FREDERICA - Group Read - SPOILERS POSSIBLE

Admin question: Should I have a no spoiler and a spoiler thread or should I trust for everyone to mark spoilers? Are there really any spoilers in a romance?

I just read the first chapter of Frederica. I don't know how I feel about it starting off with a character that is unlikeable and shows the hero in a bad light. Especially as I just came off reading The Talisman Ring which I didn't like at all. I thought most of the characters were idiots.

Good morning, Morphy! Patience, please. One must allow some room for character development! I'd say, trust people to mark spoilers. As you say, there are rarely any significant spoilers in a romance.

I know, I know. It's just that the previous book left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm biased at the moment. So I'm all, "Oh jeez, not again."

I'm in the process of downloading Frederica from the library right now! I should be starting it tomorrow or Monday, once I've finished off my current book.

Frederica is more like The Grand Sophy than The Talisman Ring, and I seem to recall that you liked The Grand Sophy, so hopefully you'll like this one, too. I love all three of them, myself. :)

No worries! I read more at lunch and got to chapter 9 because I didn't want to put it down! I don't want to say too much because there are actually spoilers but the Marquis' actions make me smile and Frederica is an absolute trip. Even the Marquis' secretary is a crack up. I'm loving it!

And the dog!

And...

And...

LOL.

Love! Love! Love! Frederica and all those around her! I won't be rereading, but I will be checking the thread for the pleasure of remembering old friends. Love that little brother!

I'll probably get around to Frederica next week (depending on how quickly my next few reads go) but it's a reread for me so I'm not worried about spoilers. Glad to see you've discovered Frederica's charm, Morphy. :)

I loved Frederica when I read it. Since that was just last year, I won't participate in the reread but will definitely come back to check the thread for, as LizzieD put it, the pleasure of remembering. Thanks for letting me know, Morphy!

I will be rereading--it's been a couple of years since my last read and it's a pleasure I won't forego!

Changed my mind and have picked up Frederica as my next read. :)

Lurking here to see new viewpoints of this delightfully fun story!

Anyone else giggle helplessly at basically every line Alverstoke says in the first chapter? Just me?

#13> I did, Micky! On the one hand he seems rather a cad, but on the other hand a sense of humor goes a long way toward redeeming most people in my eyes. Plus, I already can't stand his sisters or the other woman (mother of his heir?) so I found myself rooting for him in those confrontations.

Redeemable rakes may be one of my favourite character tropes in historical romances and Alverstoke is an ideal example of it.

I just realized, when I got to my Heyers this morning, that I will get to read my pristine trade paperback by Sourcebooks that I bought when Borders was going out of business, because my vintage paperback edition is falling to pieces. So although it is an old story for me, it will be a new book.

I am very happy that the Sourcebooks copies are available, but I wish for better quality paper in them. I should probably replace my The Grand Sophy falling-apart paperback while it is still possible.

I am trying to take this re-read fairly slowly to savor it a bit.

14> I totally agree with the the redeeming qualities of a sense of humor.

Baluchistan Hound. Grin.

Baluchistan Hound. Yes!

I am trying to find as many old Heinemann hardcovers as I can, just like the original library books I read as a kid. I found Frederica last year.

Oh, yeah. I loved that bit with him haughtily correcting her on it being a HOUND and a BALUCHISTAN, thank you very much. Cracked me up.

But what I loved even more was Charles turning it around on Alverstoke when the dog refused to leave. "Well, sir, Baluchistan hounds..." *chortle*

My review:

Love this as much if not more than The Grand Sophy. The humor in particular tickled me. I would have given this a 9 but, once again, Heyer created two idiotic secondary characters that annoyed me. Thankfully her two main characters were absolutely delightful, especially Alverstoke. He tries so hard to stay distant and uninvolved. But much against his will, he gets pulled into the warmth and antics of the Merriville family. His sense of humor, honor and compassionate heart, much as he denies them, make him one of my favorite romantic heroes.

Just pulled this off of my shelf yesterday and I'm hoping to start it by this coming Monday at least, when Mom starts her chemo. I'll have a few hours of reading time then!

I'm not going to review this one again as it's a re-read for me but suffice it to say I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read.

One of the things I'm most enjoying about Frederica is the infinite variety of ways to describe people, usually disparagingly: ninnyhammer, pea-goose, slow-top are the three that come to mind right now. I would love to memorize some of the more cutting remarks to use myself!

I finished Frederica yesterday, and I'm sorry to be done with it because it was a fun read. I'm not sure about posting my review here in case there are spoilers for people who haven't gotten to the end yet, but here's a link to the review on my thread:

rosalita's Frederica review

I finished yesterday as well, and Julia wrote a great review, so go read it!

Thanks, Roni! It was a fun book to review.

I'm just requesting this from the library now.

I finished reading Frederica yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Possibly too much of the Regency slang, I don't remember noticing it in her other books.
"It was nothing - just fun and gig! But the Bag-wig was feeling out of curl, and he chose to cut up stiff"

Oh, I do love Frederica, but I'm also loving Venetia at the moment. Let me invite you all to Almack's right here at LT. The group could use a little new blood!
ALMACK'S

>29 avatiakh: Many of her novels are full of period slang. Cotillion definitely has a lot of it.

I found this glossary of slang terms in Georgette Heyer's books: http://www.georgette-heyer.com/slang.html

>32 SylviaC: Oh, fabulous. I've bookmarked it for the next time I read a Heyer.

Note that it is primarily the "young bucks" who use it, however. Just as in our day, the primary user of extreme slang is the young adult/adolescents.

I read lots of Heyer in my youth and over the last few years have been picking one or two up on the odd occasion, but this is the first one where the slang was so noticeable. Maybe as Roni says it's because there were a lot of younger characters. Anyway I must now line up my next Heyer.

#32: Thanks for the link, I'll also be keeping it in mind.
#31: So I'll go for Cotillion
#30: Good to see a Heyer fan club here on LT.

The Nonesuch is another with a young supporting cast that talks quite a bit of slang.

That sort of thing is definitely not a recent phenomenon. :)

A girls school series that I enjoy - The Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - used Georgette Heyer's slang in a pupil prank. There was a ban against using slang in school, with fines for transgressions, which the girls found very hard. They spent ages reading Georgette Heyer books to learn the Regency slang terms, on the grounds that they were then 'speaking like a book'. It didn't work - historical slang was included in the ban.

>37 CDVicarage: That was always one of my favourite Chalet School bits.

>37 CDVicarage:, 38: Then, in case you haven't come across it, check out LibraryThing Goes to the Chalet School

Myself, I've just started Frederica, and at a chapter or two in, am fed up with the (presumed) hero; yet another supercilious, lazy-eyelidded Regency rake. In fact, I put the book down. But I remembered that Heyer's stories are more fun than more modern takes on the genre, so I am persevering. Though I wish she hadn't filled it with Regency slang, too. Fortunately, I'm reading it on my new Kindle, and I can check the dictionary for all those terms I previously ignored or made assumptions about.

Anyhoo, I've just met Frederica herself for the first time, as well as a sampling of her siblings. Well, given that February is the shortest month of the year, and I'm about 12 hours ahead of most of you, I suppose I'd better get a budge along.

>39 humouress: He loses that attitude pretty quickly. Or rather, his kindness overrides his facade.

39> SylviaC started LibraryThing Goes to the Chalet School. She's definitely a good fit for the group :-). CDVicarage was a fairly early member.

>39 humouress: & 41 But thanks for advertising it!

Well, I'm late, but I just finished Frederica yesterday, and enjoyed it.

I definitely found the slang more noticeable than in the few other Heyers I've read. I don't even remember being it so much of a problem in Cotillion, but there were definitely times here when I just didn't quite grasp the point of whatever was being said.

>21 Morphidae: Who were the idiotic secondary characters that you hated? I found that I wasn't a big fan of Charis by the end, but I didn't have a problem with the more deliberately obnoxious characters like Louisa.

Her sister, Charis, and her suitor, Endymion - totally brainless.

>44 Morphidae: Yup, those were my thoughts too. I didn't mind so much when she was supposed to be super-nice and also brainless, but when she became more self-centered than concerned about everything that Felix and Frederica had gone through, my sympathy dissipated quickly.

>45 _Zoe_: It's been my experience that brainless people quite often are also self-centered. Still, I can't say I hated either of them at all. They were who they were meant to be, and I thought the characterization was fairly consistent throughout. I don't need to like all the characters; in fact, a book full of solely likable characters tends to be a darn boring book.

I am persevering; I'm about 66% of the way through, or so I'm told. The slang has reduced to manageable proportions (although even my Kindle dictionary can't cope with 'ninnyhammer') and Alverstoke has certainly improved from the first couple of chapters.

I did have hopes for the aunt, she being only about 5 years younger than him, but that faded rather quickly. :0)

I do like the way the younger folk are brought into the story, which I don't recall happening (to that extent or as well) in Heyer's other stories; it makes it more interesting, and it's not just about balls and dresses.

But I wish Frederica wouldn't keep gurgling; it is so unbecoming in one, don't you think?

Heyer had a few words which she was fond of that I find on the unfortunate side. That's definitely one of them. It makes poor Frederica sound like a partially stopped-up drain.

But oh, the Baluchistan Hound! And the Restorative Pork Jelly!

>46 rosalita: Oh, "hate" is too strong a word for my opinion on Charis—I was just disappointed that someone who was initially presented as so sweet and selfless turned out to care much more about herself than her family when it came to a crisis.

I agree with you that a book filled only with likable characters wouldn't be much fun, and I had no objections to Louisa or others like her.

I definitely loved the Baluchistan Hound :D

>49 _Zoe_: I should have attributed better, as it was Morphy who said she hated the characters and not you. I agree with you about the Baluchistan Hound!

Did I say hate? Annoying as heck, yes. Hate might be too strong a word. Dislike, yes.