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Sep. 4th, 2016 08:40 amI reread Heyer's The Masqueraders recently -- this is the one in which a brother and sister, wanted for participation in the Jacobite rebellion, are instructed by their wacky mastermind father that the only way for them to be safe from the long arm of the law is to cunningly disguise themselves as ... A SISTER AND BROTHER!
No, see, it makes sense because Our Heroine is quite tall, and her brother is quite short, and the police will be looking for a notably short man and a notably tall woman, not a man and woman who are both of approximately ... ordinary....
.... OK it really doesn't make any sense, no sense at all, but it is a lot of fun to read as cross-dressing hijinks go. It is also notable to me because Patience, unlike most cross-dressing heroines, is not a teenaged ingenue with Something to Prove; she's twenty-eight, responsible, sensible, cool-headed, and admired by everyone for the fact that she has clearly inherited every bit of chill that the family possesses. Her love interest is the lofty Sir Anthony Fanshawe, who is huge and slow and sleepy and tremendously respectable until midway through the book when he suddenly gets caught up in all the wacky hijinks around him and starts really enthusiastically busting heads, and Patience is like 'well, on the one hand, I feel deeply embarrassed for getting such an admirable and respectable person caught up in all of this nonsense, but on the other hand, THIS IS HILARIOUS.'
(Her brother Robin, meanwhile -- who gets a dashing MYSTERY ROMANCE full of DRAMA in which he hangs out with his love interest as her beautiful BFF all day, then by night disguises himself as a HIGHWAYMAN and secretly flirts with her at MASKED BALLS -- has none of the chill at all.)
Anyway, as I was rereading, I started fan-casting in my head for the movie that I would love to see somebody make.
Obviously, Patience -- serene, gigantic, blonde -- should be played by Gwendolyn Christie.
Equally obviously, the only person who could really do justice to Sir Anthony Fanshawe -- the most dignified and respectable and HUGE AND WELL-MUSCLED Georgian gentleman around -- is Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. We've all been waiting to see the Rock in a period piece! HERE IS THE ROLE. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
I get stuck brainstorming on Robin, though, especially since I am fairly sure in a modern Masqueraders film I would not want to cast Robin as the straight cis dude that Georgette Heyer thinks he is. I can think of at least four ways to adapt the character, I just can't decide which I like best!
No, see, it makes sense because Our Heroine is quite tall, and her brother is quite short, and the police will be looking for a notably short man and a notably tall woman, not a man and woman who are both of approximately ... ordinary....
.... OK it really doesn't make any sense, no sense at all, but it is a lot of fun to read as cross-dressing hijinks go. It is also notable to me because Patience, unlike most cross-dressing heroines, is not a teenaged ingenue with Something to Prove; she's twenty-eight, responsible, sensible, cool-headed, and admired by everyone for the fact that she has clearly inherited every bit of chill that the family possesses. Her love interest is the lofty Sir Anthony Fanshawe, who is huge and slow and sleepy and tremendously respectable until midway through the book when he suddenly gets caught up in all the wacky hijinks around him and starts really enthusiastically busting heads, and Patience is like 'well, on the one hand, I feel deeply embarrassed for getting such an admirable and respectable person caught up in all of this nonsense, but on the other hand, THIS IS HILARIOUS.'
(Her brother Robin, meanwhile -- who gets a dashing MYSTERY ROMANCE full of DRAMA in which he hangs out with his love interest as her beautiful BFF all day, then by night disguises himself as a HIGHWAYMAN and secretly flirts with her at MASKED BALLS -- has none of the chill at all.)
Anyway, as I was rereading, I started fan-casting in my head for the movie that I would love to see somebody make.
Obviously, Patience -- serene, gigantic, blonde -- should be played by Gwendolyn Christie.
Equally obviously, the only person who could really do justice to Sir Anthony Fanshawe -- the most dignified and respectable and HUGE AND WELL-MUSCLED Georgian gentleman around -- is Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. We've all been waiting to see the Rock in a period piece! HERE IS THE ROLE. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
I get stuck brainstorming on Robin, though, especially since I am fairly sure in a modern Masqueraders film I would not want to cast Robin as the straight cis dude that Georgette Heyer thinks he is. I can think of at least four ways to adapt the character, I just can't decide which I like best!
