Posted by Peggy Haley on September 17, 1997 at 14:54:30:
In reply to Errors in Georgette Heyer posted by The Mysterious H.C. on September 14, 1997 at 21:08:14
] To go into nitpicking mode, I've read about 3 or 4 of her books (I found more than half a dozen paperbacks of her real cheap at a library booksale), and so far I've found what seems to me two indisputable errors:
]
In The Grand Sophy, she has a young unmarried girl say to a marriageable brief acquaintance of the opposite sex: "Call me Sophie, everybody does".
]
In The Nonesuch, she has a conservative, deeply religious, somewhat old-fashioned, middle-aged rural parson's wife, of a genteel family, casually use the word "funning".
Well, that is nit-picking. I never noticed these errors, if they are errors. I was too caught up in the verve and humor of the storylines. But then, I don't read Heyer expecting her to be Austen.
To answer your charges, I think someone who'd lived the unconventional life that Sophy had (hostess for her father on the Continent, etc.), would be highly likely to dispense with some of the formality expected of ingenues during their first London seasons. As to the use of the word "funning" I don't get the problem - it's merely a colloquialism, not a vulgarity. Even if not strictly accurate, it's such a minor point that I can't be too bothered about it.
Maybe you shouldn't read any more Heyer, since you seem only to want to find fault with her.
Peggy
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