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Contents (80)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. A PROPOSAL TO CICELY
  8. THE END
  9. READING “A PROPOSAL TO CICELY”
  10. “THE LITTLE LADY”
  11. INTRODUCTION
  12. THE LITTLE LADY
  13. I.
  14. II.
  15. III.
  16. THE END
  17. READING “THE LITTLE LADY”
  18. “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  19. INTRODUCTION
  20. LINCKES’ GREAT CASE
  21. I.
  22. II.
  23. III.
  24. IV.
  25. V.
  26. VI.
  27. VII.
  28. THE END
  29. READING “LINCKES’ GREAT CASE”
  30. “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  31. INTRODUCTION
  32. THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST
  33. THE END
  34. READING “THE BULLDOG AND THE BEAST”
  35. “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  36. INTRODUCTION
  37. ACTING ON IMPULSE
  38. I.
  39. II.
  40. III.
  41. IV.
  42. THE END
  43. READING “ACTING ON IMPULSE”
  44. “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  45. INTRODUCTION
  46. WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?
  47. THE END
  48. READING “WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?”
  49. “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  50. INTRODUCTION
  51. CONT
  52. THE CHINESE SHAWL
  53. I.
  54. II.
  55. III.
  56. IV.
  57. V.
  58. VI.
  59. VII.
  60. VIII.
  61. THE END
  62. READING “THE CHINESE SHAWL”
  63. “THE OLD MAID”
  64. INTRODUCTION
  65. THE OLD MAID
  66. THE END
  67. READING “THE OLD MAID”
  68. “LOVE”
  69. INTRODUCTION
  70. LOVE
  71. I.
  72. II.
  73. III.
  74. THE END
  75. READING “LOVE”
  76. THE SEARCH FOR “ON SUCH A NIGHT”
  77. GEORGETTE HEYER’S BIBLIOGRAPHY
  78. FURTHER READING
  79. COMING SOON!
  80. OCTOBER 29, 2019

Could it be that “The Little Lady” was not, after all, Heyer’s only flirtation with the supernatural?

And, hey. Ruthven is, as far as we can tell, also unemployed. At least, if he does anything to earn his crust, we never hear of it. Yet he has a car, and twenty guineas (equivalent buying power today of around £1,200; that is one expensive second-hand bulldog!) to spare on a whim, and can get married… also on a whim. Ah, these idly rich gentlemen of the 1920s! I shouldn’t wonder if Ruthven was a member of the Drones Club. Richard Spalding of “A Proposal to Cicely” surely was – the P. G. Wodehouse influence over these stories is pretty self-evident.

It is quite strange, meanwhile, that Heyer refers to Hugh Ruthven as “Ruthven” throughout this tale, which feels quite incongruous when he is not a lord of some kind. In her historical novels, most of which dwell in the aristocracy, you’ll get a “Cardross” or a “Damerel” and won’t necessarily learn the gentleman’s first name for a good deal of the book. (Giles and Jasper, respectively.) True, in those more formal times, we also have “Mr. Beaumaris” and “Mr. Carleton,” who are only rarely Robert and Oliver to us, but in Instead of the Thorn, for example, Heyer’s first contemporary novel, published in 1923, our – I guess? – hero is known to us almost from the outset as “Stephen.” One might think this is a deliberate choice made by Heyer here, to demonstrate the distance Hugh feels towards humanity in general, and Miss Testram in particular, but even at the story’s happy conclusion, she persists in last-naming him, so it just seems to be the mode of address she decided he deserved. It’s like he’s straight out of the prefect’s study in a Boy’s Own boarding school story, but when Katharine (who is, crucially, Katharine pretty much from the off) – calls him Hugh, he does not in any way object.

Curious.

Although, Katharine did name her dog the very formal Mr. Sykes, and her last name is the unfathomable and irregular Testram – the kind of word that your brain wants to read differently, and you are forced to really look at, not to misinterpret it entirely – so clearly nomenclature is a problem for this story all over the place.

Especially as, in its originally published form, the word bulldog was consistently rendered “bull-dog” (we fixed it), and I can find no reference anywhere to that being the standard. Ever. Even the title, as printed in The Happy Mag, does not use this eccentric hyphenation.

Just another instance of Georgette Heyer leading the vanguard with her linguistic uniqueness, I guess.

This is a really, really cute story for all that, though.

“ACTING ON IMPULSE”

INTRODUCTION

In June 1923 Heyer had her fifth short story published, this time in The Red Magazine, which had published her second short, “The Little Lady”, the previous year. The new story was very different from that sentimental tale, and it has some additional early signs of what would become Heyer’s trademark humour. “Acting on Impulse” is, following on from “Bulldog and the Beast”, another light-hearted story, this one featuring an impulsive, youthful hero in Kenneth and a kind but practical heroine in Ursula.