The Gentleman by Forrest Leo
Genre: fantasy, I guess?
I read it as a(n): audiobook
Narrator: Samuel Roukin and John Keating
Length: 7:56:00
Her Grace’s rating: 4 stars
Imagine you are a writer. Maybe not a super successful one, maybe not the very best one, but a writer all the same. You make words on the page and sell them and people buy them and at least some of those people enjoy them and are eager to read the next words you put on the page and sell. You love what you do but then you discover that you’re broke and so you decide to find a lady and marry her just for her money. This effectively kills your muse and you don’t write for months. Then, during a dinner party you didn’t want to host, you accidentally sell your new wife to the devil – the Gentleman in question – and then, to your horror, discover that you actually are in love with her and now you have to go on a mission to get her back.
This is what happens to Lionel Savage, broke peer of the realm, mediocre poet, and failed but besotted husband. The book is told through Lionel’s essay on the adventure, with footnotes added by his editor (and cousin-by-marriage), Hubert Lancaster, who is possibly the best character in the book besides Simmons the butler.
If you are looking for a book that challenges your deeply-held beliefs or is a philosophical exploration on the mysteries of love, inspiration, and family dynamics, this is absolutely not the book for you! If you want a pseudo-Victorian historical fiction filled with duels, flying machines, secret societies, a soft-spoken Devil who uses Dante as a gardener, literary snobbery by one of the characters, derring-do, brutal British wit, and general madcap adventure in the vein os Pratchett, Wilde, or Wodehouse, then step right up!
I haven’t laughed this hard at a book since the last Scalzi I read.
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