless. It’s an odd phenomenon, and I intend to read more. Why no one introduced me to this before, I don’t know, but I have Reenie’s family to thank for this, I’m sure.
Also, the last description of Waterloo I read was in the killer Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Where Strange keeps foisting magic off on Wellington and he’s getting all aggravated. So you know, cool to see the real deal (even if everything is more fun with magic—replacing that point of interest with the romantic hero, his bitter and useless rival, and their families and friends makes up for it.)
Apparently I’m on an actual historical binge too. I have a bunch of nonfiction that wants my attention, some of it for research but most of it just for fun this time around. I bought McCullough’s John Adams while in Philadelphia last month, because I kept seeing the ads for the miniseries and getting all excited (I bought 1776 on a trip to Mt. Vernon last summer and literally couldn’t put it down. Nerd alert.) For good reason apparently, since the first two installments last weekend were so badass I’m impatient for the next one this week.
But I defy anyone to resist the awesome of Abigail Adams.
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Now playing: Arnold Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: II. Molto rallentando
via FoxyTunes
You meet more interesting books than just about anyone I know.
Oh – and if you decide you want romance novel suggestions, let me know. There’s no need to cleanse the literary palate with pain. =P
Yay, I’m glad you liked it!! My weird family reading habits win again!
A little romance (especially historical romance, clearly) really does do you good once in a while. Georgette Heyer is pretty much therapy for me (random anxiety moods creeping up on you, and no geometric patterns? Random regency romances are soothing. Seriously). Especially the good ones like this – there’s a few that get pretty formulaic, but for the most part, she’s awesome about actually finding ways to make the leads interesting.
Clearly I love Austen too, and that has the contemporary thing going for it, but after reading a few Heyers you start seeing how limited a slice of the regency world was in Austen’s books. Not really her fault – how the hell was she going to know what went on when the men were alone, or all the Ton stuff in London? – but still, it’s fun to see the whole thing.
And then this one and its pages and pages of battle description! I think I may have told you before that it was actually used as a textbook at Sandhurst (Westpoint for Brits) because it’s the best rendition of Waterloo around. In the middle of a romance novel. Gotta love that.
Some other of the Heyers I’d particularly recommend:
Lady of Quality – not actually the best of them, but it has Judith and Worth before they got married, and Judith isn’t quite so lame. She’s still Jean though, so kinda lame. But Peregrine is even more hilarious.
These Old Shades/Devil’s Cub – the original ones about Barbara’s family (the first is her great grandparents, the second her grandfather and grandmother that turn up at the end of Infamous army). They’re set in Versailles!
Sylvester – the female protagonist is a writer! Whee!
Venetia
A Convenient Marriage
Cousin Kate – totally pokes fun at Wuthering Heights and other such books.
Also.. random note – reading about how the British army ran itself at the time (as opposed to those Prussians, who actually listened to what officers apart from the general had to say! Shocking!) explained so much about Britain in the first world war. i.e. why they sucked so fucking badly. If Wellington had been around, it probably WOULD have been over by Christmas.
(incidentally, have you ever heard of Sharpe? Series of books about a guy in the Napoleonic wars, also made into a TV series starring Sean Bean. SO MUCH LOVE).
I second Sharpe; though I’ve not read the books, I’ve seen the TV series. Best watched with a glass of wine. I’ve enjoyed several of Bernard Cornwell’s other historial books, including his Arthurian fiction.
For actual Regency, I know a few authors (surely the whole point of doing an Englist degree!). Fanny Burney’s Evelina made my brain ache, because the title character is such a Mary Sue, but Margaret Cavendish’s Sci Fi The Blazing World is wonderfully mad. I adore Charlotte Bronte’s Vilette (period Belgium!) for a bit of romance, and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White for women in crinolines climbing across rooftops (though we’ve snuck thoroughly into Victorian by now).
If you like battles I suggest looking up some info about the Spanish Armada. Our fleet was run by a pair of pirates, who kept stopping to plunder ships and put Britian in peril! The Hundred Years War is another good one (which was either eighty something years long, or over five hundred); it’s the era in which The Knight’s Tale (the Heath Ledger film, rather than Chaucer’s) is set. We’re so chuffed with ourselves for winning the first half, but we go schtum when it comes to mentioning that we pretty much lost the second half. Still, it’s got the Black Prince and a kind who thought he was made of glass, and was swiftly followed by the Black Death (round one) and the Peasant’s Revolt. Again, Bernard Cornwell has written a bit set in that era; he’s good for historial fiction.
@ Meghan
You’re at least partially to blame for my interesting books– yours are two of them!
<3
@ N. Reenie
after reading a few Heyers you start seeing how limited a slice of the regency world was in Austen’s books.
Exactly! It was all shocking that Bab was so… forward! And awesome. Hee, she even has red hair.
I need to go and look up some of those others, they sound amazing. I should fill in one of hers for every couple of books I read. I’d be a much better (and happier) person for it. This Sharpe too!
@ NK
Well any friend of Arthurian Fiction is a friend of mine.
I’m also a huge fan of the whole Spanish Armada thing (I was just watching something about that on History, and about Drake in California… that’s not pertinent, is it? Anyhow.) Mmm awesome recs for period pieces and historical fiction, you rule!