If We Lived in Georgette Heyer's Version Of Regency England . . .
Posted 19 January 2009 in Books by Catriona
We’d all have splitting headaches all the time. (And probably a strong dislike of rhodomontade, but I only bring that up because I really wanted an excuse to use the word “rhodomontade” in cold blood, as it were.)
But, back to the relatively serious portion of the blog post, has anyone else noticed (assuming, for the purposes of this argument, that everyone reads Heyer novels) that Heyer’s characters are far more profligate with exclamation marks than anyone really should be?
Take this passage from the end of Friday’s Child (1944):
I don’t think there’s a single piece of dialogue in there that doesn’t end with either a question mark or an exclamation mark.
(All the questions seem to be rhetorical, as well—which would drive me nuts if I found myself stuck inside a Georgette Heyer plot. I mean, it’s all very well for the villain—and we can tell Sir Montague is the villain because he speaks “silkily.” Only villains speak “silkily”—to threaten the heroine with exposure, but can’t he do it in a statement? If it were me to whom he said, “I wonder if you will live to regret it? Do you know, I believe that you may?” I’d be furious that he hadn’t given me a chance to answer myself. I might have been able to offer an alternative, after all. That’s why I’m not the heroine of a Regency romance, you see.)
And it only gets worse after the villain draws a sword on the hero’s proxy:
I suppose we’re lucky at this point that there weren’t more italics, as well as all the exclamation marks.
And I think some of these exclamation marks could actually be question marks—“What have I done!”, for example. So it’s not as though we couldn’t have had a little variety in our punctuation marks.
Fans of Georgette Heyer and her ilk often rave about the architecture, the fashion, and the etiquette of the Regency period, and I don’t deny that it’s a place I’d like to visit if I every manage to wangle my way into the TARDIS.
But if everyone’s going to be wandering around exclaiming all their statements at the top of their voices or conversing exclusively in questions that they don’t give anyone a chance to answer?
I think Regency England might have just slipped down the list a little.
Maybe below Pompeii on Volcano Day.
Share your thoughts [9]
1
Matthew Smith wrote at Jan 19, 06:16 am
How about a big Tin Tin style “!?”
2
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 06:26 am
If anyone actually did a graphic-novel version of a Georgette Heyer novel, I imagine that’s how the dialogue would look:
“?”
“!”
“!?”
“POW!”
Okay, no: I made the POW! bit up.
3
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 06:27 am
Or we could have a nice interrobang instead.
4
michelle wrote at Jan 19, 09:10 am
Just wanted to point out, before Tim does, that if the villain asked you rhetorically if you would “leave [sic] to regret it”, you wouldn’t respond anyway, ‘cause you’d already be out the door. (I like “leave”, actually; it gives the air of silkiness, or villainy, even more fully—as in: “you will liiive to regret it.”
And, just for the record, I’ve never read a Georgette Heyer novel! And don’t intend to start!
PS Don’t forget to email me the essay, if you like.
5
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 09:41 am
Oh, sod.
I think that about covers all the eventualities.
6
Tim wrote at Jan 19, 01:49 pm
Oh! What Michelle said. (Except about not having read a Georgette Heyer novel.)
7
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 09:35 pm
No, but, Tim, I’ve fixed it now! People aren’t supposed to draw attention to it once I’ve fixed it!
8
Tim wrote at Jan 19, 11:13 pm
You can always edit the comments to hide the trail of your
crimeerrorvariant usage.9
Catriona wrote at Jan 19, 11:21 pm
I know, but that’s my rock and a hard place (or devil and the deep blue sea, if you prefer): I can’t bring myself to leave the error in the post once it’s been pointed out to me (or, occasionally, when I spot it myself), but I’m extremely reluctant to edit other people’s comments, except under the rare conditions that I’ve outlined elsewhere.
It’s a dilemma, but there you are.