[LMB] OT: When Favourite Authors Screw Up

[Dorian E. Gray]

Margaret said...

> Raye Johnsen wrote:
>>
>> I was rereading one of my favourite Georgette Heyers,
>> 'The Grand Sophy', this weekend, and one of the minor
>> characters - in fact, the male half of the secondary
>> pairing - has just recovered from mumps when he enters
>> the action, after an absence of about six weeks.
>>
>> So I spent the entire weekend sitting there, telling
>> myself, /German measles!  Not mumps, German measles!/
>> Because mumps in an adult body isn't the same as mumps
>> in a juvenile body.  It's a longer, more debilitating
>> illness and one of the consequences is permanent
>> impotence - NOT something a male romance hero, even in
>> a comedy of manners where everyone's clothes stay
>> firmly on, should have.
>>
>> It's clearly a case of, Heyer gave him an illness she
>> thought would be silly and harmless, and didn't
>> realise that it isn't.  It still jars me to read.
>
> I noticed that, but was under the impression that mumps in the
> adult male led to sterility rather than impotence.  Not quite the
> same thing.

Well, the sterility is *possible*, not *certain*, as I understand it.  Maybe 
Charlbury got lucky.

> ...so Charlbury and Cecilia are fated to have no kids.  Oh
> well...

For those characters in that place/time, that is actually quite a big deal. 
It was very definitely the wife's duty to produce an heir to her husband's 
title/lands - and a legitimate one!  If Charlbury *was* rendered sterile by 
his mumps, their marriage will be affected by the lack of children, and not 
for the better.

Until the sky falls on our heads...

Dorian.
--
Dorian E. Gray
israfel at eircom.net
http://dorianegray.livejournal.com

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte