The Puce Page!!
In our readings of her novels, we have found that Heyer did not seem to
like the colour PUCE -- which has its
derivations from the Latin word for flea...the colour supposedly being
that of either the flea itself or its blood when squashed (thanks for this
description Nancy!).
To which end it has become a sort of challenge
to find the reference to puce in each book - hence this page. Although,
there are a few books where the reference to puce
is more favourable (Friday's Child), most are references
on nasty characters (Faro's Daughter) or those with
an acknowledged total lack of taste or colour coordination (Cotillion)
or those unsure of how to go on in 'ton' society (A Civil
Contract).
At the moment there are a lot of blank spaces. If you can help, then
please contribute to this
page.
Title |
Reference |
Cover Art |
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A
Civil Contract |
Charlotte, who was not bookish, paid no heed to this, but exclaimed
breathlessly: "Oh, my dear Adam, we though you could not be here for another
hour, and had put dinner back accordingly! And here I am, only this instant
finished cutting a few flowers for Jenny's room, and in this old gown too!
You must excuse me, Jenny!" This speech might have been designed to put
Jenny at her ease, but she still felt, as she descended from the chaise,
that perhaps a puce silk dress, a velvet
pelisse, and a feathered bonnet were a little out of place at Fontley.
Charlotte, however, seemed to see nothing amiss, but kissed her, and led
her into the house. |
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An Infamous Army |
"Nothing, thought Judith, could have been more opportune! Lucy was
by far too unaffected to have purposely placed herself beside a plain young
female in a dress of a particularly harsh puce,
but the effect could not have been more advantageous."
...and...
"Out came the cambrics and the muslins: lilac, Pomona green and pale
puce, made into wispy round
dresses figured with rosebuds, with row upon row of frills round the ankles."
...and...
"The puces swore faintly at the
scarlet uniforms; the celestial blues and pale greens died; but the
white satin turned all the gold-encrusted magnificence into a
background to set it off."
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April Lady |
(Letty to Nell) "If he thinks my ribbons insipid I am astonished that
he hadn't the effrontery to say that your dress was commonplace! Depend
upon it, he thinks you would look more becomingly in purple, or puce,
or scarlet! Odious creature!"
(Nell responds) " Oh, he couldn't say that to me, when he told me weeks
ago never to wear those strong colours!" |
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Arabella |
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Bath Tangle |
"Any pleasure Lady Theresa might have derived from the ball had been
destroyed by the sight of Cordelia Monksleigh, in a hideous puce
gown, standing at the head of the great stairway to receive the guests.
She had been unable to banish the reflection that there, but for her own
folly, might have stood Serena, though not, she trusted, in puce." |
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Beauvallet |
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Cotillion |
Miss Fishguard was "an elderly lady whose grey locks had been crimped
into ringlets which dangled on either side of an amiable countenance. The
absence of a cap proclaimed her spinsterhood; she wore a high-gown of an
unbecoming shade of puce; and carried
a reticule in one bony hand."
...and later...
"..the ladies fell into enthusiastic discussion of current fashions,
Miss Charing showing Lady Buckhaven the picture of a ravishing Chinese
robe of lilac silk which she had discovered in one of the numbers of "La
Belle Assemblee", and Lady Buckhaven arguing that a light puce
would be more becoming to her new friend." |
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Cousin Kate |
She could not help feeling that this was a tactless thing to have said;
but before she could speak Sir Timothy, with her aunt leaning on his arm,
had come into the room, and Lady Broome had exclaimed: "Oh, you are before
me! Torquil, my son!" She moved forward, in a cloud of puce
satin and gauze, holding out her hands to him. |
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Devil's Cub |
He was annoyed, and showed it. "I believe you've not heard one word!"
he said.
"I was thinking," said Mary thoughtfully, "that puce
does not become you, Joshua."
"Puce?" stammered Mr Simpkins.
"Become me? What -- Why --?"
"It is maybe your complexion that's too high for it," mused Miss Challoner.
Mr Simpkins said with dignity: "I was speaking of Sophia, Mary."
"I'm sure she would agree with me," replied the lady maddeningly.
"She's too easy, cousin. She don't know the path she treads," Joshua
said, trying to bring the conversations back to its original topic. "She's
very different from you, you know."
A slow smile curled Miss Challoner's lips. "I do, of course, but it's
hardly kind in you to tell me so," she said.
"In my eyes," declared Joshua, "you are the prettier."
Miss Challoner seemed to consider this. "Yes?" she said interestedly.
"But then, you chose puce." She shook
her head, and it was apparent she set no store by the compliment.
"Raise you a hundred, gentlemen," Vidal said, and lay back in his chair,
feeling in his capacious packet for his snuff-box. He pulled it out, and
opened it, and took a pinch, flashing a quick look around the table. A
gentleman in puce satin, and a very
large stock buckle, protested that fifty was deep enough. |
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False Colours |
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Faro's
Daughter |
"What, are you at that again? I still have them, and they will still
beat any of the cattle you own."
"I don't think so," said Sir James, taking snuff with an elegant turn
of his wrist.
"I wouldn't bet against them," said a man in a puce
coat, and a tie-wig. "I'd buy them, if you'd sell, Ravenscar."
The boxes began to fill up, and presently, in the one beside Ravenscar's,
she (Deb) observed Sir James Filey, gorgeous in a coat of puce
brocade, and leaning over a chair in which a scared-looking child with
pale golden ringlets and forget-me-not blue eyes sat bolt upright, clutching
a fan between her mittened hands. |
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Friday's
Child |
"She could not but be touched by Wrotham's having taken such pains
to obtain for her flowers which he believed to be her favorites.....[but]
There was another consideration--and not the least of them---that led to
George's violets being rejected. Miss Milborne, whose striking beauty could
well support the trying colour, was wearing a new gown of pale puce
satin and net to the ball, and with this George's violets could not be
said to agree." |
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Frederica |
"Critically surveying the sketch and mentally eradicating from it such
additions to the ensemble as a purple-puce
shawl, a tiara and a black lace head-veil, Frederica came to the conclusion
that Charis' instinct had not betrayed her." |
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Lady of Quality |
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Regency Buck |
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Royal Escape |
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Powder and Patch |
"Do you suppose De Chambert will be present?"
"Nothing is more certain," yawned De Bergeret. (...)
"But De Chambert wears puce small-clothes,"
objected Philip.
"Does he? Mordieu, I'd like to see that!..."
"The gentleman" - Moggat laid ever so little stress on the word - "is
tall, sir, and -er-slim. He is somewhat dark as regards eyes and brows,
and he is dressed, if I may say so, exceedingly modishly, with a point-edged
hat, and very full-skirted puce coat,
laced, French fashion, with - "
Philip went to his hostess and dropped on one knee to kiss her hand.
He was dressed in puce and old gold.
Jenifer thought she had never seen anything so gorgeous, or so astonishing. |
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Sprig Muslin |
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Sylvester |
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The Black Moth |
"The doctor is a worthy individual, Jim, but he knows even less of
the art of dressing than you do. He does not uderstand the soul-agony of
a man who makes his first appearance in puce."
[Richard is dressing for a masquerade:]
He was arrayed in puce and gold,
rings slipped on his fingers, his legs coaxed into hose with marvellous
clocks splashed on their sides, and a diamond buckle placed above the large
black bow of his tie-wig.
She turned around to look at him. '
Puce...'tis
not the colour I should have chosen, but 'tis well enough."
"I have conceived a dislike--nay, a veritable hatred--for puce.
I will wear blue." |
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The Black Sheep |
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The Convenient Marriage |
"Ah! Remind me, Arnold, that I am to wait on Lady Winwood at three.
It is really quite important."
Mr Gisborne stared. "Yes, sir?"
"Yes, quite important. I think the new habit, the coat dos de puce
- or is that a thought sombre for the errand? I believe the blue velvet
will be more fitting. And the perruque á bourse? You prefer
the Catogan wig, perhaps, but you are wrong, my dear boy, I am convinced
you are wrong. The arrangement of curls in the front gives an impression
of heaviness. I feel sure you would not wish me to be heavy." He gave one
of the lace ruffles that fell over his hand a flick. "Oh, I have not told
you, have I? You must know that I am contemplating matrimony, Arnold."
(Crosby Drelincourt) "A jest- the merest jest, I assure you! I had not
the least intention - la, do but observe the creature in the puce
satin over there!"
'Oh' said Horatia faintly. She remembered that she must show surprise
and added:'G-good gracious, my l-lord, is- is it indeed you?' The Earl
has changed his travelling dress for an evening toilet of puce
velvet, with a flowered waistcoat and satin small clothes. He came across
the room to Horatia's side, and bent to kiss her hand. 'None other, my
dear. Am I -now don't spare me- am I perhaps de trop?'
Encountering at first one or two stares from young bucks, Horatia felt
rather conspicuous in being quite unattended, but her alarming frown stood
her in good stead, and a rakish gentleman in puce
satin who had taken a step in her direction retreated hastily. |
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The Corinthian |
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The Foundling |
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The Grand Sophy |
"On no account!" said Sophy decidedly. She waited until Mr Wychbold's
attention was claimed by a lady in puce
satin, and then turned towards her companion, and said forthrightly: "Are
you a very good dancer, sir?" |
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The Masqueraders |
[on the first appearance of Prue's and Robin's father in London]
One of these was my Lord March; the other was a slight, elderly gentleman
with arresting grey eyes, a nose inclined to be aquiline, and thin smiling
lips. He was magnificently attired in puce
satin, with an embroidered waistcoat. His wig must surely have come straight
from Paris. |
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The Nonesuch |
Since Mrs. Mickleby seated the Nonesuch between herself and Lady Colebatch
at her extended dining-table, it was not until much later in the evening
that he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Underhill. In the welter of introductions
he had scarcely distinguished her amongst so many matrons: but Lord Lindeth
had not been so careless. Undismayed by a gown of puce
satin, lavishly adorned with lace and diamonds, and by a headdress supporting
a plume of curled feathers clasped by a glittering brooch of opulent dimensions,
he had seized the first opportunity that offered of approaching Mrs. Underhill,
when the gentlemen joined the ladies after dinner; and it was he who made
Sir Waldo known to her. |
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The Quiet Gentleman |
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The Reluctant Widow |
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The Spanish Bride |
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The Talisman Ring |
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The Toll-gate |
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The Unknown Ajax |
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These Old Shades |
Below, in the hall, gathered about the fire, the gentlemen were waiting,
his Grace with orders glittering on a coat of purple satin; Lord Rupert
in a pale blue, with much rich lacing, and an elegant flowered waistcoat;
Marling in puce; and Davenant in maroon.
Léonie paused half-way down the stairs and unfurled her fan.
"But look at me!" she said reprovingly.
Lady Fanny was complimenting Madame de Saint-Vire on her gown. "I declare
that shade of blue is positively ravishing!" She said. "I searched the
town for just such a tafetta not so long ago. La, there is that lady in
puce again! Pray who may she be?"
"No, and I am so glad. And now go on and put on that new puce
coat. 'Tis prodigious modish, and I want you to look very nice to-night." |
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Venetia |
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