Regency knees

[mishaday]

Second week in a row, and I've managed to make the bus just in time. I can see it a block off from the crest of a hill, and if I run (and the lights are with me) I can just about hop on in time.

And a good thing, too. My knees (more important than you'd think in belly-dancing) are achy. It might just be the intense cold of the past couple of days, and the fact that our office, usually a boiler room, has been frigid lately. But still. Owkneesow. And owbackow from hunching over a desk doing fancy things with letters. And owhandow from the same thing. My style is improving nicely, I think, though the 's' and the 'g' in Carolingian are a stone bitch. My 'w' also looks like a mutant. Next week we get to cut and rule our final project. I'm thinking some Austen quotes would be fun. And maybe some colored huge capitals to pretty it up.

I've found myself holding my breath when the instructor comes near me. She's a lovely, artistic woman with very birdlike mannerisms and a great enthusiasm for the art of calligraphy, but lord, she needs some deoderant. Phew!

I think I've managed to get to the point in my Georgette Heyer fixation (helped immensely by a biography I found in Suzallo) where I can slow my voracious reading and sit back and analyze her style, her subjects, and what about them that fascinate me. The bio has some points that I'll want to validate with my own research (namely, that because she really didn't understand the medieval mindset, her novels set in earlier time periods were much more stilted than the Regency period, which she liked less, but understood better.) I've read the one Georgian novel, which is a much more overblown period, in manners, fashion and style, than the very restrained Regency period, and I really prefer the Regency.

I think I forsee a little bit of historical research coming up. Previously, I'd gotten up to the Hanovers in British history, dismissed them as dead boring (esp. compared to, say, Bonnie Prince Charlie or William of Orange) and migrated across the Atlantic for a thorough grounding in American history (both the US and Canada, though I'm a bit shakier with Canada.)

Comments

[dine.livejournal.com]

Is that the biography by Jane Aiken Hodge? I read that a few years ago, and really enjoyed it - time to reread, I think.

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

Yep - that's the one: The Private World of Georgette Heyer

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

My mother is a huge Heyer fan and read quite a bit about her. She tells me that in one interview Ms Heyer said that she thought her fans were daft because she herself wouldn't be caught reading such drivel as she wrote! But she knew huge amounts about the period and her descritions of places, clothes and events are almost pinpoint accurate. I think she felt that since her writing was neither literature nor accademic it was of little value other than the income it brought in to her. A strange out look considering the continuing popularity of her work with people of intellect!

I have and have read a number of her stories. I copntinue to maintain I don't like them. But I continue to read them, as Gillian will attest!

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

Well, she *had* to write: she was supporting her husband, son and brother. I'll imagine that sucked a bit of the enjoyment out for her. Also, perversely, her better selling novels were from the Regency period, which didn't interest her as much as the earlier stuff.