sing out, louise

bread for all, and roses too. often thinking about 18th-century england

[glintglimmergleam]

imagine bridgerton if eloise had a gun

[glintglimmergleam]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Arabella is the manic pixie dream debutante romp that every modern Regency romance novelist is trying to imitate, and half of them don't even know it. Photocopy of a photocopy, some of them. When you want that comic zaniness ending in chaste kisses, an anti-child labor subplot, and A CUTE DOG, nothing hits like the original.

[glintglimmergleam]

At the moment my 5 favorite Heyer novels are:

Arabella

A Civil Contract

Cotillion

Devil's Cub

False Colours

These have very different energies and I think reflect the breadth of her approach to romance and to historical setting. Many of her others are great too, these just hit the most for me

[glintglimmergleam]

@devoutjunk here is a "Where To Start With Georgette Heyer" guide written by @tobermoriansass, it is very long (organized by subcategory) and very correct.

If that still feels too overwhelming for you to decide, send me an ask with your favorite dynamic/tropes in romance or in historical fiction and I'll give you a personal rec.

[not-camelot]

okay

[glintglimmergleam]

As for which Heyer heroes I personally find the sexiest, I admit it isn't Avon -- but then the titled dom has never been my fantasy. If he has too much power I don't like it.

No, the hottest hero is definitely Hugo Darracott from The Unknown Ajax, who had a career before inheriting, has class consciousness, can delegate and strategize (army training), knows his limits, is a good listener, can both take a joke and tell a joke, and gets a bit dopey in love. Masquerading like a golden retriever but actually a wolfhound. Would be very fun in bed.

Second best is Kit Fancot from False Colours. The second son with the diplomatic career, loyal to his family but also a pragmatist, observant, can keep his mouth shut, clear sense of duty, manages his money well, treats his mother with respect. Would be very focused on his partner's desires in bed.

And if we must have a man who was to the title born, it's the Marquis of Rotherham in Bath Tangle. One of the only domineering Heyer lords who wants a partner who fights back, not a cutesy little thing who causes chaos and needs cleaning up after. He bites and expects you to bite back.

Ravenscar in Faro's Daughter also superficially resembles Rotherham but it's been so long since I read the book that I don't remember if I actually find him sexy.

I adore Arabella, Frederica, and Cotillion as books but I'd rather be a spinster than marry any of their heroes.

[tobermoriansass]

re your summary of Cotillion:

"CLASSIC fake dating, ft. a truly unforgettable and ridiculous cast of characters, convoluted schemes, hilarious mishaps, a poorly attempted elopement and maybe the only sexy Heyer dad to be set on page."

Sorry but ONLY sexy Heyer dad? Which you wrote with your full chest in reply to an ask mentioning These Old Shades?? When Satanas himself becomes a dad in the sequel???

Would I rather have Lord Legerwood as a father than the Duke of Avon? Of course. But one simply cannot deny the sexiness of the domineering silver fox of a duke as he appears in Devil's Cub. Reconsider, please!

dbnkfghjndfghdfgmhdn okay I have to be honest my only excuse is that I simply do not register Justin Alistair, Duke of Avon also sometimes known as Satanas, as a father. I read through Devil's Cub again recently and while Avon is as appealing as ever, he doesn't register as a father in the same way that Lord Legerwood does. The relationship is altogether different - more impersonal disciplinarian, patriarch and subordinate, than father-son. Like, he's just doing Justin Alistair Duke of Avon behaviours but now he has a son and there's no sense that a shift has taken place towards the parental, because the way both Rupert and Fanny defer to him in These Old Shades has already told us what he's like as a disciplinarian, given they how they react to him as subordinates (often displaying quite a bit of fear) rather than as siblings (compared to other Heyer families). So there's no real distinction and no sense of Avon as father per se, because Avon has always been the patriarchal lord of the manor of the Alistair clan.

But Lord Legerwood is presented very distinctly as Freddie's father. That's all we know about him. He appears on page mostly to either offer good advice or to be baffled by his own son. It's much more clearly the relationship between a man and his heir, a father and his son approaching him for advice etc. The sexiness lies specifically in his semi-ironic approach to his offspring, who is clearly not as smart as him, coupled with his fatherliness - he offers advice when applied to, clearly has taken the place of confidant, which means Freddie trusts him rather than fears him. Its that disjuncture between like, clearly a Heyer father who has managed to be decent as a father, versus his own private and clearly quite scathing opinion of his son's relative lack of intelligence. And sadly, Avon does not really navigate that tension for me as a father! Avon is just sexy as Avon, but Lord Legerwood is sexy as a dad specifically.

[glintglimmergleam]

okay lmao I concede that there is an important difference re: "sexy and also a father" vs "sexy AS a father" and if we are evaluating for the latter, Legerwood wins.

But! What interests me about Avon in Devil's Cub is that there totally is a shift in his character from These Old Shades. In the sequel, he has explicitly failed as a father and he knows it. If the main point of the book is Vidal's romance with Mary, a key background theme is both Avon and Leonie anxious that they have totally fucked up their son through nature (inherited wildness) and nurture (not disciplining him enough). I reread it for the fourth time this spring and was so struck by how panicked they both are, according to their own personality. There is no hint in the text that Vidal was ever previously disciplined firmly for misdeeds and Avon fully acknowledges the hypocrisy given his own dark past. Fanny even says in the opening chapter: "As for Avon, I truly think he does not care at all what happens to Dominic."

Now Fanny is not always the best judge of character, but she does pay attention to her brother: Avon has been a hands-off father, and it has cost him severely. His entire conversation with Vidal before sending him to Paris is a masterclass in understatement/miscommunication between two people who don't know how to talk to each other. He's sarcastic and firm but internally at sea.

Vidal has been playing loose with a Cit's daughter, which could result in pregnancy, entrapment, or an extremely expensive lawsuit. His ton is bad and it is affecting the family reputation. But most importantly, he shot two people within a week. There is only so far the Duke's influence can go to get him out of that. The best Avon can do is to dump him overseas! And cross his fingers it doesn't get worse over there!

Leonie's panic is more obvious because it is louder and more defensive (desperately worried Mary is a gold-digger but also afraid Vidal has made himself poisoned goods to eligible young ladies), but the final scene where Avon and Mary meet in France is even funnier if you imagine Avon's internal monologue: "thankfuckthankfuckthankfuck she has good manners, she's not afraid of me, she threatened to shoot Vidal, she loves him for some reason, they will totally be freak4freak like Leonie and me."

So yes, bad at being a dad. But definitely a dad, and definitely stressed about it. No one would buy Avon as a soft doting father, and I think showing him as having failed but still suave and intimidating is a very neat way to continue his arc.

[glintglimmergleam]

Sometimes fandom is about the long game. I just got an enthusiastic comment on my permanently unfinished Bunheads WIP from 13 years ago, and someone I follow just posted a fic for the tv show Heroes, which first aired 20 years ago.

I'm so glad to know there's at least one Melanie Segal fan still out there, still interested in a lesbian coming out story in 2026.

[knownqueerbaiter]

SEPARATE CHURCH (AO3) AND STATE (TRADPUB)

[zootycoon-archive]

i got these knockoff boots online and instead of the brand name on the tag they have the name of an apparently nonexistent martin scorsese movie??? what the fuck

[loseremo]

[syzygy-yzygy]

THE ORIGINAL? ON MY DASH

[this-too-too-sullied-flesh]

this post led to a series of events that had martin scorsese himself reacting to his alleged movie goncharov and it has less than 400k notes almost 3 years later?

[elliespectacular]

Just started watching Disparate Housewives. No idea how all these plots are supposed to be related.

[augutsy-deactivated20141216]

isn’t it funny how people say ‘grilled cheese’ instead of ‘grilled cheese sandwich’? you could be talking about an actual piece of grilled che

i stopped typing because i realized that this is the single most worthless post ever conceived 

[mihai-florescu]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Except, critically, at bedtime.

[findersfeeders]

Ravings and urges get miscoded over time. Let’s say you’re thirsty, and you live in a strawberry field. Strawberries contain some water and a bunch of sugar so, over time, you may start to crave strawberries when you are thirsty because you get a reward and some relief in shorter time from the need starting than the trek to the stream. This can happen for every need: sleep, food, whatever.

Trevor Noah has a great tip, that when he craves ice cream at night he breaks it down into parts: I want something cold, I want something sweet. He drinks a glass of cold water then waits to see if he still has the ice cream craving. Usually he doesn’t.

So listening to your body isn’t “follow every urge” but “decompose the urge to discover the underlying need.”

If you always feel like getting cozy in bed you may be: cold, dehydrated, and/or malnourished (maybe a need for high calories that are bioaccessible…not processed).

If you do not feel tired at bedtime you may: need to eat dinner earlier because your body is still digesting, need to exercise or go outside more during the day, get the fuck off your screen for an hour so your brain can enter sleep mode.

Hope this helps someone.

P.S. notice i said nothing about neurodivergence. Not that it’s not a likelihood but the over-pathologization of behaviors prevents us from taking simple actions to improve our wellbeing. Also, these tips are pretty accessible and applicable to most brain variations.

[brightlotusmoon]

[noosferik]

[duplizity]

ok well maybe her little finger is really cozy and honestly there are worse places to be wrapped around. did you ever think about that

[pmamtraveller]

By clay artist Naoto Wada

[glintglimmergleam]

Also I wish I liked Dorothy Sayers. I tried, friends, I really did. In theory her books are everything I want from Interwar English genre mysteries but in practice every time she mentions Jews, even when she might be trying to comment on antisemitism, I get too sad.

Plus I find Peter Wimsey annoying.