The Corinthian [Paperback]

Georgette Heyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2009

Georgette Heyer presents her sparkling wit with a Shakespearean twist.

Walking home at dawn, quite drunk, Sir Richard Wyndham encounters heiress Penelope Creed climbing out her window. She is running away from a dreaded marriage to her fish-lipped cousin, while Sir Richard himself is contemplating a loveless marriage with a woman his friends have compared to a cold poultice. Sir Richard can't allow her to careen about the countryside unchaperoned, even in the guise of a boy, so he pretends to be her tutor and takes her on a fine adventure. When their stagecoach overturns, they find themselves embroiled with thieves, at the center of a murder investigation, and finally, in love.

(20090526)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Corinthian remains one of my favorite Georgette Heyer books... a treat and a keeper. (Lesa Holstine Lesa's Book Critiques 20090612)

hilarious, imaginative, witty, and compelling. (Shawn Remfry Maymay's Memos 20090626)

I enjoyed myself while reading this fast-paced romp... delightful. (Ms. Place Jane Austen's World 20090701)

The Corinthian is a light-hearted comedy of manners... This is one Heyer I'll be revisiting soon. (Danielle Torres A Work in Progress 20090701)

This is a delightfully fun and adventurous romance full of laugh-out-loud moments. (Wendi Barker Wendi's Book Corner 20090707)

Rolicking fun in the form of a Regency-style road trip with romance and intrigue, terrific characters and witty dialogue. (Nancy Horner Bookfoolery and Babble 20090708)

I adored this book. I adore Heyer. I want to go out and gobble up everything she ever wrote and I will. Slowly and deliciously. (Heather Fargis A Hidden Place 20090731)

Georgette Heyer was at the top of her game with The Corinthian... it is one of her best adventure/romances. (Sharon Goforth Ex Libris 20090731)

Fascinating... a very enjoyable read. (Jessica West The Curious Reader 20090731)

The Corinthian is a wonderful book... a must read on a rainy day. (Shana Haynes Books-are-Life Reviews 20090824)

This one is playful and fun. There's some adventure thrown in as well--and a murder!--but at it's heart this is a romantic comedy. (Rebecca Laney Becky's Book Reviews 20090824)

Superbly written, with an undercurrent of humor throughout, THE CORINTHIAN is a sheer joy to read. (Camellia The Long and Short of It Reviews 20090825)

Part road romance and all romp, this delicious comedy of manners is filled with adventure and fun, and Heyer's superb wit and humor, Once you begin this page-turning delight, you will not be able to put it down! (Deborah Hosey The Romance Readers Connection )

[T]he writing is good, the subtle romance is sweet, the adventure is fun. (Ana Grilo The Book Smugglers )

About the Author

The late Georgette Heyer was a very private woman. Her historical novels have charmed and delighted millions of readers for decades, though she rarely reached out to the public to discuss her works or private life. It is known that she was born in Wimbledon in August 1902, and her first novel, The Black Moth, was published in 1921.

Heyer published 56 books over the next 53 years, until her death from lung cancer in 1974. Heyer's large volume of works included Regency romances, mysteries and historical fiction. Known also as the Queen of Regency romance, Heyer was legendary for her research, historical accuracy and her extraordinary plots and characterizations. Her last book, My Lord John, was published posthumously in 1975. She was married to George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer, and they had one son together, Richard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402217692
• ISBN-13: 978-1402217692
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, making the Regency period her own. Her first novel, "The Black Moth," published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous Screwball comedy and great romance, December 13, 2000

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Corinthian (Paperback)

Georgette Heyer's "The Corinthian" starts off deceptively simply. One of London's foremost Corinthians [fashionable sportsmen], Sir Richard Wyndham, is walking home drunk, and brooding despondently on his forthcoming betrothal. Suddenly, from an upper window, a young stripling drops into his arms. He quickly discovers that the young stripling is a actually girl dressed as a boy who is escaping from her Aunt's house and determined to return to find her childhood sweetheart.

Pen Creed, the cross-dressing heroine of the piece can't dissuade Sir Richard from coming along with her and she happily leads him into a labyrinth of problems. From that point Sir Richard is thrown into a series of increasingly twisted, confusing and hilarious events. In between stolen diamond necklaces, suspect looking pick-pocketing coves, an eloping couple and a pursuing Aunt this has to rate as one of Heyer's more complex plots. Numerous stories converge and overlap - and to try to explain it would be a bit like trying to explain the plot of the Marriage of Figaro - impossible.

Needless to say Sir Richard's wit and good humour along with Pen's sense of the ridiculous coupled with her solemnly-uttered naievetes makes this one of Heyer's funniest and most enjoyable books

Its an easy read and make be a good introduction to Heyer for first time readers.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book That Has It All, June 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Corinthian (Paperback)

This book has everything for a Heyer devotee: a sprightly handful of a heroine, an amused grey-eyed hero and a colorful and diverse group of supporting characters. Throw in a road trip, a murder over stolen jewels and a mystery and there's a little something for everyone. Miss Penelope Creed is as delightful a heroine as you will find. She meets the jaded Sir Richard "Beau" Wyndham while climbing out of a window. "Cursed with a huge fortune", she is running away from a proposed marriage to a cousin "with a face like a fish". The wealthy Sir Richard is in the same boat, having just decided to propose to a well-born but impovershed lady he has been expected to marry for years but whom he doesn't like. Sir Richard decides to escort Miss Creed on her journey to the country home of her childhood sweetheart---in a public coach, no less. You can imagine the travelers they meet! (A woman who smells of onions and a small boy with adenoids among them.) She dresses as a boy to avoid comment, a device used in other Heyer novels, but not with such amusing consequences. Penelope is actually accused of "trifling with the affections of an innocent female" and is almost called out. As it turns out, this "innocent female" is the new, and rather weepy and tiresome, innamorata of her childhood sweetheart. There seems to be nothing poor Miss Creed can do to win back his affections, so she plots their elopement. This is one of several sub-plots, including the theft of Sir Richard's almost-fiance's family jewels. (Of course, the thief was one of the people our heroine befriended on the coach journey.) This theft leads to the murder of Sir Richard's would-be brother-in-law, who is deep in debt and behind the theft. The scoundrel also attemps to blackmail Sir Richard when he discovers "Penn" ("after the great Quaker") Creed isn't really a boy. With both their families right on their heels, Penelope's friendship with the hired jewel thief, who at one point plants the jewels on her makes for a smartly paced read. Also one of her more complex in terms of plot. The final coming together of the several sub-plots is nice and tight and done as only Heyer could. Heyer's characters are always real people and we come to care for them and take an interest in what happens to them. The slang of the day, including a liberal helping of thieves' cant from a pickpocket in a catskin waistcoat, her usual fine attention to the minutia of fashion and the accurate use of titles is superb. Many other Regncy writers don't understand the correct use of titles or forms of address, one thing that makes Heyer's books superior in quality. Heyer is the first----and she is the best.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wholly charming!, February 24, 2003

By 

Susan Bischoff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Corinthian (Paperback)

Sir Richard Wyndham is a Man of Fashion, a dandy, but he prefers the term Corinthian, if you please. He is somewhat bored with his life as a trendsetter of the haut ton, and is being forced to seriously consider a somewhat irksome marriage of convenience when he is waylaid by circumstance to aid Miss Penelope Creed, an heiress not yet out in society, on a quest to elope with her childhood sweetheart in an effort of avoid a match with her fish-faced cousin.

The plot of the story is light-hearted and fun, full of adventure and misadventure. But it is Heyer's style, much reminiscent of Jane Austen's yet more colorful and engaging, that makes this book truly delightful. It is a must read for her description of a proper dandy alone. There were many places where I could not help but chuckle aloud.

I know you will find it more than worth your effort to hunt down and read this book!