I have limited bookshelf space for my Georgette Heyer collection, and if I was smart, I'd save it for the beautiful Sourcebooks editions of her books. But life is uncertain, and I fret. What if they give up on Heyer, and nobody else ever reprints her books? This is why it's impossible for me to pass by a cheap Heyer paperback when I find one. I'm particularly fond of the vintage Ace editions—not only do they have gloriously cheeseball cover art, the promotional blurbs on the back covers must have been written by drunks.

Here's the text from their 1951 edition of The Quiet Gentleman—my comments are in italics:

It seemed like an impossible romantic daydream when Drusilla Morville set her cap (she totally doesn't do this) for handsome Gervase Frant, for she was his mother's companion (no, she wasn't), and he was the Earl of Erth (uh, he was actually the Earl of St. Erth). Her prospects, in fact, became even more remote when Gervase began to suspect that she was part of an insidious plot against his life (this never even crosses his mind).

Soon Drusilla found herself up to her pretty ears in intrigue (...what?), for not only had she to outwit an unseen enemy (uh, no—in fact, she's determined to stay out of it), she had to convince the reticent Earl that winning her would be the greatest accomplishment of his life (again, no—the reason it's a romance is because he realizes this all by himself—no "convincing" is necessary).

Error-to-Sentence Ratio: 7 errors, 3 sentences

And here's the text for their 1957 edition of Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle:

Nothing could have induced impulsive outspoken Phoebe Marlow (in fact, she's crippled by shyness in public) to marry handsome, elegant Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford, the one man she thoroughly detested (actually, he's just one of a very long list). But Sylvester had other ideas; this beautiful young rebel (she's nowhere near beautiful, and the "rebel" bit is questionable, too) had caught his fancy (no, she hadn't), and if Petruchio could tame Katharine, he had no doubt he could tame Phoebe (Ugh. And, again, totally incorrect.).

But Sylvester underestimated his opponent: Phoebe secretly wrote a novel that not only shocked London, but presented her unwelcome fiancé (They're not engaged! And when she wrote the book, they barely even knew one another!), thinly disguised, as a villain and a knave.

Error-to-Sentence Ratio: 6 errors, 3 sentences

See? Who could resist? It's like they're talking about different books entirely!

Labels: Georgette Heyer