Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy: a Tale of Two Covers

Recently, I was offered a choice of Georgette Heyers to review for the Historical Novel Society (Arrow Books are re-publishing all her novels) and I chose one of my favourites, The Grand Sophy. My own copy, a 1962 Pan paperback which belonged to my mother, is falling apart and the pages have gone brown and brittle. It was a win-win situation; I enjoyed doing the review – and I acquired a new copy.

The contrast between the two covers, sixty years apart, struck me forcibly. I don’t know about you, but I like the cover illustration to match with the story. If the heroine is a brunette, say, I get really cross if there is a picture of a voluptuous blonde on the front. I have been known to write to my cover designer, quoting my descriptions of hero and heroine, and sending them pictures of contemporary costumes to make sure they get it right.

Both the Pan and Arrow cover designers were obviously instructed to include a monkey and a parrot in a cage. The Pan designer, correctly, gives Sophy chestnut curls but her pink dress is scarcely Regency. The monkey, Jacko wears a little green hat and a green cummerbund – and my teeth are grinding slightly because, in fact, he wore a scarlet jacket; and the bird in the cage looks more like a canary to me.

However, my main wrath is reserved for the gentleman in the picture, presumably the hero,  Charles Rivenhall. Heyer describes him as ‘a powerfully-built man… who nearly always wore riding-dress in preference to the more fashionable pantaloons and Hessians; tied his cravat in the plainest of styles… and wholly disdained such fopperies as seals, fobs or quizzing-glasses.’ And what do we have? Exactly what Charles is not. However, the strap line calls the book ‘A rollicking Regency comedy’ and I have to confess that the cover does make it look like a fun read.

The new Arrow cover style is chick lit in pink, metallic green and black. The background is pink and the monkey swinging from a branch, the birdcage, Sophy, her horse, and her greyhound, are all black silhouettes. The leaves, Sophy’s dress and the book’s title are  metallic green.

It has a simplicity which I like but I have a few niggles. The horse, judging by its stance, is obviously old. It’s a far cry from Sophy’s thorough-bred Spanish horse, Salamanca. And what’s happened to Sophy’s knees? She would have ridden side-saddle, so they should be crooked over the pommel.

However, the book is stylishly produced with an elegant italic capital letter at the opening of each chapter to give it a classy touch. I hope that the 21^st century-style Arrow Georgette Heyer paperbacks attract a whole new generation of readers to the delights of this witty, romantic and stylish writer.

Elizabeth Hawksley

Covers and Cover Models

You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m going to “lower the tone” a bit now and talk about male cover models.  The topic is fresh in my mind, as I’ve just attended my first ever RT Booklovers Convention in Kansas City, Missouri – a very interesting experience!

In the 1980s when I first started buying historical romantic fiction, most of the ones I liked came from the US – Johanna Lindsey, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Shirlee Busbee, Catherine Coulter to name but a few.  They all had covers with a couple in a clinch, the woman usually looking adoringly up at a bare-chested man (more often than not various versions of the model Fabio or his clones) and I became used to that.  It didn’t bother me as I would have bought the books no matter what was on the outside, but I thought it was a trend which would quickly die out and be replaced with something else.

Not so – the half-naked men covers are still alive and well, particularly in the US where they seem to be the norm for a lot of romance genres.  They just seem to be a bit edgier these days.

This was made clear to me at the RT Convention.  The first things I saw upon arrival were lift doors with such book covers on them and key cards with a picture of a man’s naked torso.  And a lot of the covers of books for sale during the convention (and in the goody bags) still featured men in various states of undress.  Whether they were Regency rakes, cowboys or shapeshifters, none of them seemed to own a jacket, let alone a shirt!

Key Cards

In the UK, I hear a lot of disparaging remarks about these types of cover, but are they really so bad?  Ok, they’re a bit clichéd, but then so are the “headless” Tudor women of the historical novels over here.  They fulfil a function, which is to tell the reader what kind of book is inside the covers and I, for one, don’t mind having a bit of “eye candy” as a bonus.  Granted, most of them are not my type and I prefer to use my own imagination to picture what the hero looks like.  But very occasionally you come across one who really makes you sit up and take notice – that can be nice :-)

The RT Convention is known for its cover model pageants and for always having such men present.  This year was no exception (apart from the fact that they didn’t have a pageant and most of them were a lot older than I had thought!) and they seemed like a nice bunch.  Friendly, smiling, always willing to chat or have their photo taken, and happy to take part in anything the organisers asked of them.  They took their duties seriously and were trying their best to make everyone enjoy the convention.  They even dressed up for the Freaky Friday party and danced the night away with everyone else.  And these days they seem to be very savvy – a couple of them had tables at a romance fair, offering their photos for sale to authors who are self-publishing.  So not just the male equivalent of bimbos but businessmen as well!

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So – love them or loathe them?  I’d love your take on these covers, because it seems to me they are here to stay. 

Christina x

www.christinacourtenay.com 

Cover Story

I'm in the unusual position of having three different covers for the same story out simultaneously and they are so very different I'm interested to see what the reaction is to them.


The story - Disrobed and Dishonored - was originally for the Mills & Boon Undone! e-book series of short, highly sensual novellas and the cover for that is the one on the left with the garter. Very pretty, mildly risque.

The tale is one of a highwayman who is not all he seems and a young lady of undoubted virtue who has an urgent need to become rather less virtuous. The Ravenhurst clan add to the general complications in the way of true happiness for this unlikely couple - but they have a naughtily good time on the way to their Happy Ever After.

The Undone! series has been proving popular, but I know readers have been asking for them in print format as well, so I was thrilled when found out that my story was to be included in the first North American print anthology - Pleasurably Undone! - which is the rich purple/crimson cover below with the elegantly half draped nude shown below. Sensual, sexy and elegant, I thought.


I was even more excited when Disrobed was included in the first UK anthology - a different selection, all Regency stories, and including one by fellow blogger Nicola Cornick.

Harlequin Mills & Boon usually have very different covers for the UK and North American markets, so it was intriguing to see what they would come up for with this jacket and I was very pleased with the result on the right because I think it is sassy, sexy and - selfishly! - it happens to suit my story very well.

What's your opinion? Do you buy a book by its cover - and which of these three most appeals to you?

Louise Allen