The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Monday, Sept. 22, 2025--San Antonio

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee was published 8 years ago.  It was a nominee for the Kirkus Prize and listed as a top book of the year by NPR and the New York Public Library.  Set in the late 1600s, it's 3 main characters are teenagers.  Henry and Percy have just turned 18, finished their education, and are going on a tour of Europe.  Felicity is the younger sister of Henry who they are taking with them for a month in Paris followed by plans to deliver her to a girl's finishing school in Marseille.  Henry's and Felcity's father, a British Lord, has arranged it with notice to both of them--that Henry must return a more responsible young man or he will be disinherited and Felicity must give up her interest in science and medicine and return acting like a lady and ready to be married.  Percy is Henry's best friend.  He comes from a wealthy family, has been living with his uncle and aunt since he was a child and his father, a Caribbean merchant died.  Percy is half-Black, and his aunt and uncle are ready to be released from the responsibility of caring for him now that he is an adult.  Henry is very irresponsible and has survived on his charm.  He has no ambition at all.  And he is always ready to drink himself into oblivion on a nightly basis.  His constant mischief begins causing problems almost immediately after they arrive in Paris.  Taken to a party at Versailles by an acquaintance of his father's who has been asked to introduce him to the people of note he will need to know once he takes over the family estate, he over drinks, insults the Bourbon advisor to the King, disrobes in the Bourban advisor's bedroom to have sex apparently with the mistress of the advisors, steals what proves to be a very valuable trinket, and runs nude into the celebrating crowd of dignitaries outside at the party.  This causes the 3 of them, being chased down by the Bourbon official and his officers, to go on the run to escape them and leaving behind the escort the father has sent on the trip with them.  With little money and led by Henry's irresponsible brain, the story takes them on adventure after adventure involving lucky escapes from the Bourbon ministers men looking for them--from a highway robbery, from a family in Barcelona holding them, from being stowaways on a boat that is attacked by "pirates." etc.  Throughout all of this, Henry remains as immature and irresponsible as ever.  He's not a likable, much less a lovable, character.  His young sister proves to be the responsible and intelligent one in the family.  And Percy is a caring, reliable friend.  If you like a book where the main character is quite distasteful and irresponsible, then maybe you will enjoy this story.  I just kept looking forward for it to end because I was so tired of Henry being Henry with his stupid decisions and his drunkenness. It wasn't until the last 5% of the novel that Henry showed any signs of maybe starting to mature, but that was enough for me to raise my rating half a star higher to 3 1/2  stars out of 4.