Explore Pistols For Two: And Other Stories Compiled By Georgette Heyer Formatted As Digital
feel like Heyer storystarters or short story advertisements for her work, with all the usual plots wrapped up in a few pages.
You can imagine them in magazines, not even continuing to the pages in the back,
Not bad, but even less memorable than the full length books, Georgette Heyer Lite. These stories were almost like a sampler of many of her fulllength novels, I found them undemanding and enjoyable, great for bedtime reading, This is a delightful collection of short stories by the undisputed queen of the Regency Romance genre, Georgette Heyer, There are villains who aren't damsels in distress, happily ever afters, and an enchanting glimpse into a way of life now long gone.
My ONLY disappointment with this volume is that so often I would have gladly spent far longer with the characters! Any fan of Ms.
Heyer's work can look forward to some happy hours spent with "Pistols for Two" in hand! In truth, I have to be in the mood to read something by Georgette Heyer and sitelinkPistols For Two satisfied my craving for some witty romances.
I was able to read one or two stories per day while working on other things,
Pistols for Two was more about friendship than anything else, Two friends let a woman get between them, And all for what stars
A Clandestine Affair concerns itself with young love, their guardians and the words what goes around comes around.
.stars
Bath Miss struck some tender feelings in me, I loved the snooty Sir Charles and how the sweet and young Miss Massingham turned his world upside down in a few days.
I don't care that the story was so short because it was good, And yes, I finally got over the dreaded words, 'my child', .stars
Pink Domino A brother and sister each fall in love with a special someone.
stars
A Husband for Fanny With a bit of confusion and a minor misunderstanding, love finds itself in a strange place.
/stars
To Have The Honour Money problems put love in crisis, For a little while. stars
Night at the Inn Be careful when you travel, especially of shady innkeepers.
stars
The Duel Accusations, guns and love, stars
Hazard What happens with a drunken bet, /stars
Snowdrift An naive young woman gets help from an unlikely source, stars
Full Moon Lord Stavely has moon madness, /stars
Rounded up tobecause of some special stories, .stars.
Heyer has a small pot from which she collects her characters, The humble, witty spinster with laughing eyes the naive, bigeyed waif the sporty, deviltakeit Corinthian usually 'swarthy' the handsome, hidinghiddendepths Dandy, the young bucks and the prone to spasms, overwrought mother.
Basically, Pistols for Two is a mix and match collection,
But what keeps Heyer from seeming too formulaic is her skill with a wellplaced plottwist, In "Hazard," a gentleman wakes up hungover in the middle of his own elopement, only to encounter the fiancee he wasn't eloping withbut there's more! In "The Duel," a young lady is attempting to appeal to the man who is to duel with her brother when she inadvertently ends up in the home of a handsome strangerbut that's not all!
Half the fun I had was trying to pick the hero and heroine out of the lineups of characters not difficult, and then attempting to figure out the twists more difficultand then seeing if I was right.
Favorites of the lot: "The Duel", "A Husband for Fanny" "Pink Domino", "To Have the Honour", "Hazard"
Myrd Georgette Heyer
"Pistols for Two" while Tom and Jack's courtship of the same girl started out on friendly terms, the situation quickly deteriorates and enters dangerous territory.
stars
"A Clandestine Affair" Miss Tresillian is shocked to discover that her niece has fallen in love with the nephew of her jilted exfiance, but when an elopement is about to happen, the two must unite forces.
stars
"Bath Miss" Sir Charles falls into a trap set up by his mother and aunt, so he must now pick up Miss Anne from boarding school.
stars
"Pink Domino" Giles is trying to prevent his sister from making a disadvantageous marriage while on a mission to find the girl who stole his heart.
stars
"A Husband for Fanny" Fanny has scrapped all her life in order to give her daughter a London season, but she finds herself falling in love with her daughter's suitor.
stars
"To Have the Honour" Alan has returned from war to find his family estate in ruins and his only salvation is to marry his cousin Hettystars
"Night at the Inn" on his way back from Lisbon, Mr Cranbrook meets Miss Gateshead in an inn where odd things are afoot.
stars
"The Duel" on the eve of his duel, Lord Rotherfield finds his adversary's sister in his house, trying to prevent desaster.
stars
"Hazard" Helen's brother has just lost her hand in marriage in a game of cards to the very drunk Lord Carlington, who wants to set off for Gretna Green as soon as possiblestars
"Snowdrift" on his was to Bath via the stage coach, Sir Julian meets Miss Trent who is on her way to win a fortune.
stars
"Full Moon" on his way to visit family friends, Lord Stavely meets a young man who is determined to elope with the fiance Lord Stavely was unaware he had.
Georgette Heyer's only collection of short stories, Pistols for Two offers eleven charming tales, each a little bonbon that both satisfies and tantalizes.
Compact and selfcontained, each of these stories will involve and entertain the reader, before bringing matters to a satisfactory conclusion.
The delights contains herein include:
Pistols for Two, in which lifelong friends Tom and Jack find themselves confronting one another across a dueling field, fighting for the right to court a woman whom neither of them really loves.
Heyer's delicate but pointed sense of humor is in full force here, . .
A Clandestine Affair, in which Lord Iver and Miss Elinor Tresilian, two bitterly estranged lovers, find themselves reconciled while trying to prevent the elopement of their respective wards.
This was a very satisfying tale of love lost and found, . .
Bath Miss, in which Sir Charles Wainfleet finds himself in charge of the mischievous Miss Massingham, when he agrees to do a favor for his mother's friend.
The chance meeting with Wainfleet's fiancée may have felt somewhat improbable, but the heroine of the piece was delightful!
Pink Domino, in which Mr Wrexham of Lyonshall finds the woman of his dreams at a masquerade ball, while trying to protect his younger sister from a fortunehunter.
I was surprised that Heyer used the "love at first sight" trope, as she usually avoids it, but its inclusion here did not seem inappropriate.
A Husband For Fanny, in which the widowed Mrs Wingham mistakes the intentions of the Marquis of Harleston, and almost loses her only chance at love.
One of Heyer's rare romances involving an "older" woman, . .
To Have The Honor, in which Lord Allerton comes home from war to discover that his estates are badly mortgaged, and that he is expected to marry his wealthy cousin.
A tale of two young people who love one another, but won't tell each other, . .
Night At The Inn, in which two young people find themselves staying at the same sinister inn one foggy night.
Far more gruesome than the other stories in the collection, this was more of a mysterythriller than a romance, . .
The Duel, in which the impetuous Miss Dorothea Saltford finds her way to the home of Lord Rothersfield late one night, in order to beg him to spare her brother's life in an upcoming duel.
Sheer improbable fun!
Hazard, in which Miss Helen Morland is won in a game of cards by the Marquis of Carlington.
I have never been fond of this plot device, and this was the sole story in the collection that I didn't love.
. .
Snow Drift, in which Miss Sophy Trent enlists the aid of that bored man of fashion, Sir Julian Arden, in reaching Bath in time to "win" a fortune.
Another roadtrip adventure par excellence!
And finally, Full Moon, in which Lord Stavely unexpectedly finds himself assuring Miss Annabella Abingdon that she does not have to elope with her best friend in order to escape him.
. . Hazard, Full moon, A husband for Fanny, Bath miss and Snowdrift are my favourites, Delightful! Short enough to read one or two each evening and end the day with a smile, Very Short Stories from Georgette Heyer
These stories were very short,
They didn't make enough of an impression on me to be memorable or for me to wish to reread them as I do some of her novels that are my favorites.
MarchGeorgette Heyer group BOTM So the thing about Georgette Heyer's romances is this: I like them, but I have to space the fuckers out.
She's really only got like eight characters, and only two kinds of romantic heroes the scandalous rake, usually lots older than the heroine, and the rarer dandy, and her stories all seem to follow the same beats, so if I go straight from one Heyer romance to another, it's impossible to ignore the creative recycling, which I can only bear if I can ignore it.
I had the same sort of problem with Pistols for Two, a collection of eleven short stories rushing through the book in one go was probably the worst thing I could have done.
Don't get me wrong: Heyer is consistently entertaining and frequently amusing, and I enjoyed nearly all the stories in this collection.
But they're so very predictable, and so many of them are so very much alike oh, my goodness, so many illtempered rakes in their midthirties falling desperately in love with teenage ingenues who have fallen into dire straits! Is it any surprise my favorite story is the one in which the middleaged rake proposes to a middleaged widow who is in no danger at all that they start to blend together by the end of it all.
Of course, being short stories and not, as you might suppose, novels, this collection is rather bereft of the improbable subplots, the cast of wacky supporting characters, and the complicated hijinks of a fullon Heyer novel, which is a bit of a shame.
I like Heyer's romances, but I love her sense of humor, and you don't get much of that here, All the absurdities and the wit have been pared down or outright disposed of in order to streamline the plot, and without the comedy without that enormous supporting cast to liven things up it isn't really the same.
Favorite stories: A Husband for Fanny, in which the widow Wingham nearly gives up everything to see her daughter married well, To Have the Honour, in which the hero is a wellintentioned doofus and also not fifteen years older than the heroine I don't have a problem with age differences and actually rather like them in fiction most of the time, but seriously, enough is enough, Heyer, and The Duel, in which there is a twist I genuinely did not see coming, though I think that's more to do with the fact that I'm an idiot than anything else.
I'm also rather fond of the title story, Pistols for Two, which is surprisingly and delightfully slashy,
.stars. Yes, two Georgette Heyers in a few days, What can I say It was a stressful week, Such a lovely way to relax, There is a shiny new collection of Georgette Heyer's short stories sitelink Isn't that a gorgeous cover But when I requested a review copy from Random House's NZ branch, the reply came back with unflattering speed would barely have hit their in tray that there were no review copies available for this book.
In a way, this is appropriate as Georgette Heyer hated the whole publicity machine, She did one interview in her whole life and ignored letters from her fans,
So I'm stuck with my Arrow with its Georgian cover picture for a collection of Regency short stories! sitelink
I will start with the three stories that only feature in the Snowdrift collection.
In spite of being billed as "recently discovered" these three are easy to find on the internet,
Pursuit
I read this one last year, My review at the time,
I don't think GH's style of storytelling is suited to the short story format, GH's great strength was in her plotting amp she needs time to bring all the strands in her tales together.
This was an engaging tale but character development amp motivation were sacrificed to brevity,
This short story was originally published as part of war time fundraiser, but I am just about certain that I read a similar tale in Heyer's short story collection Pistols For Two by Georgette Heyer
Enjoyable but forgettable.
I hadn't read the Pistols for Two collection in a long time when I wrote that.
I would now say when you read the original Pistols for Two collection there are some fine examples of Georgette Heyer short stories but this wasn't one of them.
Feels very undercooked. Same rating though.and frankly a masterpiece compared to the other two,
Runaway Match
sitelink nla. gov. au/newspaper/art
Another member of the Georgette Heyer Fans group says this is her first Regency short story,
Even allowing for the format being a bit tricky to read in although I loved some of the ads I didn't care much for this one.
It was just too silly and improbable, An extra half star for .
Incident on the Bath Road
I thought I had read this one before but I was wrong impossible! :D I haven't read this one online before.
A very slight tale, reminded me of The Corinthian, I was nearly as bored as Lord Revelry!,
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Don't despair Georgette Heyer lovers the stories from the original collection are far superior!
Pistols for Two
Didn't care for this story much when younger it's not romantic at all! Love it now.
Witty and fun, loved reading Tom's thought processes,
A Clandestine Affair
Not really the right title for this story Lucy amp Arthur are open in their regard for each.
Very skillfully done story amp I liked both couples amp the engaging Holloways, I wonder if GH reworked this into the Black Sheep It's not an exact copy, but there is a traces of it.
amp a heroine overyay!Why I'm deducting a star is
Bath Miss
Sweet, silly, improbable but I love it.
I like the way in this one the happy ending is foreshadowed, but there is going to be a courtship.
If I ever meet anyone named Almeria I'm going to expect her to look like a
Georgette Heyer character! :D
Pink Domino
This was sweet, romantic amp instalove then that wonderful final scene was so Heyer! I was laughing out loud!
A Husband for Fanny
On previous reads the was my equal favourite amp it holds up very well not the least because it pulls off The Big Misunderstanding so well! It is so clever, so well crafted.
GH's oldest heroine at, amp bonus points for a brown eyed heroine, GH had grey eyes herself probably from her Russian forebears and there's an army of grey eyed heroes and heroines in her books!If I could giveI would, butit will have to be.
To Have the Honour
I have a new joint favourite! A very romantic story, great secondary characters amp a ton of humour.
What Heyer does best! I do wonder if this was worked into the more realistic A Civil Contract,
Night at the Inn
Showing Heyer could have written Victorian horror if she chose! Wow, she did this well.
Deducting half a star for a slightly clumsy beginning amp an extreme case of instalove,.
The Duel
I'm going to overlook the instalove, arrogant hero amp yet another idiot brother in this story as it is just so romantic.
GH tells it at a breakneck pace, so we ignore the improbabilities, I loved Mama's miraculous return to good health at the end,.
Hazard
Now this was my joint favourite as a young thing, amp I still like it a lot as I allow for the fact that Sir Ralph is pond scum amp Carleton is very drunk.
amp when it is starting to look too much like high tragedy, in waltz Fanny the Drama Queen amp the fiance she wants to marry.
I do have a quibble about whether such a wild young man could have been pressured into marriage like this.
I was going to mark it down slightly, read it it again amp I can't help myself just love it!
Snowdrift
Echoes of Cotillion.
Fast paced amp charming, Lovely fairytale
Full Moon
It's very amusing but it is my least favourite out of the original Pistols for Two collection.
This may be partly because of it's position in the book last but also another proposed elopement and this instalove is on the slightest of grounds.
But the scene between Lord Staveley and Annabella's father in the rose garden is very funny, so I'm still going to give it
So there you have it.
If I included "The Snowdrift Three" my rating would be lower,
but I'm going to rate the Pistols for Two collection only so
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Edit I didn't read "the Snowdrift Three" with this read.
Two of them are also in sitelinkGeorgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective amp I'll comment on them when I finish that book.
Still light and frothy fun, I liked Bath Miss a little less this time and The Duel a little more, Other than that, my thoughts are much the same, .