Book
The Honourable Mr. Tawnish
First published 1913
Sir John Chester and his friends are deeply suspicious when the elegant and apparently frivolous Horatio Tawnish begins paying attention to Chester’s daughter, Lady Penelope. Their attempts to judge and obstruct him unfold amid duels, highwaymen, rival suitors and a social culture in which a gentleman’s courage is constantly measured by public performance. Tawnish’s affected manner makes him easy to underestimate.
The short novel plays with the codes of masculine honour that dominate Farnol’s Regency world. Swordsmanship and reputation matter, but so do restraint, loyalty and the ability to see past fashionable appearance. By making a fop the central object of suspicion, Farnol turns the conventional test of courage inside out and builds a romantic comedy around the uncertainty of who truly deserves the title of gentleman.
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