Customer Reviews

The Savage Gentleman

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This is a fairly easy read and a rather mild satire (mild for Wylie who will tend in later years to be more assertive with his anger). Our hero is raised on an island and taught both letters and survival arts by several elders who are trying to protect him from the modern world (read: women). The book's misogyny is quite mild (his dad had a bad relationship and so attempts to keep his soon away from women--good luck with that). And the boy becomes something of a physical superman, though neither the conceit of the "wild man" in civilization nor the conceit of the John Stuart Mill-type superman raised by a genius father are utilized to any satisfying extent. Only a year or so later will Lester Dent/Kennith Robeson start writing the Doc Savage story where the father raises the brainy child to fight crime and better civilization. In truth, Wylie really doesn't know how to write about women well and the trope of the evil woman in The Savage Gentleman isn't exploited at all. It's just a fun story to read with a great fight scene in the end and that ending will remind the reader really of the movie Citizen Kane had it had a happy ending. Kudos to Bison Books for another successful release.