Finding himself penniless, Lionel Savage married for
money, and six months into the marriage, he hates his
wife and inspiration has deserted him. Lionel is a rather
well-known poet, but hasn't written anything since the
beautiful Vivien Lancaster became his wife. Today is the
day when he has finally decided to take action: Lionel
will do away with himself. However, he needs to think of
a practical way to do it so as not to inconvenience the
help, and while on a walk he inadvertently makes a
powerful new friend whom he brings to tea, and THE
GENTLEMAN in question is the one and only Satan! But upon
arriving home, it turns out Vivien has vanished, things
seem to be looking up for Lionel, until he starts in
horror at what he might have blurted out to The Devil.
Then Lionel's sister Lizzie arrives, she was kicked out
of boarding school because of a randy tryst, and on her
heels -- blasted bad luck -- is Vivien's brother Ashley,
and thus this odd trio, along with the Savages' faithful
butler Simmons, set out to find Vivien.
In my opinion, the best pastiches are penned by writers
of immeasurable talent, and that is precisely what
Forrest Leo has achieved with THE GENTLEMAN. I was
astounded to learn that Mr. Leo is but 25 years old, and
this novel is his debut offering. Forrest Leo exhibits a
mastery of the English language that is seldom achieved.
As pointed out in the blurb, Monty Python does come to
mind, as THE GENTLEMAN shares the unmistakable British
zaniness of the English comedians, which is even more
remarkable given the fact that Mr. Leo is American. The
plot of THE GENTLEMAN extremely ingenious, the characters
so vividly described that I could even hear the timbre
and tone of their voices, as they bantered and bickered
in the wildly witty dialogues. The footnotes by Hubert
Lancaster, Vivien's cousin and fictional editor of
Lionel's retelling of his adventures, are a total hoot,
as Hubert relentlessly contradicts Lionel's story.
THE GENTLEMAN is a dazzling, demented and brilliant
adventure story which unfolds at breakneck speed, and
whose strengths lie in the superlative writing and the
meticulously accurate depiction of Victorian London. I
was impressed that Mr. Leo even went as far as use
English spelling throughout without one single misstep as
well as Victorian turns of phrases, which lent
authenticity to the tale, all crucial in my eyes, as it
is told from Lionel's point of view. Simply put: THE
GENTLEMAN essentially captures the essence of English
eccentricity at its finest. There is also one
unforgettable moment which features a "flying machine"
where the description of the scene is so flawless that I
could imagine myself amongst the onlookers, lost in
wonder and awe. While it is obvious that a lot of
excruciating research went into THE GENTLEMAN, I also
suspect that Forrest Leo is quite the learned gentleman
himself, and I hope that this amazing book has landed on
the desk of someone important at the BBC...
From rather early on in THE GENTLEMAN, I was already
looking forward to future books by Mr. Leo, and upon the
most delightful ending, I feel I might not be hoping in
vain, as the possibility of at least another book in what
would be a most welcome series seems a probability, and I
couldn't be happier at the thought. THE GENTLEMAN is a
brilliantly funny, dazzlingly written novel, and I could
not recommend it highly enough!
A funny, fantastically entertaining debut novel, in the
spirit of Wodehouse and Monty Python, about a famous poet
who inadvertently sells his wife to the devil--then recruits
a band of adventurers to rescue her.
When Lionel Savage, a popular poet in Victorian London,
learns from his butler that they're broke, he marries the
beautiful Vivien Lancaster for her money, only to find that
his muse has abandoned him.
Distraught and contemplating suicide, Savage accidentally
conjures the Devil -- the polite "Gentleman" of the title --
who appears at one of the society parties Savage abhors. The
two hit it off: the Devil talks about his home, where he
employs Dante as a gardener; Savage lends him a volume of
Tennyson. But when the party's over and Vivien has
disappeared, the poet concludes in horror that he must have
inadvertently sold his wife to the dark lord.
Newly in love with Vivian, Savage plans a rescue mission to
Hell that includes Simmons, the butler; Tompkins, the
bookseller; Ashley Lancaster, swashbuckling Buddhist; Will
Kensington, inventor of a flying machine; and Savage's
spirited kid sister, Lizzie, freshly booted from boarding
school for a "dalliance." Throughout, his cousin's quibbling
footnotes to the text push the story into comedy nirvana.
Lionel and his friends encounter trapdoors, duels,
anarchist-fearing bobbies, the social pressure of not
knowing enough about art history, and the poisonous wit of
his poetical archenemy. Fresh, action-packed and very, very
funny, The Gentleman is a giddy farce that recalls
the masterful confections of P.G. Wodehouse and Hergé's
beautifully detailed Tintin adventures.
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