The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Reviewed by: Sheila Dube - Springvale Public Library, Springvale, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 11, 2017

Review

It is the 1700's and Henry "Monty" Montague, recently expelled from Eton and threatened with being cut off from his father's estate for "mucking" with the boys, starts his year of a Grand Tour of the Continent in his carelessly delightful and frivolous way. His traveling companions include his fifteen-year-old sister Felicity, his long time best-friend Percy and Lockwood their bear-leader. Felicity is being escorted to finishing school but is secretly studying medicine. Percy is a bi-racial orphan who was adopted and raised with Monty. Percy has kept his epilepsy a secret from Monty until now. Monty's childhood crush on Percy has recently become an all-consuming passion. Lockwood is responsible for travel arrangements, financial transactions and keeping Monty from gambling, sodomy, drinking and embarrassing his father. When Monty is discovered in an extreme position of undress while a guest at Versailles, he compulsively steals a trinket from the Duke of Bourbon that sets the group on an adventure of dangerous proportions. After an ambush on the road that leaves them without Lockwood, the trio regroups and focuses on learning the dark history of the item stolen that puts them in danger. Throughout the action and various cities in Europe, Monty pontificates in his first-person narrative on his deepening desire for Percy, the challenge to his self-centered, privileged view and the risks he needs to take in creating a future outside of the suffocating position of manager of the estate. Along with the historical notes on the Grand Tour, the politics, epilepsy, race relations and queer culture in the 1700's found in the back matter, Lee seamlessly peels back the culture for the reader in each comical,action-packed scenario as Monty matures into his own exasperatingly funny way.

Overall Book Score: excellent