I’ve been reading a lot of Regency-set novels lately. When I say “a lot,” I really do mean A LOT — like 30 in the last few months. A good number of M.C. Beaton romances written in the 1980s and 1990s fill the group, and although they’re often very far-fetched and intensely silly, they’re just as often laugh-out-loud funny. But the books I’ve really loved in this category were all by Georgette Heyer (and mostly written in the 1950s). When people say she was “the next-best thing to Jane Austen” they’re not kidding. She was apparently quite a historical researcher, and her novels are regarded as being very accurate to the period.
Which brings me to my point: I love Regency slang! Everything from “gudgeon” to “bird-witted ninnyhammer” — this stuff is the best! Whether something is the “outside of enough” (such a colorful way to be exasperated) or you “don’t like it above half,” you’re covered.
I do love old-fashioned language in general (I wouldn’t have read so much actual 19th century literature otherwise, you know?), but I can’t get enough of this Regency language right now.
I don’t mind indulging such a harmless obsession.
P.S.
Currently accepting enconiums upon my exquisite deportment.