My Lord Duke by E. W. Hornung

[regshoe]

Continuing the Hornung read-through with My Lord Duke (1897), slightly out of order because Gutenberg, my usual source for public domain ebooks, doesn't have Irralie's Bushranger or The Rogue's March: A Romance (both 1896). Happily I have since found Irralie's Bushranger elsewhere and will hopefully be getting to it shortly.

I enjoyed this one, although I don't have a huge amount to say about it. It's another Australian story: this time we open on an aristocratic English family in the midst of a succession crisis over their dukedom, who discover that, as a result of a wayward son of the last generation ending up being banished to the colonies, the new Duke is a random Australian who has lived his whole life in the bush. Many culture-clash hijinks ensue as the Duke (Jack) gets accustomed to his new position and develops feelings for a spirited young English lady... and then the plot starts on a rollercoaster of twists and turns that keep coming right up until the last few pages, by which point the whole set-up has been revealed as something very different indeed.

All of this twisting and turning certainly makes for a fun read, although the whole thing is a bit too melodramatic to take really seriously. It's also notable that this is the... third? fourth? book so far which ends with the sympathetic main characters about to go off and live happily ever after in the bush. Somehow I think Hornung might have missed Australia a little.

I now only have three or four (depending on whether I can find The Rogue's March) books to go before The Amateur Cracksman, so I think I'm going to try and time things so I get to it on the 15th of March.

Comments

[pretty_plant]

You should use Internet Archive. It works like a library so it is legal. I always use it for borrowing books that are out of print or in public domain.

The rogue's march can be found here: https://archive.org/details/roguesmarcharom00horngoog/page/n4

However, the writing is blurred because the book is scanned so you might find it hard to read.

[regshoe]

Brilliant, thank you! :D

[ilthit]

I should read that. The only non-Raffles story of his I read was Fathers of Men, which I found very educational.

[regshoe]

I read Fathers of Men a while ago—I'm looking forward to returning to it on this read-through :D But yes, I can recommend his books in general, they've all been enjoyable so far.