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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
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English
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THE GENTLEMAN

Forrest Leo

THE GENTLEMAN concerns the antics and adventures of an eccentric Victorian family. It is set in Victorian London, where Lionel Savage, a twenty-two year old poet, is unhappy. He has recently married Vivien Lancaster (daughter of the “richest and most interesting family in Britain”) for money instead of love, and has subsequently discovered that—as a poet cannot live without love—he can no longer write. One evening, as Vivien is throwing a party and Savage is hiding in his study, a strange Gentleman intrudes. This Gentleman turns out to be an ingenuous, melancholy, and gently bumbling Devil. They discuss poetry (the Gentleman is used to having long poetical conversations with Dante Alighieri, who tends his garden) and Savage's unhappy marriage. The Gentleman leaves, and shortly thereafter Vivien disappears.

Savage deduces that the Devil must have taken her, and is initially happy at the reprieve. But the arrival of his spitfire little sister Lizzie (kicked out of boarding school for a dalliance with the dean's son) and Vivien's brother Ashley (a famed explorer, recently returned from Spitsbergen) prompts revelations which shed an altogether different light on things. The frosty six months of marriage may have been a colossal misunderstanding, a façade to cover wounded pride and hurt feelings. It seems, in short, that the Savages may in fact be very much in love. The book chronicles Lionel's growing awareness that he may have been very blind indeed, and—as he, Lizzie, Ashley Lancaster, and Simmons the butler set off to rescue Vivien from Hell—the sliver of hope that it may not be too late for him to change.

THE GENTLEMAN is a humorous and swift-moving adventure novel with elements of steampunk, Wodehouse, and TinTin—though ultimately, more than Devils or flying machines, the novel is about friends, family, understanding of self, and love.

Forrest Leo was born and raised in remote Alaska. He grew up without running water or electricity, and took a dogsled to school. The son and grandson of writers, he started writing plays in high school, and holds a BFA in acting from NYU. His plays have been produced in Alaska and New York, and have twice been semifinalists for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. THE GENTLEMAN is his first novel.

DER GENTLEMAN
Deutsch Cornelia Reiber
[HC Aufbau 04/17]
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Book

Published by Penguin Press

Comments

Serbia: Vulkan

An eccentric romp told with fun and energy. – Steve Hely

Let us all bow down before the nutty and delightful romp that is THE GENTLEMAN. An assured stylist tells a hilarious story with perfect pacing and aplomb: yes, please. --Henry Alford, author of Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That?: A Modern Guide to Manners