[Mostly] Regency Comfort Reads

Yvonne has put up her list of comfort reads and has invited me to put up mine. So I had to think about what I mean by a "comfort read".

I've read many romances that I thought were excellent that were one-time reads for me. Sometimes I have reread some of them after ten years or more, at which point they were all new all over again because I had pretty much forgotten everything about them. So I decided not to count those.

I have decided a "comfort read" is something do I remember well (or even almost have by heart) – something I reach for when I'm in the mood to revisit that world for a bit, or want to reread a favorite part, or can pick up and put down and know exactly where I was; something I'm always drawn back into even though I know everything that will happen; something I can always find because I have it in several forms or editions (I'm the one who keeps forty bucks and a copy of Emma in her car for emergencies); something I will never be without. I expect it's a certain combination of storyline, themes that resonate and terrific writing style that brings me back.

There are some titles here that aren't usually considered romances, but they contain strong romantic elements, and it is those elements that I often turn to first. So I count them.

• Jane Austen:
  Emma
  Mansfield Park
  Northanger Abbey
  Pride and Prejudice
  Sense and Sensibility
  
  
• JRR Tolkien:
  The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings trilogy
  
  
• Dorothy L. Sayers:
  Murder Must Advertise
  The Harriet Vane sequence: Strong Poison
  Have His Carcase
  Gaudy Night
  Busman's Honeymoon
  
• Georgette Heyer:
  These Old Shades
  Devil's Cub
  The Reluctant Widow
  A Civil Contract
  
  
• Eloise Jarvis McGraw:
  Mara, Daughter of the Nile
  
  
• Mary Balogh:
  Secrets of the Heart
  The Secret Pearl
  Red Rose
  
  
• Marion Chesney:
  The Ghost and Lady Alice
  
  
• Dinah Dean:
  The Cockermouth Mail
  
  
• Marian Devon:
  An Uncivil Servant
  
  
• Edith Layton:
  Lady of Spirit