Queerness in Georgette Heyer

[cimorene]

Wow.  The twincesty Heyer mystery has now added to its attractions by making the twins' sister a butch lesbian, and their brother, if not gay, really, really metro. o.O

It's queer in a different way from The Masqueraders, which struck me very strongly because of all its genderbending when I reread it recently. (That novel contains two romances, and the protagonists are a brother and sister who both crossdress and weasel into the fashionable London society of the 18th century.)

The lesbians are possibly a little offensive, but then, this was written in the 40s.

Charmian [...] shared a flat with a very feminine blonde, who resembled nothing so much as a pink fondant. The Penhallows had only once been gratified by a sight of this object of their masterful sister's passionate solicitude, Charmian having on one occasion brought her down to spend the weekend at Trevellin. The visit had not been repeated. Leila Morpeth and the Penhallows had not found themselves with anything in common; and the younger Penhallows had been so transfixed with amazement at the spectacle of Charmian hovering protectively over an opulent female of generous proportions, who had a habit of referring to herself as 'poor little me' in accents suggestive of extreme childhood, that they were struck dumb, and mercifully only recovered full power of self-expression when the visitor had departed with Charmian on Monday morning.

(Georgette Heyer, Penhallow, 1942)

Comments

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

I already have the book here now - just haven't found the time for reading yet ;)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Hahah. I usually only find time when I'm out of the house, because when I'm home I read slash instead. However, occasionally I make an exception when I'm in the mood for lying on the couch. ;)

[melle.livejournal.com]

a habit of referring to herself as 'poor little me' in accents suggestive of extreme childhood almost, almost sounds like mommy/daughter ageplay. that book was written in the 1940's? *jaw drop*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Hahahhaha. I think that lesbians and gay men in the polite upper classes were a well-established cliché of this type by the 1940s. I mean, not the sexy roleplaying part, but I'm fairly certain that Heyer didn't mean it as roleplay but more as a Madeleine Bassett a la Jeeves & Wooster sort of thing (females who believe the stars are God's daisy chain/ every time a wee baby blows its nose a fairy is born/ Christopher Robin poetry etc).

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

...Wow. That right there is something else.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I wish I could even picture a woman who looks like "nothing so much as a pink fondant". Isn't that a kind of cake?

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

It's a kind of cake covering that they use to get that smooth look on fancy things like wedding cakes. The mind boggles o.O

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Then I googled it and found this whole elaborate thing about how to make it with marshmallows.

1.) The things I am led to in the pursuit of genre fiction.
2.) Thank God for Google.
3.) So does her SKIN look like fondant or what - her whole... self? Is she like, a blob of fondant or a cake or...
4.) There's something inescapably American about making a sculpted gourmet cake covering out of a bag of marshmallows. Using the microwave.

[kegom.livejournal.com]

I think I'll see where I can get that book! *___*

I love Georgette Heyer, but I've never read any of her mystery novels, because it's really hard to find them in Germany.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

They've all been reissued lately so they may be in large bookstores that have English stock.