Candice Hern
Once a Gentleman (2004)
Author: Candice Hern
Genre: Romance (Historical Regency)
Plot Summary:
Prudence Armitage and her family consider her a spinster. At the age of 27 she still lives with her father and brothers. Having taken over editorial duties of the magazine the Ladies Fashionable Cabinet while the editor, Edwina, honeymoons, Prudence spends most of her time working. Late one night she is caught unaware and falls asleep at a desk in Edwina's house. The next morning she wakes to shouting and finds that Edwina's brother, Nicholas, had returned home late at night not knowing Prudence was still there. Prudence's father and brothers attacked Nicholas, having ruined her reputation by staying the night under the same roof as she. They demand he take the honorable course of action and marry Prudence. While Prudence has always been in love with Nicholas and is secretly pleased with the marriage, Nicholas is forced into the arrangement and seems miserable. Despite his misery he promises to be true and remain a gentleman to Prudence. SPOILER: Prudence works hard to change her shrewd fashion sense and make herself desirable to Nicholas. Finally, he begins to notice his wife, falls in love with her, and they eventually consummate their marriage.
Geographical Setting: London, England
Time Period: Regency England (1811-1820)
Series: Ladies Fashionable Cabinet Trilogy, Book 3
Appeal Characteristics:
This novel is as politically correct and feminist as a regency romance can get, featuring Nicholas and Prudence, both reformists hoping to create social change via their day-to-day work. (Hern even mentions Prudence's admiration of Mary Wollstonecraft in the text!) Nicholas fought during the revolution, and Prudence believes in helping the less fortunate, hiring "crimson ladies" to assist in some of the magazine production. In addition to this thematic character appeal, Hern uses third person narrative, thereby exposing readers to Nicholas's and Prudence's thought processes. Witnessing the couple as they attempt to make their forced marriage work, draws readers into their thoughts, doubts, worries and fears. Moreover, family relationships between Prudence, her many cousins, and Nicholas and his father offer greater characterization than just those of the novel's protagonists. Masterfully detailing society London at the time, Hern offers a backdrop plot featuring Prudence's niece's first season to scope marriage prospects. Adding to the detail of the time Prudence's burgeoning fashion sense as well as the contents of the magazine, highlight style and social customs of the regency era. This amusing and tender novel compels readers to keep turning the pages to find out not only how Prudence will attempt to gain her husband's love, but whether her love for him will ever be requited.
Read-alikes: Candice Hern's second novel in the Fashionable Ladies Cabinet Series Once a Scoundrel may be a good read for readers who are new to the series. This novel follows Prudence's friend and editor of the magazine, Edwina, and her love affair with Anthony, characters both present in Once a Gentleman. Romance fans who liked the historical setting but want to learn more of the French Revolution should read Surrender to a Stranger, which is an adventurous love story in that the heroine, Jacqueline, is saved by her unknown hero from the guillotine. When the two return to England their affair begins. Readers who are interested more in the social change and political reform that served as a background to Once a Gentlemen will be well suited to read the first novel in Delderfield's Family Swann Saga God is an Englishman. Having an air of historical romance, the novel follows Adam Swann and his wife Henrietta's love as well as his economic and social pursuits in Victorian Indian and English industrialization. A love story unfolds between the pages of this novel, but readers should be warned that this page-turner is a tome (832 pages)! Another sensible protagonist like Prudence is Houston Chandler in Jude Deveraux's Twin of Ice. Following the more demure sister, the novel chronicles how she discovers her longings after receiving a shocking marriage proposal. For a change of scenery, readers might try the recently published Harlequin Historical The Earl's Intended Wife. Hebe, who lives with her mother in Malta, has never sought a husband before she met a handsome naval officer, Alex. Readers seeking original regency romance should read Jane Austen's classic, Pride and Prejudice, which narrates the matching of the five Bennett daughters. Finally, those whose interest in Victorian feminism is piqued, might attempt to read Mary Wollstonecraft's original feminist work A Vindication on the Rights of Woman. This non-fiction work is a feminist attack on traditional femininity in the late 18th century, and will provide readers a better understanding of underlying social issues in regency England.
Red Flags: Readers who don't like regency romances should not read this book. Also, if you're looking for writing that is free of cliches, this is not the book for you. While the novel may incorporate some feminist and progressive themes, it is not a book written for tried and true feminists.
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