Georgette Heyer Novels and other Regency Historic Reading

Georgette Heyer Regency novels are some of my favorite guilty pleasures. I stumbled across Heyer when in junior high – which must have been about 1981 or so – and I was initially fascinated by the fact that several of her books had female characters that disguised themselves as men. At the time there were no gay teen novels like there are now, and cross-dressing female characters were one of my first identifications with my sexual orientation, so I scoured the library for books about tomboys and other gender-role breaking females.

But I kept reading Heyer long after I had read those particular books, because she wrote strong, amusing characters and entertaining plots that paid detailed attention to rules of polite society in upper-class England during the Regency period. I hadn’t yet discovered Jane Austen, but when I did, I recognized the world she lived in, because Heyer was obviously inspired by Austen’s novels, although Heyer’s work is quite a bit more comical.

Georgette Heyer, along with Jane Austen, inspired the whole sub-genre of Regency Romance, but her novels shouldn’t be confused with cheap paperbacks; Heyer did a tremendous amount of research on the Regency period of English history. Most of her novels were written in the 1920s through the 1970s – but their popularity has kept them in print fairly regularly since then, and many have been reprinted recently by modern romance publishers.

Heyer’s Georgian/Regency Novels

An Infamous Army

April Lady

Arabella

Bath Tangle

Black Moth

Charity Girl

A Civil Contract

The Convenient Marriage

Corinthian

Cotillion

Cousin Kate

Devil’s Cub

False Colours

Faro’s Daughter

The Foundling

Frederica

Friday’s Child

The Grand Sophy

Lady of Quality

The Masqueraders

The Nonesuch

Pistols for Two

Powder and Patch

Quiet Gentleman

Regency Buck

Reluctant Widow

The Spanish Bride

Sprig Muslin

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle

The Talisman Ring

These Old Shades

The Toll Gate

The Unknown Ajax

Venetia

Heyer’s Other Historic Novels

Beauvallet (1929)

The Conqueror (1931)

The Great Roxhythe (1923)

My Lord John (1975)

Royal Escape (1938)

Simon the Coldheart (1925)

Non-Fiction about Heyer

Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective
Mary Fahnestock-Thomas

Georgette Heyer’s Regency England
by Teresa Chris

Georgette Heyer’s Regency World
by Jennifer Kloester

The Private World of Georgette Heyer
by Jane Aiken Hodge

Jane Austen Mystery Series

An often entertaining mystery series by author Stephanie Barron that casts Jane Austen as its heroine; in between writing her classic novels, Jane solves crime with the help of the mysterious and romantic Lord Harold Trowbridge. I wonder what the real Jane would think.

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor

Jane and the Man of the Cloth

Jane and the Wandering Eye

Jane and the Genius of the Place

Jane and the Stillroom Maid

Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House

Jane and the Ghosts of Netley

Jane and His Lordship’s Legacy

Jane and the Barque of Frailty

Beau Brummell Mystery Series

Another Regency mystery series by author Rosemary Stevens, this time starring real-life Regency dandy Beau Brummell. These were okay; not as much fun as the Jane Austen, but Beau Brummell was quite a character.

Death on a Silver Tray

The Tainted Snuff Box

The Bloodied Cravat

Murder in the Pleasure Gardens

Mr. and Mrs Darcy Mystery Series

I haven’t read any of this series by author Carrie Bebris yet; they sound similar to the Jane Austen mysteries.

Pride and Prescience, or A Truth Universally Acknowledged

Suspense and Sensibility, or First Impressions Revisited

North By Northanger, or The Shades of Pemberley

Mysteries of Regency England by Ashley Gardner

Also haven’t read any of these; I’ll have to look around for the first one and see if they’re any good.

The Hanover Square Affair

A Regimental Murder

The Glass House

The Sudbury School Murders

A Body in Berkeley Square

A Covent Garden Mystery

Other Regency Novels

Pembroke Park by Michelle Martin (Author)

The Butler Who Laughed by Michelle Martin

The Mad Miss Mathley by Michelle Martin

The Hampshire Hoyden by Michelle Martin

The Queen of Hearts by Michelle Martin

The Adventurers by Michelle Martin

Jane Austen’s Letters

Virtue and Vanity

Presumption: An Entertainment: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice

Pemberley or Pride and Prejudice Continued

The Bar Sinister, Pride and Prejudice Continues

Jane Fairfax: Jane Austen’s Emma, Through Another’s Eyes

Non-Fiction about the Regency Period

Jane Austen’s Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders
by Josephine Ross and Henrietta Webb

An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England
by Venetia Murray

Regency Etiquette: The Mirror of Graces, 1811
by Lady of Distinction

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England
by Daniel Pool

Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency
by Saul David

The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency 1811-1820
by J.B. Priestley

Regency Underworld

Beau Brummell
Hubert Cole
Alternate Edition


Beau Brummell

Virginia Stephen Woolf
Alternate Edition


The Dandy and the Herald : Manners, Mind and Morals from Brummell to Durrell

Richard Pine


The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm

Ellen Moers

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