Out of curiosity I just listened to a Barbara Cartland novel because she is considered such a doyen of romance writing Worst piece of bad writing and utter drivel I’ve ever heard - ThreadSky

drsally.bsky.social • 81 days ago

Out of curiosity I just listened to a Barbara Cartland novel because she is considered such a doyen of romance writing

Worst piece of bad writing and utter drivel I’ve ever heard

Comments

janpom.bsky.social•81 days ago

Her writing doesn't appeal to me at all. However, she wasn't all pink fluff :}
"Cartland took an interest in the early gliding movement and in 1931, with two RAF officers "designed the first aircraft-towed airmail delivery glider"; she also arranged the first long-distance (200-mile [360 km]) tow."

aileenscotty.bsky.social•81 days ago

I read one of her books when I was an adolescent, threw it in the bin. Appalling work. 🌸

slightreturn.bsky.social•81 days ago

I read a jeffrey Archer novel when I was about 18, and thought it was great. I'm now in my late 50s and, out of curiosity, recently listened to a little of the audio version. What unutterable drivel!

leetulloch.bsky.social•81 days ago

I once interviewed Barbara Cartland at home in the UK. She would lie on a chaise under a white fur rug and dictate to one of her six secretaries. She gave me a gold acorn from a tree on the property that Elizabeth I planted. She was a fabulous monster. I won't hear a word against her! 💙📚

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

Oh that is a fabulous image!!

smspencerauthor.bsky.social•81 days ago

🤣🤣🤣

kaurifish.bsky.social•81 days ago

Reading romance novels has given me a yet deeper appreciation for the vast variety of the human experience.

Yeah, I find most of them unreadable, too.

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

My mother had an entire wall of them

kaurifish.bsky.social•81 days ago

That's how I encountered Heyer. Found her to be kind of an Uncanny Valley of almost-Regency-accurate portrayals. When I found out she participated in a much more contemporary season, it made a lot of sense.
It's difficult to read any Regency works post-Austen.

chezart.bsky.social•81 days ago

She once judged a romance novel competition. She picked the winner because the author was the only one whose heroine was a virgin. 🙄

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

😆

citrineglitter.bsky.social•81 days ago

Yeahhhh, she's bad. But there are people who just love that sort of fancy escapism, and there's room in the world for all sorts of slop.

In her Google bio, I notice that she plagiarized Georgette Heyer -- if she was going to steal, she stole from the best.

duanemoody.qwiffer.com•81 days ago

It's also ridiculously well-researched in terms of time and place because period romance readers are intensely finicky about that, probably moreso than literary credit. And honestly most genre work like Westerns imposes the same demands on writers in it.

mymateshouse.bsky.social•81 days ago

Knowing what I know of u from here & that other place, I read the first sentence of that & was like… Shit Doc. What? Mum used to have her books littered around the house when I was a kid. Now clearly, as a 7-11 year old boy, I was never a target audience, but even then in around 1985 they were trash

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

Wide reading is never a bad thing

bernielaker.bsky.social•81 days ago

Why would you do that to yourself? I read one when I was about 13, my 13 yr old self was offended by her antiquated drivel.

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

Couldn’t sleep and have been gearing myself up to write
So devouring all sorts of novels

bernielaker.bsky.social•81 days ago

If you want to read another bad book read 'Year of wonders', it won multiple prizes and was on my daughters VCE list, I cannot understand why, its rubbish.

belverdear.bsky.social•81 days ago

Honestly, the book lists kids are given. I got called to the school numerous times because my son would not read books on the book list...because they were to boring. I mean, as an adult do you read a book that has no appeal?

bernielaker.bsky.social•80 days ago

Look, I get that the school reading lists have books on them that don't appeal to everyone, and some of them are on there to expose students to different thoughts, opinions, writing styles, etc. My beef with Year of Wonders was that it was hailed as some literary master piece, when it wasn't.

tozzicat.bsky.social•80 days ago

Post 3. I’m tempted to try a Barbara Cartland audio cast

tozzicat.bsky.social•80 days ago

Actually, post 2 on supposed author. I have never ever heard that her work was good. Didn’t know many of the Mills and Boone set but not even they thought Barbara Cartland was anything.

tozzicat.bsky.social•81 days ago

Wasn’t Barbara Cartland a step grandma or step great aunt to Diana Princess of Wales. That probably gave pink Babs a bit of a boost momentarily.

drsally.bsky.social•80 days ago

Ah yes!

dorothyg.bsky.social•81 days ago

If the first chapter of a novel starts with describing a woman walking while her red heels are clicking on the terrazzo, I’m out.

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

I was curious because she’s the Grand Dame of romance but really quite pathetic

duanemoody.qwiffer.com•81 days ago

She set the pace for period accuracy which as I pointed out elsewhere matters a lot to romance (and Western and mystery) novel readers. Or Japan-set visual novels.

I mean, literary value was never on the table here.

citrineglitter.bsky.social•81 days ago

Actually, period accuracy began with Georgette Heyer, who didn't have NEARLY the output of Courtland, but who is still amusingly readable today.

Yes, I have Heyer's books, and yes, I love them. Delightful little confections that are dead-accurate re clothes, slang, et al. Very amusing.

duanemoody.qwiffer.com•81 days ago

I stand corrected, thanks

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

That picture 😂😂😂😂

duanemoody.qwiffer.com•81 days ago

Thanks, Gina's one of my better models.

I don't normally do anything beyond photorealism with her out of respect to actual, real artists, but the 60s pulp romance paperback faux-painted template was too much to pass on.

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

She actually bears a resemblance to a young friend of mine who is also a writer

carolynj.bsky.social•81 days ago

Can't comment on her, never read or listened ..... but Ann Granger must be close in spewing rubbish. You could skim her novels, but listening to them - makes you wonder why better writers are not published...

elenikay.bsky.social•81 days ago

Absolute drivel. Try Georgette Heyer for well written, amusing regency romance.

okthen25.bsky.social•81 days ago

Never read a book but I also think everything has it’s time. And that is long ago

kazcooke.bsky.social•81 days ago

Barbara Cartland was brilliant at 2 things: publicity and output volume - she dictated a book every few days to a long-suffering secretary, often with the same plot & had to be reminded to get a new name for the Duke in it. Try Georgette Heyer.

jpmegraw.bsky.social•81 days ago

😄😄yeah I can believe it but she broke an early mold so some credit

drsally.bsky.social•81 days ago

It was just idle curiosity and insomnia 😜

tania007.bsky.social•81 days ago

Jilly Cooper & Jackie whatsherface are better

kazcooke.bsky.social•81 days ago

Collins, and it depends on whether you want ye olde historical romance or 1980s bonkbusters.

tania007.bsky.social•81 days ago

It was the bonkbusters 😂 combined with a bit of Mr King for balance

dr-ian.bsky.social•81 days ago

Mum was a fan of Georgette Heyer in part because of the historical research she did for her novels. She had quite a library of her hardbacks.

seaeagle.bsky.social•81 days ago

Same with my mum. I learned about Georgette Heyer from her. She was a massive fan. I read a couple. Once I'd surrendered myself into the Regency world, it was a nice bit of escapism.

noradaur.bsky.social•81 days ago

Same here, my mother was a fan and I still read her books every now and then as I love the descriptions of the society rules, the food and the fashion.

jammiepiece.bsky.social•80 days ago

I loved Georgette Heyer books. I read them and re-read them. Her books were mentioned in a book I just read about the underground library at Bethnal Green, London, during the Blitz. It made me feel like reading one again. Friday’s Child was my first read.

library-gremlin.bsky.social•81 days ago

caro-oco.bsky.social•81 days ago

Lol

tjmitchell.bsky.social•80 days ago

They were all the books my mother had on her shelf. Outside school reading they were all I could get my hands on. They were what they were.

onioneater.bsky.social•81 days ago

Try a Jude Devereaux (sp) . Your eyes will bleed.

lila7.bsky.social•81 days ago

🤣

How much did you have to listen to?

aussiewitch.bsky.social•81 days ago

And all of her books are the same plot with a few name changes…/ lol

debbienorthway.bsky.social•81 days ago

They got worse as she aged. Two sentences to a paragraph, drivel

janes2024.bsky.social•81 days ago

Very true. If you want to read a delicious parody of her writing style read ‘To Love and be Wise’ by Josephine Tey.

iantho.bsky.social•81 days ago

Josephine Tey is a great detective writer too. Up there with Dorothy Sayers.

bernwtf.bsky.social•81 days ago

😂

4bubbles.bsky.social•81 days ago

I read part of one once, my blood sugars went thru the roof. The one positive you can say for her is that a lot of fine chick lit writers decoded they could do better after reading her and did.

greghooper.bsky.social•81 days ago

they might be good to listen to without the vision, but for me Korean Romance TV is the greatest. If listening works.

kaboomer75.bsky.social•81 days ago

Worse than Nicholas Sparks?

prufrockery.bsky.social•81 days ago

Congratulations on making it to the end. I’ve never managed it. If you want to listen to grippingly good historical fiction, try The Last Hours by Minette Waters. Of the “old guard” Anya Seton’s Katharine is among the best. 😊

robin47.bsky.social•81 days ago

Yesteryears teenage dribble of happy ever afters!

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply