In this lengthy and learned piece in the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, published in association with the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (yes, it is a thing), Dr. Laura Vivanco explores the commonalities between Heyer’s hero Sir Waldo Hawkridge, of The Nonesuch, and Georgette Heyer herself. It is a fascinating dissection of the novel as well as a look at the life and opinions of its author.
The abstract reads:
Georgette Heyer is one of the most influential authors of popular romance novels and it is a mark of her continuing popularity that after her death she became the subject of two biographies: Jane Aiken Hodge’s The Private World of Georgette Heyer (1984) and Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller (2011). However, as reported in the former, Heyer once stated that “You will find me […] in my work”: this essay finds Heyer in The Nonesuch (1962) and argues that there are parallels between Heyer’s life and work and that of her eponymous hero. It also suggests that there are a number of points of resemblance between her novels and the entertaining yet educational and “quite unexceptionable” gifts which the Nonesuch bestows upon young Charlotte Underhill to ease her convalescence.
Read the whole journal article here.
Related posts:
“Shakespearean allusion and the detective fiction of Georgette Heyer” by Lisa Hopkins
“Forgotten Authors No. 27: Georgette Heyer” by Christopher Fowler (The Independent)
“The High Kick of Regency Fashion” by Juliet Townsend, The Spectator (2004)
An Obituary from the New York Times, July 6, 1974
“An Appreciation of Georgette Heyer”, by Jay Dixon, Solander
