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Georgette Heyer
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Acting on Impulse – Contemporary Short Stories by Georgette Heyer Kindle Edition

by Georgette Heyer (Author), Jennifer Kloester (Author), Rachel Hyland (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 131 ratings
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In the 1920s, Georgette Heyer wrote a number of contemporary short fiction pieces, published in various women's and literary magazines of the era. Now, for the first time ever, these stories are collected in this fully-authorised anthology, with commentary by Heyer's official biographer, Jennifer Kloester, and Reading Heyer's Rachel Hyland.

The stories include:

- “A Proposal to Cicely”
- “The Little Lady”
- "The Bulldog and the Beast”
- “Lincke’s Great Case”
- “Acting on Impulse”
- “The Chinese Shawl”
- "Whose Fault Was It?"
- "The Old Maid"

The collection also includes a bonus Georgian tragedy, “Love", and the search for "On Such a Night", a story long-missing from the Heyer canon.

Given their proper context within Georgette Heyer's burgeoning literary career, in many ways these stories serve as her "Juvenilia," and are not only of great scholarly and popular interest to those who study and enjoy Heyer's magical works, words, and worlds, but amply demonstrate the seeds of genius that have since made her one of the most enduring and admired authors of the 20th-century.
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  1. Print length
    164 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    August 16, 2019
  5. File size
    1158 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07T3ZBCM3
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Overlord Publishing (August 16, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 16, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1158 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 164 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 131 ratings

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  1. Georgette Heyer

    Georgette Heyer

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  2. Rachel Hyland

    Rachel Hyland

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
131 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer marcon2017
5.0 out of 5 stars The authors are older but the stories are good!
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2021
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I bought this primarily for the Georgette Heyer story but discovered many of the other authors are well known & the stories are good!
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Collection
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2023
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So I love Heyer's writing, and I bought this because it was all the short stories I got as individual stories plus a new one in the collection. It would get a solid 5 stars because of Heyer's writing. However, it has a lot of modern judgemental commentary passed on it by someone modern who has devoted time to study these and then make random obnoxious remarks. Obviously a rabid feminist is the order of the day, and heaven help a girl who wants to get married and doesn't become ASSERTIVE and manly to win the man she doesn't need. It was pretty jarring. However, Heyer's writing is still a delight. And I thoroughly enjoyed the new story!
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Unexpected and enlightening
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2020
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I was thinking, when I ordered, that it was nothing more than another collection of a writers early stories, and probably ones that I had never encountered. It was, indeed, but much more. It included detailed introductions and post-story analysis that made me look more closely at each Heyer tale, and gave me an appreciation for the days of many story-collection magazines. We have lost a lot without them, even though word processors, e-books and e-commerce (like Amazon) have given us new ways to get books, we have fewer chances of regularly encountering new writers in a regular, comfortable format. Newspapers and news magazines are struggling, but what people usually read — back in the Good Old Days, all the way to the penny dreadful and dime novels — were stories. I want to go back to that time, and collections like this make me appreciate Heyer”s other books.
4 people found this helpful
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Pam H.
4.0 out of 5 stars A nice find
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2020
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I am an avid Heyer fan, so please realize I tend to give her writing the benefit of most doubts. I enjoyed all the stories, some of them are especially charming. The Bulldog is my favorite of the collection. Most are obviously early work, but her signature style is evident throughout and it's great to read something "new" from her.

The introductions and postscripts are frankly awful and should be skipped. I cannot imagine why the publisher felt they added anything of any interest to the book, and suspect they took the first self-proclaimed "scholar" they found to pad out the page count.
11 people found this helpful
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Bill Parks
2.0 out of 5 stars Too much unhelpful commentary
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2021
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I "acted on impulse" and bought this. Not worth it. The commentary was "cute" and, at times, vicious. I know that in academia there is always a strand of "let's tear apart the manuscript and see if it falls to pieces or survives." However, flogging work that was written nearly a hundred years ago just to push one's own agenda is different than honest criticism that takes into account the audience for which the story was written. I can read Heyer's early work and appreciate the stages through which this author worked over time and developed her craft. Some of the biographical information provided was useful. In the end, though, I found the commentary largely useless and stopped reading it. A waste of space and time.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Quite entertaining early Heyer. Horrible commentary
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2019
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These short stories make pleasant light reading. Heyer’s trademark humour and gentle satire make a showing.
The introductions and commentaries were irritating in their obtuseness and I gave up reading them after the first two stories. I would certainly never read anything by Ms Kloester
16 people found this helpful
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lzblz548
4.0 out of 5 stars Odd book
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2019
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I would read anything by Georgette Heyer, even if some of these stories aren't as great as the regency shorts in pistols for two they are lovely period pieces.
Each story is introduced and commented on by the other authors. Some of this info is nice for context and setting the scene but some is heavy critique of the age and society Heyer was a product of. No part of history can properly stand the test of political correctness and the commentator seems indignant and surprised
14 people found this helpful
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Stefy G
3.0 out of 5 stars Comsi comsa
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2020
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I enjoyed most Georgette Heyer’s short stories but the previous and post narratives were deadly dull. It is a pity when less fortunate writers review a writer by excellence.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

L O'Connor
3.0 out of 5 stars Some very early Heyer stories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2019
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A collection of nine short stories - eight contemporary and one historical - written when Georgette Heyer was in her early 20s. Some of the stories are more entertaining than others, I thought The bulldog and the Beast particularly charming, and the Chinese Shawl is rather sweet too. Whose Fault Was It? and The Old Maid are both quite amusing. Some of the others I found less appealing, and the detective story, Lincke’s Great Case, I thought a bit dull. There are rather tiresome introductions and afterwards to all the stories written by the editors, full of complaints because the heroines are not feminist enough to suit them. And there is one very odd mistake where it is claimed that the one million men from the Uk who were killed in WW1 made up 12 percent of the population - I am sorry, but the population of the UK at that time was 43 million - even I, always weak at maths, know that 1 million is not 12 percent of 43 million. Anyway, I think these stories are worth reading if you are a Heyer fan, but you might want to give the ponderous introductions and afterwords a miss.
8 people found this helpful
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hatty burrow
3.0 out of 5 stars mixed bag
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2020
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the stories by Heyer are fascinating nating some callow some deeper. so short little can happen but they are still very worth a read. But the real problem is the self important posturing around them. all sanctimonious jibes and new order criticism. not mad keen on men who slaughter innocent animals myself but must everything be picked apart in such a mealy mouthed and superior way? she was writing 100 years ago suck it up. either damn her or accept her. you clearly, clearly, cant do both

suck it up. smug
2 people found this helpful
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Minty
2.0 out of 5 stars Early stories - not a patch on her later work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2019
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These short stories are very sweet but do not have the wit or detail of her later works and the characters are not really fully developed. Borrow this one from the library rather than buy it!
3 people found this helpful
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april
3.0 out of 5 stars For complete-ists
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2019
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Early works, barely showing the lion-claw...if you love heyer, as i do, you need this...if you do not, skip it...the notes by dedicated scholars add very little (if anything?) to the information you already have about heyer from reading her works...i have always been curious about the importance and dominance of ”gambling” in her works, and have wondered how much this obsession?/addiction? affected her family and her marriage, if at all....in any case, this collection is expensive and worth the price only for dedicated complete-ists...and barely, almost not, squeakingly close, for them...
3 people found this helpful
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dawnydancer
3.0 out of 5 stars For established Heyer fans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2019
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The stories by themselves are obviously early Heyer, but I enjoyed reading them. The book is immensely overpriced, so I won't be buying it for my MIL, who has all the Heyer novels, including both mysteries and regencies. I did not, however, enjoy the commentaries at all. My advice would be to skip them.
5 people found this helpful
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