Georgette Heyer, one of the most popular and influential romance authors of all time, was not a romantic when it came to her work. “I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense,” she once declared in a letter to her publisher. Among her ardent fans, though, she remains revered as the Queen of Regency Romance, a subgenre she essentially created and popularized. Her intricately researched historical narratives are still widely read nearly 50 years after her death; Julia Quinn, whose Regency romance series “Bridgerton” spawned the hit Netflix series, called her “the original.”To date, Heyer’s books have sold around 20 million copies. But some readers have questioned her enduring popularity in light of offensive ethnic and antisemitic stereotypes that occasionally appeared in her work.

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Persons: Georgette Heyer, “, Julia Quinn, ”, moneylender, Goldhanger Locations: leer