The Duel
Grade : C+

Barbara Metzger is an author beloved by many, having written more than forty traditional Regencies in a more than twenty year career. Last year she made the move from trads to full-length historicals. While I have read and enjoyed many Metzger trads, this is my first read in the longer length, and I found it to be a mixed bag.

There are duels of all sorts in the appropriately titled The Duel, which opens with a meeting on Hampstead Heath. Ian, Earl Marden, has slept with one too many married women and now finds himself on the dueling field facing an angry husband. When the husband cheats, firing early, Ian delopes (the duelist's term for firing into the air), discharging his weapon into the treetops. The bullet ricochets, hitting the 15 year old Troy Renslow sitting atop his horse, sneaking a peek at the duel. Horrorstruck, Ian rushes Troy to his home and fetches the boy's sister.

Athena and Troy Renslow are the half-siblings of a pinchpenny viscount who treats them like poor relations. Troy has always been sickly and they have come to London consult a physician and see some sights, enjoying a respite from their uncomfortable home.

Ian helps Athena nurse Troy through his injuries and fever, and Ian's determination to turn over a new leaf and live a blameless life, which began when pacing off at the duel, ratchets into high gear as he is consumed with guilt and remorse. When the immediate crisis has past he realizes that the nineteen year old Athena has been hopelessly compromised by staying unchaperoned in a notorious bachelor's home.

Ian's next duel is with the priggish Reverend Wiggs, Troy's tutor and Athena's would-be suitor, who is very concerned about his intended's appearance of virtue. Ian has sent for his mother and sister to be Athena's chaperones, but they are delayed for several weeks. Ian tries to hide this fact from Wiggs as they dance around each other, each making moves, countermoves, feints and retreats as Wiggs is determined to remove Athena and Ian to keep her.

When his family finally arrives, he tries to fend off their attempts, and indeed, those of the entire household, to marry him off to Athena. When he finally succumbs to the inevitable, he must then convince Athena of the wisdom of such a plan, though she has plenty of ripostes for all of his parries.

In many ways, this is your typical Barbara Metzger novel; there is lots of humor (there are chapter headings by Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous, for example: A mistress is more fun than a wife. --Anonymous. A mistress has more fun than a wife. --Mrs. Anonymous.), artful alliteration, wry internal dialogues, and a bit with a dog. Metzger always has a bit with a dog - this one happens to be deaf. And I was enjoying the ride until I hit about page 180 and felt that it was time for things to be wrapping up. And in a traditional Regency, which averages 215 pages, it would be time to wrap things up. But this is an historical length novel and Metzger had 160 more pages to go. Unfortunately, what was left to tell of the story could not fill 160 pages. So the rest of the book is more of the same - more tweaking of Mr. Wiggs, more trying to convince Athena to marry Ian, more bits with the dog - with a sudden, inexplicable attempted murder plot thrown in the last 50 pages.

Barbara Metzger's writing is firmly rooted in the in the Regency Romance tradition and my overall impression of The Duel is that it is a story that could not withstand the augmented length of an historical. If this were a Regency, it would rate a solid B. As it is, I felt that the story could not sustain the format - the second half really stalled for me - and that lowered my grade to a C+.

Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed
Grade : C+

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : February 12, 2005

Publication Date: 2005

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Cheryl Sneed

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