As I’ve said before, I love Pinterest. I always find something new on it, something to delight. Yesterday I came across a pin of History Blogs. Of course I lost them and in a search to find them, I discovered many more.
I searched Pinterest on “History Blogs” and this is an example of what I found– The History Files – an eclectic compilation of history topics, not Regency, but lots of interesting stuff. Scandalous Women – by our Risky friend, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon In theWords of Women – another “women in history” blog, but who can ever tire of that?
I don’t really understand why I didn’t find Risky Regencies on one of the sites. Or Number One London. But, besides that, there’s a bunch of history treasure here!
What’s your favorite History blog?…besides Risky Regencies, that is!
Good morning everyone and apologies for this short but sweet and almost totally promotional post. I’m thrilled to announce that Dedication for kindle is now .99 cents this week only as is my other ebook, The Malorie Phoenix. It’s part of a promotion done by me and my buddies of the Wet Noodle Posse, the 2003 Golden Heart finalists who are still friends and slapping each other with wet pasta products as called for–our own Diane Gaston is also a Noodler. We have a lot of great books priced at .99 and you can read about them, and see other Noodler books here at the Cyber Book Sale. (And I don’t know about you but a lot of my cyber week shopping has not been for gifts as such. Gifts for me, yes. My kindle is bursting at its seams.)
Today is the birthday of both C.S. Lewis and Louisa May Alcott and I’m wondering whether you’re a Lewis or an Alcott fan and whether it’s possible to be both. Me, I’m a Lewis girl all the way, even though I find his sexism, his heavy handed religious propaganda, and his careless worldbuilding (if it was winter all the time, how did people eat?) just plain annoying. As for Alcott, I think she’s pretty preachy too, and I can never, never forgive her for marrying wonderful, vibrant Jo off to a German caricature, although I guess his sausage worked well enough to propel her into the final subjugation of motherhood in Little Men (has anyone read that? Don’t, please). But I never got Alcott the way I did C. S. Lewis and Narnia. She never fired my imagination or (occasionally) blew me away with her writing
I was looking through a list of period dramas for DVDs to put on my holiday wish list and discovered that there is a film version of Georgette Heyer’s The Reluctant Widow. I wondered how I could have missed this, as I can’t remember discussing it here or with any other group of Regency fans.
Anyway, I did a little digging. The film came out in 1950 and starred Jean Kent and Guy Rolfe. Currently, it’s only available on Youtube although it appears to have been on sale at some point at www.lovingtheclassics.com. According to IMDB, it was renamed The Inheritance at some point. The Georgette Heyer fan site (www.georgette-heyer.com) calls it a spoof, but after viewing the first ten minutes, I think it was an earnest attempt at making the story into a gothic romance. They’ve missed the humor in Elinor and Carlyon’s first meeting and it seems they were already deviating from the original plot.
Here is Part I. Watch it if you dare! And then someone please explain to me why Carlyon is wearing a military uniform.
One of the comments on this clip says that Georgette Heyer was so disappointed with this film that she made provisions never to have her books made into film again. However, back at www.georgette-heyer.com/movies.html it says that there are two production companies in the UK and the US that have the rights to her stories.
“After some e-mail hunting, I received a response from the literary agent who handles Ms. Heyer’s work in the U.K. According to his letter, his agency has been trying to interest production companies in dramatizations of Heyer’s mysteries for a long time, with no success. He said production companies “mumble about the cost of period drama, and whether there is an audience for old-fashioned crime”! Thankfully, he assured me that they plan to persevere until someone sees the light….”
If you get a group of Heyer fans together then talk with inevitably turn to television and film adaptations or, more precisely, the lack of them. There is a film version of The Reluctant Widow, which came out in Heyer’s lifetime but apparently it appalled her so much that she refused to allow any more.
However, it now transpires that she badly wanted her books made into films and there’s even recently been a Cranford style version planned with three of her books given an intertwined storyline – I’m guessing it would be Regency Buck, Devil’s Cub and An Infamous Army maybe as they are already linked by common characters.
Intriguing, but why haven’t we heard more about this?
I also found a Dec 2011 campaign to encourage ITV or BBC to do this at heyercampaign.wordpress.com/. This site includes a poll as to which stories people would most like to see on film: 1st place—The Grand Sophy, 2nd place—Arabella, 3rd place—These Old Shades or Sylvester.
I haven’t had time to follow up any of these leads, but I’m tempted. Much as I enjoy Jane Austen adaptations, there are so many good ones already! It would be so much fun to watch a sympathetic Heyer adaptation. I like the choices from the Heyer Campaign poll, but I’d also love to see Frederica, with its balloon ascension and the scene with the famous Baluchistan Hound.
So, am I the only one who didn’t know about the 1950 version of The Reluctant Widow? Does anyone have any more recent news on Georgette Heyer films? Which book would you most like to see on film?
P.S. www.georgette-heyer.com/movies.html also indicates that there was a German version of Arabella—however, they apparently made a few changes as this promo poster suggests!
Hi all. My name is Myretta Robens and I’m going to be sharing Saturday blogging with Megan. If you don’t know me (and millions don’t), I thought I’d make this post about myself – fascinating topic.
I met Megan when we both preparing for the publication of our first Traditional Regencies. Hers was for Signet and mine for Zebra (the last two Trad Regency hold-outs). We were both writing journals about the road to publication for All About Romance and we just hit it off. We have since become close friends with an alarming tendency to put each other in our books. We were also both produced close to the last book in the world of print Traditional Regency. Mine was Just Say Yes, which was a RITA finalist in 2005. It lost to Riskies’ own Diane Gaston. I’m just working my way around to forgiving Diane for this.
My first love, however, is Jane Austen, about whom I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me in the future. In 1997, a friend and I began The Republic of Pemberley web site. Admittedly, this site was born of the deep-seated lust provoked by Colin Firth in the role of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. But it’s grown and changed since then to a rather large and highly interactive Jane Austen site that manages to take up quite a lot of my time. If you love, Jane, you should visit us.
Have I bored you sufficiently talking about myself? Would you like to also know that I live near Boston with three cats (11, 11, and 21)? That I worked for HarvardUniversity until recently and that I still do web design for extra dough? That I use all these excuses when I’m procrastinating? That I am writing – really! – currently a Regency-set single title which is about half way there? My own web site is at myrettarobens.com. Feel free to visit me there.
I’m happy to be among you and look forward to frisking with the Riskies. Thanks for inviting me.
Regency History – the first entry I came across was one giving links to online copies of La Belle Assemble
