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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

But back to Bill and Mary. Just like Kenneth and Ursula of “Acting on Impulse,” every facet of their relationship, the fact that they even have one, is entirely at the man’s discretion. Just as Ursula had never, apparently, even considered marrying madcap Kenneth before he abruptly decides she should, Mary actively denies any desire to marry Bill more than once but he insists and insists and because it is easier to give in (to the life of ease and comfort he is offering her as much as to his stern importunities) she just meekly goes along with it. Cicely, Katharine, Ursula, Mary – for all we know, Diana also married George because he told her to; at least Ruth had enough backbone to stand up to Peter, before “The Little Lady” sent him crawling back to her – these women are all almost entirely at the whim of the men who might choose to marry them, and by god, that is annoying. Way more so here than in any historical romance, even in those that employ the Forced to Marry trope, like A Civil Contract and Friday’s Child and so very, very many penned by Barbara Cartland and her ilk.

Part of the problem, of course, is the brevity of these stories – we learn a lot about the players, major and minor (except for most of the people in “Linckes” and, sadly, Ruth) because of Heyer’s gift for characterization in an economy of words, but the development of relationships must be necessarily truncated in an offering like this, so abrupt denouements are somewhat to be expected. But this dictatorial “you will marry me” nonsense, this whole “you need me to take care of you” rigamarole, this infuriating “you’re nothing without me” rubbish, just makes me so mad.

Yet these stories are… pretty great. This one isn’t close to my favourite in the collection, but it’s still better than ninety percent of romantic shorts I’ve ever read—and which number in the thousands. Georgette Heyer is so good that even when she drives you crazy, you still love her.

Plus, hey! Good thing that Mary’s friend Janet espouses the Maria from Sound of Music school of fashion design – pre-Sound of Music, of course – or else bullying, bizarrely-confident-after-three-years Bill would never have found his carefully selected bride.

And then what would she have done? Married someone she actually chose, when she was actually ready to do so after she’d properly processed her father’s death and her changed circumstances and learned that she did not need a man to take care of or complete her?

Pshaw!

“THE OLD MAID”

INTRODUCTION

“Helen King-Eyre, who was thirty-six and looked forty, stood by the window with her back to her friend and said nothing at all.” Such is the unusual beginning of Georgette Heyer’s last known contemporary short story. Published in Woman’s Pictorial in August 1925, it appeared under the name “Stella Martin,” the same pseudonym which two years previously she had published The Transformation of Philip Jettan. “The Old Maid” is undeniably a Georgette Heyer story, and reading it, it is tempting to think that it has several autobiographical elements – which may be why she used a pseudonym.