This Week I am Reading ... Ms Bethany Wheeler
Ms Bethany Wheeler is an LSA at Elmfield, working primarily within Class 6. Bethany shares her review of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee below.
Defying categorisation, this book is best described as Young Adult LGBT historical fantasy romance. It’s as difficult to put into rigidly defined boxes as its eclectic main characters: bisexual Monty, and biracial Percy.
Setting forth from Cheshire in the seventeen-hundreds, the rapscallion Lord Monty and his best friend Percy encounter lords and ladies, highwaymen and pirates as they travel the breadth of Europe. On land, on sea, at the opera and in prison, the gentlemen are accompanied, aided, and harassed by Monty’s fiendishly annoying younger sister, Felicity.
What begins as a Tour–albeit a culture-soaked disappointment compared to the drunken romp Monty had imagined–turns into a catastrophe when the travellers are ambushed. In a foreign country, with no money, possessions or lodgings, Monty’s rakish personality and poor decisions inevitably lead the group on a wild adventure. They must escape the Duke that Monty stole from in Versailles by rescuing the undead wife of an imprisoned Catalonian alchemist from a sinking island in Venice. Did I mention the pirates?
Among the calamity, Lee does not shy away from difficult topics. The eighteenth century was rife with nepotism, homophobia, racism, sexism, and abuse - issues that still prevail today. The Gentleman’s Guide explores the misery and dangers inherent with prejudice: Percy is denied lodgings because of his dark complexion, Felicity is not able to attend university because she is a girl, and Monty has been beaten black and blue by a father ashamed of his son’s romantic preferences.
It is in reading that we can safely explore ourselves and others. Diverse characters offer opportunities for learning, for identification and validation. As a teenager exploring my own identity, I remember listening to t.A.T.u.’s ‘All The Things She Said’ over and over again, and watching as Willow Rosenberg became the coolest character on TV. Today, Britain’s bookshelves are a glittering array of diverse representation; even Dumbledore has stepped out of the closet!
The Gentleman’s Guide is an incredibly fun read. The descriptive language used by Lee is exquisite, drawing readers into the punishing summer of Barcelona or the dank, swaying hold of a merchant vessel. Her characters are humanly riddled with faults, transform under pressure, and tug at the heartstrings of even the most stoic reader.
For anyone who enjoys this book as much as I do, the sequel, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, focuses on Felicity’s research of the fantastic and unknown, while its follow-up, A Nobleman’s Guide to Scandals and Shipwrecks, reunites the Montague siblings for a final adventure.