Frederica - Georgette Heyer

[watervole]

One  Of Heyer's very best books.

Frederica is used to being the head of her family. Since the death of her parents, she's had to organise her two younger Brothers, keep an eye on her older brother , and now she's trying to find a suitable husband for her beautiful sister.

The antics of her brothers lend real entertainment value to this story, and there is also genuine historical interest in things that Felix wants to visit. One of the joys of Georgette Heyer as a writer is that she always did her research in great detail. Frederica sees cows with milk for sale in Hyde Park, Felix goes to visit the inside of an iron foundry; and we watch a hot air balloon ascend. In the case of other writers, we might assume these to be made up , but when Georgette Heyer  is writing, you know that every historical detail will stand up to inspection.

This book is also delightfully amusing.

Alverstoke's interactions with Felix, as Felix attempts to drag him to see all kinds of mechanical things that Felix is convinced Alverstoke will find delightful, as pure joy, as are the conversations between Alverstoke and Frederica. 

At the decrepit age of 24, Frederica assumes she is out of the marriage market, so makes no attempt to attract Alverstoke for herself.  This leads to a friendly, relaxed dynamic that Alverstoke hasn't encountered before.
 

I was laughing audibly at many points in this book. I've read it before and will doubtless read it again :)

Comments

[pensnest]

I like that book enormously, but isn't it the one where she did actually get something wrong—the iron foundry she referred to was actually in Birmingham, not London. Otherwise she is generally impeccable. And of course a delight to read!

[watervole]

I will allow her a misplaced iron foundry as long as it really did have a pneumatic lift!

[pensnest]

Oh, I think it did. I'm sure I read somewhere that she was very cross when she discovered that the thing was not in London's Soho, too late to change things. She was very good at her research!

[igenlode]

Yes, Boulton's Soho Foundry in Smethwick near Birmingham: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1021388

The error was introduced by a misreading of one of her research texts:
One of the books she consulted was John Sewell’s 'Elementary Treatise on Steam and Locomotion' (1852), in which she had found a sentence about a steam boiler which read: “In 1776 Watt introduced the expansive action of steam cut off from the boiler, at Soho and other places.” On the next page there is a reference to Watt’s "first double-acting engine erected at Albion-mills, London”; there is no mention of Birmingham. Georgette had thus assumed that the Soho mentioned in the book was Soho in London. At the time she had thought Soho London “an odd place for a foundry” and “had meant to look it up”. Unfortunately, kidney stones and major surgery followed by a long convalescence had pushed the question from her mind. The error remained and, although Georgette thought she might be inundated with letters pointing out her mistake, she only ever received one letter about it. The error remains to this day. https://jenniferkloester.com/frederica-an-interrupted-novel-part-2/

It must have been an incredibly infuriating error to discover, because once the plot had been constructed there was simply no way at all to fix it even in a future edition (unless, I suppose, she had completely changed the nature of Felix's excursion and all reference to it in the book, and also found some other historical engineering location near London to which Alverstoke might conceivably have had access...)

[ranunculus]

I haven't read anything by Georgette Heyer for a long, long time. She was once one of my favorite authors - back in my early 20's. Perhaps I will...

[watervole]

My sister used to read loads of Heyers when were were teenagers, and I was reading loads of SF. I was probably 50 before I tried Heyer myself, but have enjoyed many of her books since.

And most of them are out of copyright, so you can find free downloads...

[sallymn]

Oh yes, this is in my top 5 Heyers, I adore it and have reread it several times. It's also one of the ones I would love to see dramatised...

[watervole]

Oh yes! A ball, a ballon ascent, desperate rides through the countryside, devoted nursing, snappy dialogue. It has it all!

[sallymn]

And the Baluchistan hound! It would be amazing and so, so funny :)

[watervole]

Which are the other four?

[sallymn]

Hmmm... probably Cotillion, The Unknown Ajax, Black Sheep and Venetia. With an honorable mention of The Talisman Ring even though it isn't one of her absolute best, because I adore the heroine Sarah Thane, she is soooo my sort of character (the quote on this icon are her words and I totally agree :)

[replyhazy]

I don't think I've ever read that one! On the list it goes. My favorite used to be A Civil Contract. I'm always interested to hear people's favorite Heyers, because so often people have totally divergent opinions. A friend really enjoys The Talisman Ring, but it did nothing for me.

[word_geek]

I love the Grand Sophy, which uses to be my favourite. A Civil Contract is also a strong contender, because it's just such a comfort read for me. I do enjoy Frederica, too, but I think the Spanish Bride might be my current favourite

[watervole]

Following your recommendation, I've started the Spanish Bride.

I like the Peninsular War setting (I used to read a lot of the Sharpe novels), but Heyer's writing style is very different here. Still haven't made up my mind if I like it or not. I think she may be trying to fit in too much of her research...

eg. I'm not sure Rifleman Harris needs to exist as a character - he feels rather shoehorned in. As an historical source, he's great, but I'm not sure he personally needs to be in the novel.

Still, I'm barely a quarter of the way through, so we'll see how it goes :)

[word_geek]

There is a bit of the "let's use quotes from the diaries" thing, but I was a history student once, I get the urge to do that.

After a few rereads, I just ended up really liking the way the relationship develops from love at first sight to something grounded in reality. It's part of what I like in A Civil Contract. The starting point is not knowing each other at all in both cases

[watervole]

Well, it's inspired me to download some of Kincaid's memoires from Project Gutenberg... Now, all I need is time to read them.

[watervole]

I've not yet read a Civil Contract, so that can go on my list.

If you want to see my reviews of some other Heyers, see if this link works - https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/70716949?ref=nav_mybooks

(I'm Judith Proctor on GoodReads)

[vera_j]

And one of those writers that are completely unknown here! So, thank you for your lovely review!

[watervole]

I think you might like Georgette Heyer. Most of her novels are romances set in Georgian England. Often with a gently humorous streak. Always strong female characters.

If you read on screen, or have an ebook, you can download many of her novels for free, as they are out of copyright.