Georgette Heyer - Legacy

Legacy

Besides her success in the United Kingdom, Heyer's novels were very popular in the United States and Germany and achieved respectable sales in Czechoslovakia. A first printing of one of her novels in the Commonwealth often consisted of 65,000–75,000 copies, and her novels collectively sold over 100,000 copies in hardback each year. Her paperbacks usually sold over 500,000 copies each. At the time of her death 48 of her books were still in print, including her first novel, The Black Moth.

Her books were very popular during the Great Depression and World War II. Her novels, which journalist Lesley McDowell described as containing "derring-do, dashing blades, and maids in peril", allowed readers to escape from the mundane and difficult elements of their lives. In a letter describing her novel Friday's Child, Heyer commented, "'I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense. ... But it's unquestionably good escapist literature and I think I should rather like it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter or recovering from flu."

Heyer essentially invented the historical romance and created the subgenre of the Regency romance. When first released as mass market paperbacks in the United States in 1966, her novels were described as being "in the tradition of Jane Austen". As other novelists began to imitate her style and continue to develop the Regency romance, their novels have been described as "following in the romantic tradition of Georgette Heyer". According to Kay Mussell, "virtually every Regency writer covets accolade".

Despite her popularity and success, Heyer was ignored by critics. Although none of her novels were ever reviewed in a serious newspaper, according to Duff Hart-Davis, "the absence of long or serious reviews never worried her. What mattered was the fact that her stories sold in ever-increasing numbers". Heyer was also overlooked by the Encyclopædia Britannica. The 1974 edition of the encyclopædia, published shortly after her death, included entries on popular writers Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, but did not mention Heyer.