General Questions

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Bob Rothwell
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General Questions

Post by Bob Rothwell »

What can I get for my grandfather's inherited collection of Heron books?
What happened to Heron Books?
What makes one first edition more valuable than another?
Did Wheatley ever write anything under a pseudonym?
Where can I buy a copy of ......?

These and many more are the sort of questions that I have responded to. But have I given the right answers? Why not put your question here and benefit from shared knowledge. (This way I might learn something new!)


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Charles
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Post by Charles »

First of all, what a brilliant idea of Bob's the Library is ... I for one would like to express my thanks to Bob for all the hours he has put into the website ... which has in turn given hours and hours of enjoyment to all of us. Now to my first question .... did anyone ever discuss with DW or does anyone know anything interesting about the reasons for his first hero's change of name ? His first hero started out as the Duke de Reichleau in The Forbidden Territory (and kept that spelling in reprints of the book at least in the paperbacks until the mid sixties if not later) but had transformed into the Duke de Richleau when he wrote The Devil Rides Out and stayed that way ever after. Anyone know why ???


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Jim
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Post by Jim »

I remember noticing that myself; I'd always assumed that "REICHleau" carried unfortunate connotations after the war with the Germans.


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Post by Charles »

Dear Jim Many thanks ... I had wondered the same ... I wonder if anyone out there knows anything definite ... Best regards Charles


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Post by Guest »

My guess is that the character's original name was based on Cardinal Reichleau in Dumas' "Three Musketeers" (We know DW was a great Dumas fan) and that later he felt he wanted to break away and regard himself as being a writer in his own right, so to speak. But this of course is pure speculation...
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Post by Mike Fletcher »

I can go with the second world war theory as very plausible especially so in view of his War Cabinet work. I was uncertain about the guest's spelling for the name of Dumas' anti-hero so I had a quick look on the web. My suspicion seems to have been proved correct as an online edition of The Three Musketeers showed Cardinal "Richelieu". However, as to the name being based upon the character irrespective of its spelling, an interesting point! Could be we have a linked trail through the years.
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de Richelieu

Post by Tobias Cooper »

Cardinal "Richelieu". However, as to the name being based upon the character irrespective of its spelling, an interesting point! Could be we have a linked trail through the years.
[hr]


Given that the Duc's given names are Armand Jean DuPlessis de Richelieu (the same as the Cardinal Duke's) and that reference is made, in either Three Inquisitive People or Strange Conflict (I think), to a book that belonged to the Duc's famous ancestor I suspect that DW intended the Duc to be descended from the Cardinal. Come to think of it isn't there a reference in the Second Seal to the Cardinal?

TC
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Post by Guest »

This appears to have fizzled out a bit, so how about this question? What are your opinions on the DW book covers that have appeared over the years. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous (I'm thinking of some of the 1980-ish paperback covers--Sword of Fate, Roger Brook, Irish Witch), whilst some of the 70's stuff has dated horribly (out of focus, nude crumpet cowers from plastic skull with a candle on top). The Lymington edition hardback stuff is uneven, but there are some nice covers. What do you think?
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Reichleau v. Richleau

Post by Bob Rothwell »

Back to Reichleau v. Richleau, I have had a further thought. The 2nd 'de Richleau' title was, of course, The Devil Rides Out. In there DW dwells in some detail on numerology and uses the spelling of 'De Richleau' to show that his number 8 has many exceptional qualities. Unfortunately, 'de Reichleau', which gives the number 4, does not give the same results, so is it possible that the spelling change was deliberate?
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Post by Garry Holmes »

My feeling is that it is simply a spelling mistake that has not been noticed and hence uncorrected in any subsequent editions. For an example of this, look in The Quest of Julian Day, where a character is described on the very first page as an occulist instead of an occultist!
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Post by Garry Holmes »

Have just returned from holiday with usual copies of DW secondhand paperbacks and hardbacks. I have been wondering--which characters and/or series are your favourites? As a kid I was never terribly interested in the Roger Brook series. This was a silly aversion based on bad history teaching. Now I lap them up. I tend to rate the De Richleau as my favourites, then the Brooks, and finally the Sallusts. Do you have a favourite DW book?
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Post by Jim »

The Duke was my first Wheatley character, and I guess is still my favorite. But if I had to pick one book as my favorite from this series, it would be THE GOLDEN SPANIARD.
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Post by Bob Rothwell »

Like Garry and Jim, de Richlieu & co. has to come out tops for me, with Strange Conflict probably edging its way to 1st place. I also rate Roger Brooks as a very close 2nd to the Modern Musketeers: without his series I would still be ignorant about the French Revolution.

Also with the current revival in the interest for WWII matters, I find myself dipping into Sallust to remind myself of particular events of the war. If ever they re-write our history books about WWII, make sure you have your set of Sallust stories to remind yourself of the true facts!
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Post by Stevie P »

My favourite is also de Richleau probably because the first DW book that I read was The Devil Rides out. I was a teenager at the time and I was totally astonished at the content. Was any of this true?? It changed my way of thinking.
Isn't it strange though that when you mention DW to an average reader , they only seem to know him for Black Magic stories even though these were in the minority.
I can't believe that other authors haven't produced similar style novels.

Who would you say has the nearest style to Wheatley?
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Favourite series

Post by Alan »

The Duc and his team, by miles! An honourable second is the Gregory Sallust series, particularly the stories taking place in WWII. I never really took to the Roger Brook stuff, even though I find fiction of that period interesting usually. I just think most of the stories lack that usual DW "spark"...

I could also wish he'd done more CB stuff, especially with a black magic background, like "The Satanist"...
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