The Gentleman

June 6, 2016
In this riotous send-up of Victorian literature and Victorian manners, Lionel Savage is a middling poet who runs out of money. To avoid penury, he enters into a loveless marriage with the wealthy Vivien Lancaster. But six months into the marriage, Lionel finds that the marriage has sapped his vital poetic spark. Then, at a masked party held by his wife, he meets the Gentleman, a stranger who ultimately reveals himself to be the “Dev’l.” The next day, Vivien is missing and Lionel realizes that he must have accidentally sold her to the Gentleman. To rescue her, Lionel recruits an intrepid band consisting of Simmons, his back-talking manservant; Ashley Lancaster, his brother-in-law, an explorer newly returned to London; Will Kensington, an inventor of flying machines; and his 16-year-old sister, Lizzie Savage, recently expelled from boarding school for having sex with the dean’s son. Pinpointing a volcano in Iceland as the entrance to hell, Lionel and company find it difficult to get out of London when they are mistaken for government spies, then anarchists, and are forced to flee from the police. Lionel is also challenged to no fewer than three duels on the way to a surprising ending. In his debut, Leo does an inspired job of parodying the conventions of Victorian fiction. Hilarious dialogue, a Pythonesque sense of the absurd, and comical complications worthy of Thorne Smith at his “dev’lish” best round out the tale. Agent: Mitchell Waters, Curtis Brown.

June 15, 2016
Historical farce that pits a middling London poet against a very gentlemanly Devil.The foppish, fatuous poet is the narrator of this debut novel, and the title character is his foil, though the Devil turns out to be less of a presence than either the title or the setup would seem to promise. At the outset, Lionel Savage, a poet of some following but little literary distinction, discovers that he is all but broke. When the butler who raised him informs him of this, he responds, "Nonsense, Simmons. I don't buy anything except books. You cannot possibly tell me I've squandered my fortune upon books." Alas, he has, and he must remedy his situation quickly in order to continue to circulate in the high society to which he has become accustomed. It's his good fortune--or is it?--to find himself matched with a beautiful heiress whose family apparently wants her to marry a poet, and he's apparently as good as any. Yet six months after the nuptials, he has yet to consummate the marriage, share more than a few words with his bride, or write an acceptable poem since their courtship. "If you have ever written, you will know that it is either an arduous business or a simple one, but rarely in between," he explains. "For me it used to be the one but is now the other." At one of the society parties his wife throws to ease her frustrations, he encounters the gentleman of the title, explains his dilemma, and lends the Devil a book. That very night, his wife disappears. What follows encompasses his adventurously wanton sister, his wife's famous explorer brother, an inventor suspected of treason, a wise bookseller, and the aforementioned butler, all of whom are attempting to answer two questions: did the narrator make a bargain with the Devil to take his wife? If so, how can he get her back?Though the poet discovers plenty about love, friendship, and art in his quest, this novel is mainly slapstick, played for laughs.

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March 1, 2016
Victorian poet Lionel Savage marries lovely Vivien Lancaster for her money and, in a fit of despondency over his sudden inability to write, accidentally conjures up the Devil for a polite talk about literature. Later, when he realizes that the Devil has made off with Vivien, Lionel organizes a rescue team. Lots of in-house enthusiasm for this blend of comedy, history, and the paranormal; illustrations, too.

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