Customer Reviews

Lord Vanity

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4 star:		(1)
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One of the four Shellabarger historical novels, this time set in the middle XVIII century. The reader travel from Venice to London, the American Colonies and Canada, conversing with "maestro" Carlo Goldoni, hearing a sermon from John Wesley or being witness at the death of Marquiss Montcalm. No doubt a mature novel with all the ingredients of fine romance ( illegitimate children, an obscure chap suddenly lionized in fashion society, true love - just the hero can't realize it till the end ). Not as good as "Captain of Castile" and "Prince of Foxes " ( the best Shellabarger novels to me ) but enjoyable as well if you like Dumas, Sabatini or Orczy works. Just one advice: it seems unfinished at all by his creator.

This novel is a fine Grand Tour of mid-18th century Europe, hitting not only the highlights such as Paris, Venice, and Bath, but also Canada, then a colony. It touches on the essential artificiality of much of life in the 18th century, and the author certainly did his homework; I'd be willing to bet that he at least read an abridged version of Casanova's memoirs, for example--one of the few authors who seems to understand about early modern women's underwear (none, really, until well into the 19th century)--and how this completely changes the tone of interactions between the sexes. When compared with _Captain from Castile_, another of this novels, both certainly seem to follow a certain formula--young man caught between two different women, with the conflict and most of the major characters introduced in the first chapter and carried out very well all the way to the wild conclusion. In this case, the protagonist undergoes a name change--he starts out as Richard Morandi, and ends up Richard Hammond, and he is early on confronted both by Maritza Venier, the unconventional daughter of an impoverished Venetian nobleman, and Amelie des Landes, a French countess with a past; these interactions are complicated by his sometimes friendship and sometimes rivalry with another name-changer, the adventurer Marcello Tromba, also known as Cavaliere di Corleone. _Lord Vanity_ is also written from a very visual perspective, so that we can see the action without there being undue amounts of description to create this effect, and it does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of dancing, music, and acting both, as spectacles and professions at that time. Particularly recommended to anyone involved in the staging of baroque operas in the present day!

Samuel Shellabarger's novels are historically accurate and include a love story, plenty of action and a good sense of the manners and behavior of the time. They were hugely popular when written in the 1940s and 50s and have held up well. This is one of the three best and it is a shame that he died suddenly with the potential for any more like this. I recommend it for those who like historical fiction. This one begins with a young actor living on the fringes of Venetian society in the early 18th century. He is the illegitimate son of a great English statesman but has never seen his father. A fight with a young nobleman over a girl sends him to the galleys for life. A chance encounter, as a galley slave, with his famous father rescues him from the hellish existence to which he was condemned. What follows is his reincarnation as an English gentleman, acknowledged by his father, a stint in the British Army besieging Quebec and a diplomatic career which follows. I recommend to to those with an interest in historical fiction. It is not at all dated.