These Old Shades....

[fajrdrako]

On my way home I was listening to a book I have loved, but haven't read in decades: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer.

Now, I remember the Heyer novels with great fondness (and have reread a number of them over the years) but I also remember them as being quite innocent. Could it be that when I read them as a teen, I was the innocent one?

Now that I'm into chapter two of These Old Shades again, I think it sounds like the beginning of a particularly smutty slash novel. It starts (as some of you probably remember) with an elegant, foppish and ruthlessly decadent aristocrat in high heels and a purple cloak (yes, purple) being accosted by a beautiful young man on the street. The boy's brother is about to beat him. The aristocrat (the Duke of Avon) offers to buy the boy, Léon, from the brother. When the brother tries to get more money out of the Duke, Léon cries, "Take me, I beg of you, take me, my lord!", clutching his arm.

The Duke buys the boy with a valuable diamond brooch and takes him home. His friend Hugh (whom the Duke calls "my dear" every few paragraphs) is shocked - along the lines of "what do you want a boy for?" Léon does a lot of blushing, dropping his eyes, and whispering that he only wants to serve m'lord - and kisses his hand. The friend advises the Duke to send the boy to bed.

Well, if I were writing this, I know where I would go from there!

"I - I thanked you for saving me from Jean, milor'," the boy answered.

"You are reserved for a worse fate," said he Duke sardonically. "You now belong to me - body and soul."

"Yes, sir. If you pelase," murmured the boy, and sent him a swift glance of admiration from beneath his long lashes.

The thin lips curled a little.

"The prospect is no doubt pleasing?"

"Yes, sir. I - I would like to serve you."

By chapter two we have the Duke threatening to whip Léon for impertinence and the boy blushing prettily and promising to do his best to serve the Duke however the Duke wishes.... Have those BDSM slash stories I've been reading warped my brain? and is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Those of us who have read the book know that young Léon is really a girl and that the Duke's motives in taking her in are uncharacteristically noble, but that's quite beside the point.

I'm seeing this novel with a whole new perspective.