"Regency"

[ellenkushner]

An online zine editor just sent me a query which I thought might be of interest to the public:

Q: Do you consider Swordspoint et al Regency novels?

A: Not at all. Regency novels (particularly Georgette Heyer's) were certainly an influence on me, but the novels' setting is meant to be a heady mix of Elizabethan, 17c and 18c as well as "Regency" periods (with a little Damon Runyon & Dickens & of course the glorious Whatnot thrown in).

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I like "heady", a fairly non-Regency quality in itself. Comparing your universe to Heyer's makes me think of jungles bursting up through the floor of the Pump Room, a la =Brokedown Palace=. A more fertile mix of eras and manners.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Scrumptious!

[(Anonymous)]

The culture feels very French 18th-c to me, but that's just one reading.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Frell. That was me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Way more of a Dunnett feel than a Heyer feel.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah.... (beam) - though the new one starts out very Regencoid . . . kinda like building an ornate sandcastle at the beach just so you can stomp on it.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, I've always considered the Regency period damned dangerous...behind everything--even in austen if one listens sharply enough, the war runs. The Heyerverse is smugly cozy. The war has dwindled to a change-of-command parade.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to look in and say that I loved the new book...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

(happy glow from NYC!)

[mneme]

I think the confusion is that both Regency novels and Swordspoint are generaly novels of manners. But whereas Regency novels are usually (I think) Historical Romances of Manners, Swordspoint, et alia, are highly self-concious Fantasies of Manners.

[peregrinejohn.livejournal.com]

Quite fond of the Whatnot influence, myself. It’s like a catalyst or curious twist amongst the historical grounding. The pocket square that completes the look. The touch of wine vinegar in my Caesar salad dressing.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

hee hee!

[vcmw]

I've been reading quite a lot of Heyer, and she didn't just write Regencies. The Georgians are quite a bit more freewheeling. I rather think that Leonie from "These Old Shades" would *adore* Riverside, what with her cheerfulness about trying to kill her father and her fondness for men's clothing and her tendency to chase people who annoy her around with swords and pistols.

But the Riverside stories I've read (I haven't read the newest one yet) give more of a sense that their world is bigger than the story. With the Heyer books I'm convinced that the imagined world stops at the edges of the story, whereas when reading Swordspoint I'm sure that the imagined world goes off in all directions past the edges of the story.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you said that!! "These Old Shades" was the first Heyer I ever read, and I absolutely adored it - it was the one that got me hooked on Heyer, and also had a significant impact on my First Novel. Thanks for checking in!